The US administration has long accused foreign countries of taking advantage of the United States at the expense of domestic jobs and US industries. In US President Donald Trump’s view, the US has received less return value and resources for what it has given the world in terms of the amount of money, trade preferences and other resources. “They’re ripping us off” is his constant refrain.

It is this fabricated premise of a long-standing grievance that has been the launchpad for his administration’s sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs targeting almost all foreign imports, and which have set up a global trade war and promise to upend the decades-old global trading order.

Though the US leader hit a 90-day pause button on many of the tariffs after his radical power play resulted in US stocks volatility, bond yields surging and recession fears intensifying, his administration’s haughty demolition job on the global trade system is far from over, not least because there is still a 10 percent tariff on virtually all exports to the United States. This provides leverage for the US administration to extract concessions in terms of the real trade war it is........

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