Trump’s Trade War Has Officially Started

After months of feint, bluster and desultory attempts at compromise, the phony trade war between the U.S. and China has given way to the real thing. For the sake of both countries, these self-defeating hostilities need to cease — and the principal responsibility for this rests with the U.S., which has fired the first shot.

Today’s new tariffs — a 25 percent levy applied to an initial $34 billion in goods, with another $16 billion targeted — will harm consumers and companies in both countries. The U.S. tariffs will raise prices at home and punish U.S. companies that import intermediate goods such as semiconductors and plastics. In the same way, the retaliatory tariffs China has promised will hurt Chinese buyers as well as slam U.S. farmers and workers.