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A return of Trump’s tariff threats

With next year’s election approaching, hopes that President Trump would scale back his trade wars were running high this fall. That optimism dissipated yesterday when Mr. Trump proposed imposing duties on French goods over a tech tax and adding tariffs on steel from Brazil and Argentina, showing that “no one is safe” from his tariffs.

The threats stunned Wall Street and suggested that Mr. Trump had not abandoned his confrontational approach, writes Ana Swanson in the NYT.

Mr. Trump accused Brazil and Argentina of manipulating their currencies and hurting American farmers.

• “If they are imposed, the tariffs stand to do considerable damage to South America’s two biggest economies as Argentina is in recession and Brazil confronts high unemployment and anemic growth,” Ms. Swanson writes.