China, Russia and other countries have developed retaliatory options that could deeply hurt America’s economy and standard of living.

Are we seeing the opening moves in a wider trade war, and what are the potential economic consequences?

Punishing 25% levies on imports from America’s closest neighbors were due to come into force at 12:01 a.m. ET Tuesday, but Trump put his two-front trade war on hold, claiming he’d scored two big wins and major concessions.

After Trump took Mexico and Canada to the brink of trade wars, both nations have managed to defuse his tariff bombs. (At least, for now . . . ) Trump halted sweeping tariffs on the US’s two biggest trading partners after separate bilateral phone calls with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Canada and Mexico have surrendered to Donald Trump, but these victories for the US president in his phoney trade war are not what they seem.

These aren’t tariffs, they’re taxes, in this case, trade taxes. And these trade taxes aren’t going to be paid by China or Canada. They will be paid by American companies—like Walmart, which imports apparel,

The president’s trade assault, which makes no distinction between ally and adversary, is an assertion of U.S. dominance with significant risks.

Donald Trump made good on his promise to impose trade barriers on key US trading partners. Citing the influx of narcotics and “illegal aliens,” the president announced a 25 percent tariff on goods from Mexico and Canada (with a 10 percent carve-out for Canadian energy imports),