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Trump’s tariffs are likely to outlast him
To a nation staggering under debt, tariff revenue may come to look like a less politically painful fix than higher income taxes and limits on Social Security payments.
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US President Donald Trump at the White House on June 9. The writer says support for the liberal trading order founded after 1945 has evaporated.
PHOTO: DOUG MILLS/NYTIMES
Clive Crook
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Effective opposition to US President Donald Trump’s trade policies has yet to pop its head above the parapet. Old-school pro-trade types are sidelined – consoling themselves, perhaps, that the protectionist turn will reverse once the costs are clearer. Be patient, we tell ourselves: This, too, shall pass.
Will it? I don’t doubt that the policies will fail. By itself, however, that won’t restore the pre-Trump era.
