Star Tribune Online:
World awaits next move amid threat of trade war
31 January 2017
Most experts have assumed the responsibilities of governance would temper Trump's trade posture. Given that nearly one-third of all U.S. trade is conducted with China and Mexico, a rupture risks severe economic damage. "The idea of trade wars these days, what politicians have in mind is really a 19th-century or early 20th-century conception of trade," said Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano, a trade economist at the London School of Economics. "You don't even know who you're going to hurt with these kind of things. You're probably going to destroy American jobs in the end."