“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

One of Trump’s headline policies is to impose a new 10 per cent levy on all imports going to the US. China would be singled out with a hefty 60 per cent across-the-board toll.

A tariff is a tax imposed on a good or service as it’s imported into a country. Its main purpose, in a modern economy, is to increase the price of imports in the hope of protecting local producers from foreign competition.

Many countries would respond to Trump’s tariff hike with tit-for-tat trade restrictions of their own, just as they did during his last trade war. That would increase the cost of goods and services traded internationally, stoking inflation and putting upward pressure on interest rates. Households and businesses already struggling with a cost-of-living crunch would face higher borrowing costs. And we........

© WA Today