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Michael Stutchbury

Trump trade risks go back to the 1890s

The president’s American tariff hero William McKinley shows how this new trade war will go wrong.

Donald Trump wants his “liberation day” shredding of global trade rules to rival the 1890 McKinley Tariff that jacked up duties on imports into America by nearly 50 per cent.

The Republicans’ McKinley Act even gave the US president power to use “reciprocal” import tariffs to force other countries to lower their barriers to American exports.

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Michael Stutchbury is the former editor-in-chief and editor-at-large of The Australian Financial Review. Michael left in 2025 after more than four decades writing and editing national newspapers.

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    Original URL: https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/trump-trade-risks-go-back-to-the-1890s-20250403-p5loxx