Early reactions to President Trump’s tariff war are as expected. Major foreign trading partners are expressing shock and assuring Washington that if there is no negotiated settlement, there will be an appropriate response. Domestic pundits emphasize this is a tax on American consumers and it will hurt the U.S. more than other countries. The latter implies the trade playing field is level though no one says it outright.  One pundit pointed out that Americans are richer and implied maybe it was due to low tariffs, but never asked why do other countries keep their consumers poor with higher border measures? The global economic system is built on Americans importing a lot and so there will be pain. Some U.S. corporations are import d...