Trump's trade policy is a rerun of a terrible 1980s policy where 'American consumers were the biggest losers'

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• President Donald Trump's trade policies are similar to protectionist trade policies of the 1980s.
• The US's trade policies in the 1980s did little to reduce the trade deficit and ended up costing American consumers more than they helped the protected industries.
• There is one key danger under Trump that did not exist in the 1980s: the risk of escalation.

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The hallmarks of President Donald Trump's recent protectionist trade policies echo the trade fights of previous decades, and economists say it represents a troubling recipe.

Anna Zhou and Ethan Harris, economists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, say Trump's tariffs and focus on the bilateral trade deficit echo similar policies undertaken in the 1980s — especially when it came to Japan.

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• Trump reportedly wants to pull the US out of the WTO, a move that would wreck the international trade system
• Businesses say they are 'bracing for the worst' from Trump's tariffs and the trade war could force them to leave the US
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