Fallacy of Reciprocal Tariffs

It should be obvious by now that the Donald’s north star is “winning” and nothing else, and that he keeps score by whatever metric is handy. On trade, the scorecard is simply the bilateral merchandise trade balance of whichever country comes to mind at any given moment, and, crucially, whether the balance figure has a plus or minus sign in front of it.

That’s been the sum and substance of Trump’s trade philosophy ever since he started opionating about the issue in the national media in the 1980s...