President Donald Trump’s ever-changing, on-again, off-again tariff war with America’s three biggest trading partners – Mexico, Canada and China — is baffling businesses and causing them to delay or cancel the investments that help drive economic growth. Trade wars complicate the decisions businesses have to make – which suppliers to use, where to locate factories, what prices to charge. During Trump’s first-term trade battles, U.S. business investment weakened late in 2019, convincing the Federal Reserve to cut its benchmark interest rate three times in second half of the year to provide some offsetting economic stimulus. Trump 2.0 is proving even more unnerving to business.
