Trump’s Tariff Wars

Foreign Policy Live

Foreign Policy

Politics, News Commentary, News

4 • 601 Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

At a White House press briefing on Tuesday, the Trump administration maintained that it would impose a 25 percent tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada on Feb. 1. This comes after announcing a 10 percent duty on China earlier in the week. Trade and capital expert Brad Setser is skeptical that it will follow through, though, saying that the economic ramifications of tariffs at that scale would be a “ pretty bloody big shock.” Setser sits down with host Ravi Agrawal to share more. Suggested reading (FP links are paywall-free): Aaron L. Friedberg: Tariffs Are a Scalpel, Not a Hammer Wendy Cutler: How Trump Could Strike a Trade Deal With China Keith Johnson: How to Read Trump’s Day-One Trade Actions Scott Kennedy: Markets Are Underpricing the Possibility of a U.S.-China Economic War Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Ravi Agrawal, Foreign Policy's editor-in-chief. This is FP Live.
0:10.0	So the White House says it plans to impose a 25% tariff on its two biggest trading partners on Saturday.
0:18.5	We're recording this conversation on Thursday, so at this point, there are just
0:22.9	two days to go for this threat to play out. Now, of course, Canada and Mexico can avoid this fate,
0:30.9	but only if they convince President Trump that they've done enough to halt the flows of undocumented
0:37.3	immigrants and fentanyl, the deadly
0:39.9	opioid. Is all of this a negotiating tactic, a new style of foreign policy, a correction
0:47.0	in how America engages with the world, or is it plain old bullying? I wanted to have a discussion
0:53.6	about not only what tariffs Trump will
0:56.0	actually enact, but also what his use of tariffs as a foreign policy cudgel will mean for
1:02.9	the global trading system. How will it change the rules and norms that underpin trade to the
1:09.5	extent that they are even followed today.
1:12.4	Well, my guest is Brad Setzer, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
1:18.3	He was previously a senior advisor to the U.S. trade representative,
1:22.3	so he has seen how the sausage gets made when it comes to trade and tariffs.
1:27.2	As always, we love hearing from you.
1:29.9	Our email is live at foreign policy.com.
1:33.4	Let's dive in.
1:38.7	Brad, welcome to the show.
1:41.2	Thanks for the invitation.
1:43.0	So there is a lot of confusion around tariffs. Let's just
1:46.4	start with a very basic definition. What is a tariff? I mean, a tariff is a tax on imported goods.
	...

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