When President Trump announced on Wednesday that his administration’s new tariffs would be suspended for ninety days, the world let out a sigh of relief, and stock markets surged.

The FTSE 100 was up around 5 per cent within half an hour of opening yesterday morning, with other European and Asian markets making similar gains.

One reading of President Trump’s decision is that engagement with the White House by foreign delegations has worked.

The other, more accurate reading is that chaos in the markets and a global sell-off of US Treasury bonds spooked the White House and triggered a partial climbdown.

Nor is the relief in the UK really justified – our new 10 per cent tariff will remain in place, as will the 25 per cent tariff on US imports of cars, one of the largest export sectors.

British politicians have insisted that President Trump’s behaviour in recent days has vindicated everything from the Prime Minister’s softly-softly approach to trade negotiations, to Brexit.

The Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, echoed Number 10’s position last weekend, writing that "a lower levy is a clear result of the careful and constructive approach being taken."

Unfortunately, that is demonstrably false.

The formula the White House used to calculate the new tariffs was quickly sussed out and consequently ridiculed by economists.

They took the value of the US trade deficit in goods with each of their trading partners, divided that by the total US goods imports from that country, and then divided that number by two.

If that number was less than 10 per cent, as it was for the UK, they were hit with 10 per cent tariffs anyway.

President Trump has upended trading........

© Herald Scotland