Layna Mosley, Professor of Politics and International Affairs; Associate Chair of the Department of Politics:

“Trump’s actions on trade erode further the rules-based system of governance (for instance, WTO, USMCA). This system generated economic benefits for the U.S., as well as globally. Threatening, imposing, and then modifying tariffs — often all in the same week — also generates increased uncertainty for firms, workers, and financial markets. While there certainly are reasons to worry about the domestic distributional consequences of trade — that is, not every worker or firm benefits, even if there are overall gains — unilateral policy changes are not the right fix.”