We interrupt this well-deserved jeering at the new NAFTA, aka USMCA (ptui! spit three times!) to ask a couple of awkward questions.
Even though Trump’s “victory” was pretty meaningless in trade policy terms, it’s appalling that he “won” by threatening Canada with unilateral auto tariffs based on national security grounds, and even more appalling that he’s planning to do the same with the EU, Japan et al.
And as pernicious as China’s trade practices are, Trump’s bullying tactics pose a far more lethal threat to the rules-based system. If WTO members can start jacking up tariffs on each other willy-nilly based on spurious nat sec grounds, what purpose will the WTO serve anymore?
It’s understandable that trade wonks are breathing heavily about prospects for a broad-based global coalition ganging up on China. But if the WTO is to be preserved in anything like its present form, shouldn’t major powers be trying to confront Trump first?
End of awkward Q's.
End of awkward Q's.
