Trade : Doubting Trump

(Foriegn Policy)

As expected, trade policy has dominated the Trump administration’s approach to the world—but seldom in a good way.

The administration, led by “Tariff Man” Donald Trump, has turned back the clock to the 1930s by throwing up a series of trade barriers with friends and rivals alike, a tax that’s borne mostly by American consumers. The decision to start, and then escalate, a trade war with China has hurt U.S. manufacturers and farmers.

A year of tortured negotiations to update the North American Free Trade Agreement, which greatly strained relations with Canada and Mexico, ended with an agreement that looks a lot like the original, except where it cribbed from a Barack Obama-era trade pact the Trump administration previously killed. The deal still faces an uphill battle in Congress.

And there’s more to come: Even as the trade wars are weighing on global growth, the administration is preparing its most sweeping (and most damaging) round of tariffs yet. Read more