As US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent did the rounds of American television channels on Monday night to triumphantly trumpet his de-escalation of the US-China tariff war before Wall Street began trading for the day, he was asked a rather awkward question.

For months, US President Donald Trump and his administration had told us how important these tariffs were for rebalancing global trade, for bringing manufacturing back to America and for raising revenue to pay for big tax cuts. Did the new tariff pause – which seemed to have been instantly and universally accepted as permanent – mean those goals were no longer important?