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Why Donald Trump’s tariffs are failing to break global trade

Six months on from ‘Liberation Day’, things look surprisingly rosy.

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This picture shows an aerial view of shipping containers stacked at a port in Qingdao, in eastern China's Shandong province on September 4, 2025. (Photo by AFP) / China OUT

How other countries navigate America’s tariffs – and China’s industrial glut – will shape the next phase of global trade, says the writer.

PHOTO: AFP

The Economist

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On April 2, US President Donald Trump unveiled his

“Liberation Day” tariffs

, holding a board covered in figures showing just how unfairly the world treated America.

The numbers were nonsense, but the message was clear: The age of free trade was over.

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