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IN HIS first address before a global audience, US President Donald Trump told delegates at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week that he wasn’t bluffing, and that he was going to pursue an aggressive mercantilist agenda.

“We are going to be demanding respect from other nations,” the president said, requesting that central bankers cut interest rates and foreign companies increase their investment in the US, while the European Union (EU) was asked to buy more American oil if it wanted to avoid US tariffs.

A very assertive US president then doubled down on his demands, threatening to double the tax rates on foreign nationals and companies if their governments imposed what he considered to be “discriminatory” taxes on American companies.

And he would impose tariffs of up to 25 per cent on Canada and Mexico, over issues such as migration and drug smuggling, as early as next week, risking a continental trade war. According to some reports, the president wants to revise the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement to encourage more manufacturing in the US.

President Trump has already threatened to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Colombian goods coming into the US, as retaliation for Colombia rejecting US military flights carrying migrants back to the South American country. He dropped the threat on Sunday after Bogota agreed to accept its deported citizens.