During his successful 1896 US presidential election campaign, the Republican William McKinley declared that “I am a tariff man, standing on a tariff platform”. Fast forward almost 130 years, and the victorious Donald Trump has gleefully taken on the moniker. The president-elect has promised an upheaval to global trade relations with his pledge to impose swingeing tariffs on imports, which has caused deep disquiet in foreign capitals across the globe.
Trump views tariffs as a means of tightening deficits, boosting domestic manufacturing and employment, and punishing foreign rivals for perceived slights against the US. Following his election victory, he posted on his Truth Social platform that he would hit Canada and Mexico with a 25 per tariff on all imports. He has also mooted tariffs as a means of paying for specific policies, such as on childcare.
To that end, Trump pledged during his campaign to slap a 20 per cent tariff on imports across the board, and has spoken of imposing 60 per cent levies on goods from China. At one point, he declared that the group of nine countries within the Brics bloc (which includes China and Russia) should “face 100 per cent tariffs and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful US economy” if they pursue the creation of a new currency in defiance of the almighty dollar.