The tariff measures announced by President Trump on 2 April 2025 represent a seismic shift in the global trading landscape. This column describes how, by positioning trade deficits themselves as threats to national security rather than focusing on specific unfair practices, the US has moved away from rules-based trade governance toward a results-oriented and probably a more transactional approach. The coming months will determine whether we witness a managed recalibration of global trade or the