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Trump is revving up his tariff war — here’s what you need to know 

4 11
yesterday

The prospect of Donald Trump assuming the presidency on Jan. 20 is enough to frighten America’s friends around the world. It’s not just that he’s vowed to impose punitive tariffs on America’s three biggest trading partners — 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico and 10 percent on imports from China — for failing to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and narcotics into the U.S. He’s also sure to demand that America’s allies, notably Japan and South Korea, pay far more for the cost of having U.S. troops and bases while courting his old friend, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, who insists on nothing less than withdrawal of U.S. forces from the South while still not giving up his nukes.

And Trump is talking about a vast increase worldwide in the tariffs imposed on most products, including eventually 60 percent on everything from China.

The Trump tariff on South Korea will not be nearly as horrendous, but a levy of 10 percent could undermine the “spirit of Camp David” at which President Biden got the leaders of South Korea and Japan to bury their differences and work against their mutual enemies.

“Numbers come and go with Trump,” his one-time national security adviser, John Bolton, remarked in response to my question in a Zoom conversation staged by the Institute for Corean-American Studies. (They adopt an old-fashioned way of spelling Korea.) “He’s throwing a lot of dust in the air. He’s throwing firecrackers.”

Trump, however, doubled down, declaring, “I’m a big believer in tariffs,” when asked by Kristen Welker on NBC’s “Meet the Press” if he could be sure tariffs wouldn’t bring about increases in prices. “I can’t guarantee anything,” he said, but he had no doubts about the wonders of levying far more on imports.

“I think tariffs are the most beautiful word,” he responded. “I think they’re beautiful. It’s going to make us rich. We’re subsidizing Canada to the tune over $100 billion a year. We’re subsidizing Mexico........

© The Hill


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