Trump is launching a trade offensive: Or is he?

IN HIS first address before a global audience, US President Donald Trump told delegates at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week that he wasn’t bluffing, and that he was going to pursue an aggressive mercantilist agenda.

“We are going to be demanding respect from other nations,” the president said, requesting that central bankers cut interest rates and foreign companies increase their investment in the US, while the European Union (EU) was asked to buy more American oil if it wanted to avoid US tariffs.

A very assertive US president then doubled down on his demands, threatening to double the tax rates on foreign nationals and companies if their governments imposed what he considered to be “discriminatory” taxes on American companies.