More on Obama's tariffs on Chinese tires

The world trade editor of Financial Times, Alan Beattie, offers an interesting perspective that adds more nuance, compared to the commentaries I have read on the tire tariff tirades:

Mr Obama has now come down on the wrong side of three big decisions on trade: happily signing a stimulus bill with Buy American provisions, abrogating an agreement allowing more Mexican trucks to operate in the US, and now granting the first ever emergency tariffs under a particular “safeguard” measure in US law. All are damaging both to trade and to the US’s international standing. All risk inflaming protectionist sentiment at a sensitive time.

But if he can use his capital to achieve universal healthcare and begin to shift the visceral dislike of trade that has gripped large parts of the American public and their representatives on Capitol Hill, it might prove worth it. He is playing with fire, which has creative but also destructive power. Just like globalisation.

Hey, that reminds me: didn't I write about the Buy American provisions in the stimulus bill? I did, I did :-)