'Trumponomics' threatens to disrupt supply chains, and trade

US President Donald Trump has a penchant for shaking things up and then passing off the resulting confusion with the excuse that he is a man of action, not words. This "enfant terrible" behaviour is already disrupting everything from US foreign travel to US foreign relations, but the trade wars that Mr Trump is courting are still quite distant canons.

It will take time for the impact of "Trumponomics" to show through on world trade. Meanwhile, it is difficult to see how this impact can be anything but highly detrimental in the medium to long term. Global trade was already in trouble before the arrival of Mr Trump in the White House. As the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the International Monetary Fund and others have noted with concern, world trade is becoming a declining force for growth.

There are various reasons for this, one of which is slowing global economic growth (although which is cause and which effect in subject to argument). Weak investment is another factor, as are changing patterns in "supply chains" as emerging economies move up the ladder and begin to "onshore" production. Now we have an additional spanner thrown into the proverbial works by Mr Trump's intervention in individual companies' investment decisions - namely those by Japan's Toyota Motor Corporation to produce cars in Mexico for shipment to the United States. This will further complicate the supply-chain picture.