On tariffs, Trump is an open book

There is method to the US president’s apparent madness, and those seeking to understand need look no further than their local bookshop

In an interview aired on Fox News in mid-March, US President Donald Trump declared to host Laura Ingraham that 2 April would be what he calls “Liberation Day”, the day on which he was scheduled to impose reciprocal tariffs on many of America’s trading partners, saying: “We have been ripped off by every country in the world, friend and foe.” Trump’s plan involves imposing tariffs on goods imported into the US that are equal to those imposed by the originating countries on US exports. Coming in addition to a variety of new tariffs imposed on major trading partners such as China, Canada and Mexico—along with general tariffs on imports of steel and aluminium—the reciprocal tariffs make up a majo