Boasting the world’s biggest and strongest economy, the U.S. has enormous leverage when it sits down with a partner to negotiate a trade deal. Threats and tariffs are not really helping.
The US and China once again exchanged fire in their escalating trade war. Tariffs have been the main source of ammunition thus far, but China has other weapons it could begin to deploy.
The economic theory of comparative cost advantage is more akin to natural law – it can’t be wished away. And during the ongoing trade war ignited by Donald Trump, it has never been more relevant.
The United States is blocking new judges to the body that interprets and enforces global trade rules. Australia should start preparing for the end of the World Trade Organisation system.
The president says he’s fighting his trade war because a generation of free trade has failed working-class Americans. An economist explains why tariffs will only make things worse.
The Trump administration’s promise of $12 billion in aid to offset losses from retaliatory tariffs will not make up for the long-term consequences of a prolonged trade war.
Canada recently slapped a tariff on US exports of the tomato-based condiment, and the EU plans to do the same, perhaps on the notion that it’s distinctly American. In fact, ketchup’s origins are global, as are its fans.