If this is the case, then it’s the usual Trump playbook which is to make an outrageous demand then see what is negotiable.
Vietnam has already offered to reduce its import tariff on US goods to zero and Israel, threatened with a 17% tariff, has said it will get its trade with the US into balance.
Presumably the ideal is to have no tariffs all which was shown when MrsThatcher persuaded the EU that a tariff-free trading area – what became the Single Market – was the right way to go.
“Europe and the United States should move ideally, in my view, to a zero tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America,” said Elon Musk last week.
An ideal world is unimaginable at the moment but, if tariff-free world trade is the aim of the current shenanigans then the tariffs make sense.
