Globalization Revisited: Is Every Country on Its Own Now?
Predictions about the advent of a new era in US policy and sweeping changes to past approaches accompanied the arrival of the new US President. In fact, the Trump administration is perpetuating many existing policies – albeit with one major exception: it is taking a fundamentally different approach to free trade by rejecting multilateral treaties and essentially declaring a return to bilateral economic relations and the principles of mercantilism. When the world’s largest economy shifts its priorities, it inevitably affects everyone else. How will world trade be structured with Washington pursuing a policy of ‘America First’? How will this impact international institutions, and how will the ideas of protectionism change the nature of economic and financial flows? And how should other economies react – advocate the adoption of universal rules of the game, or focus on saving themselves?
