This is a non-starter, bad for the UK and the world

NO briefing notes were prepared on last week’s steel announcement and the relevant departments had no idea it was happening. As with most things that happen at the White House these days, chaos reigned.

Imposing tariffs was pushed by Trump’s main trade adviser, Peter Navarro, who said it would have “no downstream effects”, as in nobody would retaliate.

Its main backer, though, was his Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, who made his fortune investing in distressed steel companies.

It remains unclear if it will actually happen and whether there will be exemptions to countries like Canada and the UK. But bang goes the Brexiteers’ claim a free trade deal will be easy to agree with the US.

The Smoot-Hawley Act in the US, implementing protectionist trade policies, was signed into law on June 17, 1930. It raised US tariffs on more than 20,000 imported goods and worsened the Great Depression.

The Act resulted in retaliatory tariffs by America’s trading partners, which were major factors in the reduction of American exports and imports by more than half. Policy makers have learnt protectionism is a lose-lose situation.

But then along came Trump with his populist message and promises to industries like coal and steel that he would return them to their former glories.

This is a non-starter, bad for the world and bad for the UK.

Trump once again failed Economics 101.