“I am a tariff man.” That’s how then US President Donald Trump described himself in 2018 after he’d slapped tariffs and other trade restrictions on many nations, sparking upheaval on financial markets and casting a shadow over global commerce.

Now “tariff man” has plans for an even bigger trade war should he be re-elected president in November, and that’s bad news for a relatively open trading nation like Australia. But there’s been scant public attention to the economic implications of a Trump return to the Whitehouse. How ready are we?

Donald Trump in Las Vegas on August 23.Credit: AP

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