As President Trump this weekend opened what could become a global trade war, a growing number of countries, including America’s closest allies, are forging their own economic partnerships without the United States. If Washington is putting up a higher fence around its trade, other nations are lowering theirs.
In just the last two months, the European Union concluded three new trade deals. By punishing longtime allies with tariffs, Mr. Trump is encouraging other nations to form trading blocs and networks that exclude the United States.
The global economy is increasingly becoming “one that is characterized by ever deepening trade relationships excluding the United States,” said Jacob F. Kirkegaard, a senior fellow in Brussels at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
The trend is not necessarily anyone’s preference, he said, but the arrangements offer a “second best” option given America’s rejection of a more open economic order. He added that the proliferation of trading blocs, like the one between the European Union and South American nations, also helped countries avoid an overreliance on China.
At the same time, economic power around the globe was shifting. China had emerged as an economic superpower. Not only does it now account for more than 30 percent of the globe’s manufacturing, but it has also leaped ahead of the rest of the world in cheaply producing sophisticated electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels.
India’s status as a world economic power has grown as well. It surged past Britain to become the world’s fifth-largest economy in 2022. “India’s trade expanded across the geopolitical spectrum,” an update on trade released last week by McKinsey Global Institute reported.
Posted by John3262005
3 Comments
Could this be a EU; does nothing, wins moment?
Trump is bringing the glorious teachings Juche to America 🇰🇵
America is less than 5% of the worlds population. If we keep making it difficult to do business here of course other countries are going to look elsewhere.