Game of steel: Little substance, lots of signalling

SINGAPORE (Mar 9): To those who think that US President Donald Trump is engaging in imposing tariffs on various imports based on electoral considerations, we offer the following historical factoid. In 1987, Trump, entertaining perhaps a presidential bid for the first time, took a full-page advertisement in the New York Times.

In that diatribe, he railed against foreign countries – ostensible allies – taking advantage of US security protection on the one hand and stealing US jobs through cheap exports on the other hand. Thirty-one years later, Trump has the same convictions, willing to exempt some allies and negotiate with others the terms of market access, something he believes should cost those who enjoy US protection.

Amid the rhetoric and prognostications around the tariff imposition on steel and aluminium imports, a few critical facts have been ignored:

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