There’s a new game in Washington DC — WWHD? (What Would, or perhaps Will, Harris Do?) — all the more fun for being largely pointless.
It’s pointless because it’s hardly likely Joe Biden’s vice-president has developed fully fledged alternative programmes for national security, fiscal policy or anything else. The only real question is how much room for manoeuvre a President Harris would have. In the high-profile area of trade and industrial policy, probably not much.
Biden undertook a sharp course correction from the Clinton and Obama administrations, which generally supported open markets at home and abroad. He has kept most of Donald Trump’s tariffs on China and added some on other products, including electric vehicles, semiconductors and critical minerals. He also kept on the books (though temporarily suspending) Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminium, which supposedly promote national security despite targeting the likes of the EU and Japan.