Source: Washington Post
by Ramesh Ponnuru
“Howard Lutnick, Donald Trump’s choice to be commerce secretary, suggested at a news conference with Trump on Monday that ‘reciprocity’ would be the watchword for the new administration’s trade policy. The president-elect agreed: ‘If they tax us, we’ll tax them the same amount.’ It’s an attractive idea. It sounds fair, and frames the alternative as letting other countries take advantage of us. ‘Our country loses to everybody,’ Trump groused to the gathered media. Even free traders might think reciprocal tariffs are a useful tactic to get other countries to let in U.S. exports. But the idea has a track record, as does Trump. Those records belie the sales pitch.” (12/17/24)