Whipsaw Trump Tariffs Prolong Drag on Global Trade: Supply Lines

President Donald Trump’s reversal of higher tariffs for many key trading partners Wednesday eased a sense of dread in financial markets but did little to address the cluelessness hanging over businesses wondering what abrupt change will come next.

“Whipsaw movements in country tariff rates will do nothing to reduce already record levels of trade-policy uncertainty,” Bloomberg Economics economists Rana Sajedi, Maeva Cousin and Tom Orlik wrote in an analysis after the pause was announced. “Trump appears to consider uncertainty a positive for negotiations. For businesses and markets, it’s a drag.”

Trumponomics Podcast: Will Trump’s Tariff War Permanently Damage America?

They noted that even after the temporary ...