Liberation Day, as 2 April was described by US President Donald Trump, had all the elements of reality television perversion. It also had a dreamy, aspirational hope: that factories would spring up from rust belt soil in a few months across the United States; that industries would, unmoored from the globe, become vibrant and burgeoning. The world’s largest importer had decided to turn back the tide.

The imposition of what Trump calls reciprocal tariffs was broadly savage. Over 180 countries fell within their scope. A baseline tariff of ten per cent was applied on goods imported by the US. Countries were then singled out for being particularly mischievous, in the eyes of the administration, not so much for having their own tariffs on US goods and products so much as having an unsporting surplus. For China, the new rate is 34 per cent (54 per cent when previous tariffs are included). For Vietnam: 46 per cent. Taiwan: 32 per cent. Cambodia, a stunning 49 per cent.

The malleable rules of reality television intruded with Trump’s chart of countries and tariff rates, as revealed in the White House Rose Garden. (He would have had a bigger chart, but for the wind.) “Reciprocal – that means they do it to us, and we do it to them,” the president ventured to explain. “Can’t get simpler than that.”

Simple it was, given the rough and ready formula used to arrive at the figures. The Office of the United States Trade Representative offered a rationale: “Reciprocal tariffs are calculated as the tariff rate necessary to balance bilateral trade deficits between........

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