The challenge to Trump’s tariff strategy is part of a much longer story. Controversy over trade policy has shaped American politics since the US Constitution was ratified in 1788.



It is now ten years since Donald Trump arrived on the American political stage and, whatever one thinks of his style and policies, there is no question that he has turned US politics upside down. One of the most obvious ways, underscored by the Supreme Court’s recent decision to invalidate President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs, is the way trade policy has become central to American political debate in a way that few imagined possible prior to 2016.

Three decades ago, the debate about trade in America seemed to be over. Convinced protectionists were hard to find, and a broad commitment to trade liberalisation crisscrossed the political spectrum. This was symbolised by the presence of Democrat and Republican former presidents at the official signing into law of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) by President Bill Clinton on 8 December 1993. Further liberalisation of trade relations, led by the United States as the world’s sole superpower, seemed unstoppable. The high point, in retrospect, was the decision of the United States to allow China to enter the World Trade Organization in December 2001 and to accord Permanent Normal Trade Relations to the People’s Republic that same year.

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