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​​That strategy seems to evolve on a daily basis. Having vowed to ‘stay the course’ on tariffs earlier this week, yesterday saw Trump issue a change that ‘came from the heart’ - that change being a 90 day pause for everyone except China. It’s hard to keep up with the plot changes and in this programme we’re not going to try. Instead we’re going to step back and explore the origin’s of Trump’s love of tariffs, find out what history tells us about their effectiveness and we’ll ask whether Trump does actually have a grand plan.

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​​If he does, what is it and can it succeed?

Guests:

Douglas Irwin, professor of economics at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire

Meredith Crowley, Professor of Economics the University of Cambridge

Duncan Weldon, economist and author of "Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through"

Mehreen Khan, economics editor of The Times

Presenter: David Aaronovitch

Producers: Ben Carter, Kirsteen Knight and Beth Ashmead Latham

Sound engineers: James Beard

Production Coordinator: Katie Morrison

Editor: Richard Vadon