The world flatters the tariff king

COURTING THE tariff king is a tricky business. There are no rules, no obvious channels through which to reach him and no guarantee that anyone, apart from the man himself, can make a deal. Maros Sefcovic, the EU trade commissioner, spent hours talking with Jamieson Greer and Howard Lutnick, two of the president’s advisers, yet came away empty-handed. Neither has the authority to cut a deal. “We have offered to negotiate,” says an EU official, “but Greer and Lutnick don’t have a mandate yet. It’s all up to POTUS.”