When it comes to tariffs for Canada and Mexico, America is ending the week pretty much as it started. Over the course of just a few days, Donald Trump'following up on a November promise'announced 25 percent tariffs on the country's North American neighbors, caused a panic in the stock market, eked out minor concessions from foreign leaders, and called the whole thing off (for 30 days, at least). But the residue of this week's blink-and-you-missed-it trade war will stick. The consensus among economists is that the now-paused tariffs on Canada and Mexico would have caused significant, perhaps even immediate, cost hikes and inflation for Americans. Tariffs on Mexico could have raised produce prices within days, because about a third of America's fresh fruits and vegetables are imported from Mexico, Ernie Tedeschi, the director of economics at Yale's Budget Lab, told me in an email. But 'uncertainty about tariffs poses a strong risk of fueling inflation, even if tariffs don't end up...
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