White House uses Hamilton economist’s paper to justify tariffs but misses his point ‘trade wars are bad’ [Video]

Twice this month, the White House has used a Hamilton associate professor’s research to help justify U.S. President Donald Trump’s jaw-dropping tariffs and ongoing trade war with China.

Both times, the Trump administration got it wrong, said Pau S. Pujolas, an associate economics professor at McMaster University. 

“On the one hand, it’s like, ‘Wow, I’m having input,'” Pujolas told CBC Hamilton on Friday. “On the other hand, it’s not what this paper deserves.” 

The first time the White House cited the 2024 paper, “Trade deficits with trade wars,” was in its explanation of how it calculated the slew of “reciprocal tariffs” aimed at dozens of countries. Pujolas’s article is among the references. 

Those tariff numbers were also listed in the massive chart Trump held up during his April 2 “Liberation Day” announcement when he detailed a 10 per cent blanket tariff rate on nearly every country, with many getting hit harder. 

It was the second time, on Monday, that really …