It's a trade war! Or is it?
Trump thinks it's better to challenge China now than later; he's also minding the midterm polls
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SINCE Donald Trump became US president, Washington has been occupied with a few brain-teasers.
The populist presidential candidate ran for office promoting an aggressive economic nationalist agenda, castigating America's economic partners for their "unfair" trade practices, pledging to impose punitive tariffs on imports from China which he accused of "stealing" American jobs, calling for the repeal of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) and other free-trade accords, and declaring that "trade wars are good, and easy to win".
So would the president who won the presidential race by capturing the votes of unemployed blue-collar workers in the Rust Belt states, who counted on him to "bring back" their jobs from China, follow the advice of his more protectionist advisors like US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and economic advisor Peter Navarro?
