US President Donald Trump declared April 2 as “Liberation Day” from the White House’s Rose Garden, marking a seismic shift in US trade policy. Following Peter Navarro’s advice, Trump published his framework on the calculation and imposition of what Trump calls “reciprocal tariffs” — perhaps more correctly characterised as an expression of grievances — on all other countries bar a select few, like Russia.
Much of Trump’s tariffs policy could be attributed to grievances harboured by controversial anti-trade economist and writer Peter Navarro, whom Trump again appointed to his team as Senior Counsellor for Trade and Manufacturing. Jared Kushner recruited Navarro during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. The widely reported story is that Trump’s son-in-law found Navarro by searching for books critical of China on Amazon.com, where Kushner came across Navarro’s book Death by China, in which he posits his bizarre theories on trade. Impressed by the alignment with Trump’s rhetoric on trade and China, Kushner reached out, and Navarro was soon brought on as an economic adviser.
