Trade as a weapon or as a boomerang?

Washington has now become the rogue elephant in the china shop

The new international buzz concept is the weaponisation of trade. And this is the stuff nightmares are made of for business executives and political leaders. Of course, countries have been using trade as a weapon or as a negotiating tool to twist arms in the past but this was on an ad-hoc basis. The big difference now is that the Trump administration has elevated the systematic use of trade tariffs and sanctions as an instrument of coercion to a doctrine governing the way America deals with adversaries  or friends and allies — although, in fact, the very notion of friend