Can the world’s free-traders withstand Trump’s attack?

The condemnation was quick to arrive. “There seems to be no order in the disorder. No clear path through the complexity and chaos that is being created,” said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, in response to the barrage of tariffs unleashed by Donald Trump on April 2nd. In a rare break with its security protector, Taiwan’s cabinet spokesperson called Donald Trump’s measures “extremely unreasonable”. The levies “have no basis in logic…This is not the act of a friend,” was the verdict of Anthony Albanese, Australia’s prime minister.