When Wilbur Ross fired the first shot in a transatlantic trade war this week by imposing tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from the EU, Canada and Mexico, there was an irony embedded in the logistics. The US commerce secretary was in Paris, so he had to pick up a phone at the OECD and call reporters back in Washington to announce his action. The former financier detailed the US’s plans to punish its traditional allies while sitting in an institution born out of the Marshall Plan that still stands as a pillar of the US-led post-second world war order.
上週，當威爾伯•羅斯(Wilbur Ross)對來自歐盟(EU)、加拿大和墨西哥的進口鋼鋁產品加徵關稅從而打響跨大西洋貿易戰的第一槍時，整個過程充滿了諷刺意味。這位美國商務部長當時身處巴黎，他不得不拿起經合組織(OECD)的電話，向華盛頓的記者們宣佈他的行動。這位前金融家詳述了美國準備懲罰其傳統盟友的計劃，可他卻坐在一個誕生於「馬歇爾計劃」(Marshall Plan)的機構中；該機構仍是美國領導的二戰後秩序的支柱。