However, with trade once again the whipping boy in a difficult election, the administration has reverted to broad protectionism. The White House blocking of a bid by Japan’s Nippon Steel to acquire US Steel, the jettisoning of the trade pillar of Biden’s signature Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, and the floundering initiatives to elevate cooperation with the European Union on critical minerals, are all cases in point.

Neither political campaign in the elections has been able to articulate a coherent vision of which goods should be made locally and which should be sourced from friendly jurisdictions, or even which jurisdictions really are "friendly". A considerable proportion of manufactured goods are irrelevant to national security. Most textiles surely are as strategic as yoghurt, which France 20 years ago deemed so to prevent a foreign takeover of dairy giant Danone.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has often defended protectionism with the claim that "American workers and businesses can outcompete anyone on a level playing field". There are surely some sectors in which competition is simply not worth the candle.

Conclusion

The overriding reason Temu and Shein products have been so popular is because of their price point. The decision to limit de minimis treatment is particularly counterintuitive given the political dominance of cost-of-living concerns.

The biggest winners of the executive action are Amazon and similar US retailers – not always pro-labor, it has to be said – as well as remnant textile companies that may enjoy a marginal reprieve.

If the US is indeed in a competition to win the 21^st century, it sometimes isn’t clear if it is planning to win the race or just the votes.

This article was amended on 1 October to correct an attribution to Shein as originally having a domestic focus.