Trump Trade Moves Put US at Risk of Recession

Billionaire industrialist Charles Koch, who leads a powerful policy and political network, said Sunday he worries President Donald Trump’s actions on trade and tariffs put the booming US economy at risk of recession. While saying it’s impossible to know for sure because the president’s trade policy remains fluid, Koch said the greater the level of trade restrictions, the greater the risk of severe economic fallout, Bloomberg reported.  “It depends on the degree,” he said in Colorado during a rare on-the-record meeting with reporters. “If it’s severe enough, it could.” Koch said any protectionism at any level is very detrimental. “Every nation that’s prospered is one that didn’t engage in trade wars,” he said. Trump has already imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports in the name of national security, as well as duties on certain Chinese products in response to allegations of intellectual property theft. That’s drawn retaliatory tariffs on soybeans and other US goods in an escalating conflict, although Trump struck a truce with the European Union last week pending further negotiations.