Trying to work out what is going on with global trade doesn’t get any easier. Just as the world was settling down to the new reality of Donald Trump’s trade war and governments were stitching up hurried trade deals to minimise the sweeping damage from the tariffs announced on ‘Liberation Day’ in April, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has thrown a very large spanner into the works. It has ruled that the whole exercise is unlawful because the tariffs were not approved by Congress. They will not be removed immediately – the court has allowed them to remain in place until 14 October to give Trump a chance to appeal to the Supreme Court – which he will almost certainly do. But it does rather look as if the matter of trade tariffs will ultimately be decided by judges.

In some ways,

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