In Donald Trump’s first term as president, Japan stood out as an exception in opting not to retaliate against his tariff hikes, as the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reckoned it was better to shrug them off in favor of maintaining the broader economic and security relationship.

The president has pitched his trade policies at workers who feel left behind by globalization. But that doesn’t mean trade barriers will revive factories and close income gaps.

That leverage came from the singular importance of the US market to the global economy. Trump’s personal belief in the utility of tariffs – and willingness to let them go into place and then, if necessary, escalate to shut down any retaliatory efforts – only served to enhance that reality.