Want Bananas, Coffee, Chocolate? Hello, Import Tax!: Javier Blas

In announcing his sweeping tariffs, US President Donald Trump not only justified them by saying they’d protect manufacturing jobs, he also said they would benefit the country’s farmers. What a load of nonsense: Trump is about to make food in every American kitchen more expensive.

First, Trump’s justification on Wednesday: “Just as a nation that does not produce manufactured products cannot maintain the industrial base it needs for national security, neither can a nation long survive if it cannot produce its own food.”

For decades, the US exported more foodstuff than it imported. It was, to borrow the slogan of ...