Trump took a prudent step on Wednesday. He and advisers should now come to terms with willing nations on trade deals or they risk a repeat of serious economic disruption three months down the road.
Donald Trump’s ever-evolving trade policy veered in another direction on Wednesday when the president announced he was pausing certain tariffs on many countries — but not China — for 90 days. Financial markets, which have cratered since Trump imposed his duties on U.S. trading partners last week, bolted upward. The Dow jumped nearly 3,000 points.
“The initial market response speaks for itself,” Daniel Skelly of Morgan Stanley told The New York Times, “but for now, this is just a step in the right direction.”
The president’s actions appear to be a response to the market bloodbath — a discomfiting development for many Trump supporters who depend on union pension funds or 401(k) retirement accounts. Trump admitted that “people were getting a little queasy” as investors began dumping U.
