Editorial: Hope for the best
New Zealand's dairy industry is right to call out Donald Trump over the damage the additional 15% tariff the US is imposing on our exports but also imposition on lower tariffs on our competitors.
Maurice Obstfeld, a former IMF Chief Economist, recently noted these tariffs will hit Americans hardest, if reintroduced after the 90-day pause.
Here in NZ, commentator Oliver Hartwich reckons the Trump administration is taxing imports in precisely the areas in which the US economy gains the most – like cheap inputs for manufacturing or products no longer made domestically.
The result will be higher prices, less choice and less prosperity. “It is economic self-sabotage dressed up as patriotism.”
This mutt reckons the temporary suspension is a welcome reprieve but the underlying strategy has not changed – nor has the threat. Trump’s decision to hike tariffs on Chinese imports to ridiculous levels shows that this trade war is far from over.
