At a time when two major political crises are affecting the world, the war in Ukraine following its invasion by Russia and Israel's response to the massacres perpetrated by Hamas, the President of the United States was launching a trade war with an increase in customs duties imposed on all companies exporting to his country. It thus added to the disruption caused by these crises on supply chains an additional uncertainty that was detrimental to household consumption and business investment, and therefore to growth.
In doing so, Donald Trump broke with nearly a century of practices in favour of ...