Ministers pose during an opening session of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in Tokyo Saturday, January 2019. Credit: Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo
TOKYO – Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s isolationist and protectionist “America First” policies seriously damaged America and its global leadership role. Raising tariffs on imports to the United States — in particular, from China — succeeded only in prompting other countries to impose reciprocal tariffs on U.S. goods. Trump’s trade policy therefore ended up hurting most Americans, from farmers to middle-class consumers.
Under Trump, America also unilaterally abandoned its global role, which would have enabled the U.S. to tilt international rule-making regarding trade and the management of the climate crisis to its advantage. The U.S. withdrew from the 2015 Paris climate agreement, the World Health Organization, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, and launched a contemptuous assault on the World Trade Organization by refusing to agree to any appointments to the WTO’s Appellate Body.
Trump’s isolationism was particularly painful
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Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. Trade Representative under Donald Trump, reflects on his decision to launch the trade war with China and begin the process of "strategic decoupling" — a process he says the U.S. must see through to the end.
