Economists predicted that the US’ sweeping new tariffs, which take effect Friday, will not seriously disrupt the global economy.
Tariffs’ inflationary effects are “likely to have already peaked,” Commerzbank wrote, pointing to the Trump administration’s propensity for exempting key consumer goods and failing to implement certain threatened levies.
While higher energy prices mean the global economy is weaker than it was during the last trade war, Washington’s announcements have tended to be “more dramatic than their eventual implementation,” an ING analyst noted, suggesting further levies would be “disturbing but not disruptive.”
In Washington’s stated aim of reducing trade deficits, tariffs have so far proved negligible, a Financial Times columnist argued, but as a “coercive weapon [are] clearly here to stay.”
