Trump latest in long line of protectionists steering US trade policy
Trade tariffs have been a recurrent theme of US history ever since the late 18th century
For years the rivals had been shaping up for a fight. Eventually, the talking and the insults stopped and there was a duel, and it was America’s leading proponent of trade tariffs who came off worse.
Donald Trump and his stand-off with China’s Xi Jinping? No, this was how Alexander Hamilton – the first US treasury secretary and the originator of the protectionist ideas enthusiastically embraced by the current occupant of the White House – met his end.