Faisal Islam: Trump may have backtracked, but this is far from over

There were some heroic efforts overnight from Donald Trump and those around him to suggest the past seven days were something other than absolute chaos.
By this reading, Trump’s 4D game of chess has left China in check. Certainly the Chinese economy faces a massive hit from punitive tariffs in its biggest market. But even accounting for the President’s roll back, the US has still erected a massive protectionist tariff wall, not seen since the 1930s.
The world is left with a universal 10% tariff, irrespective of whether that country (for example the UK or Australia) actually sells less to the US than the US sells to it. There is now no difference between the EU, which clearly does have a massive trade deficit in goods and was preparing to retaliate, and the UK.
There is also an anxious wait to find out what comes next. (One of the most pressing questions is whether President Trump pushes ahead with tariffs on medicines, the UK’s second biggest goods export.)
Plus there is potential logistical chaos on the cards from a little-noticed multi-million dollar port tax for every cargo vessel docking in the US that was “made in China”. That is more than half of the global merchant fleet – and it is due next Friday.

Source: BBC