Trump tariff backflip brings a US trade war with China into the crosshairs

You have to marvel at Donald Trump’s prescience. After his announcement of America’s new tariffs regime on April 2, “liberation day”, the stock markets plummeted, causing faint hearts around the world to quail. Nerves fluttered particularly hard when bond yields started to rise rapidly this week, suggesting a growing lack of confidence in US 30-year debt – traditionally the gold standard for security.

“I don’t want anything to go down,” Trump told a reporter at the weekend. “But sometimes, you have to take medicine to fix something.”

The US president remained bullish on…

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