Faisal Islam
It was not a bluff, the tariffs are here - and this is just the opening salvo from the Oval Office.
The world trading system has not been here before. A slide towards a wider trade conflict is very much on the cards, as President Trump prepares similar tariffs firstly against Europe, and then at a lower level universally.
But what matters as much as the actions the US takes, is how the rest of the world responds.
That, in turn, requires a judgement about what the president is actually trying to achieve.
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Trump regularly changes his rationale for tariffs - either to coerce diplomatic change, to deal with trade imbalances or to raise significant revenues.
These policy objectives cannot all be achieved simultaneously.
For example, learning from the experience of Trump's first term "China deal", Western diplomats have been scrambling to find lists of US goods they might buy more of, in order to give the White House some wins.
Europe could say it is increasing its purchases of US shipments of liquefied natural gas, or arms, or specialised magnets for wind farms.
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