Tariffs moved from a fringe policy tool to the central market variable of the decade. From the first US-China skirmishes of 2018 to the sweeping “Liberation Day” duties of 2025 and the legal battles that followed, trade policy has repeatedly reshaped supply chains, inflation and equity valuations. This page collects Khan Capital’s coverage of the trade war and its market consequences. Each section links to our detailed analysis.
Latest in this story
The US-Canada Trade War Goes Kinetic: Smoot-Hawley’s Ghost and a C$27.6 Billion Answer · 20 Aug 2026 Previously: our last tariff story. The single-stock case study is Lululemon’s refund-flattered second quarter.
The first trade war, 2018-2019
The opening salvoes set the template. The first Trump tariffs on China began the confrontation, escalating into the Huawei ban and technology-supply-chain escalation of 2019, before a fragile truce arrived with the US-China Phase One trade deal. For how the duties are washing through corporate profits, see the tariff refunds that flattered August’s retail earnings week. The dispute turned kinetic in September 2026, when Canada’s mirror tariffs met US import bans, and the tariff economy got its public market price in Shein’s marked-down Hong Kong IPO.
Trump 2.0 and the return of tariffs
A second term reopened the playbook. Markets reacted to the return of Trump, and the policy agenda quickly took shape across tariffs, immigration and market policy, the sectors most exposed to the new administration, and the opening 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada and 10% on China.
Liberation Day and the 2025-26 escalation
The escalation peaked with the broadest tariffs in modern history. Liberation Day sent markets plunging on sweeping IEEPA tariffs; the 90-day pause whipsawed them straight back; and a year on, 100% pharmaceutical tariffs showed the policy had further to run.
The legal and diplomatic endgame
The tariffs ultimately met the courts and the negotiating table. The Supreme Court struck down the IEEPA tariffs in a landmark 6-3 ruling, while the Trump-Xi Beijing summit opened the question of a G2 reset.
The through-line
The common thread is that tariffs are never just trade policy: they are an inflation input, a supply-chain shock and a geopolitical signal all at once. We update this hub as trade policy evolves; the latest analysis always appears first on our analysis page.