Michael Schuman
In his quest to make America great, President Donald Trump is withdrawing the United States from global trade. American families, companies, and investors will pay a price for this, as many commentators have noted. But the repercussions don’t end there. The tariff regime is also destroying a pillar of American global power, and it will further isolate the country at a moment when others stand ready to fill the vacuum.
On Wednesday, Trump announced that America would impose a 10 percent duty on imports from virtually all countries, plus additional punitive tariffs on countries he deems bad actors on trade, including Japan and members of the European Union. Some of these duties are extremely high. Adding the new levies to those previously imposed, China’s average tariff rate is now near 70 percent. Trump described the tariffs as payback: “Foreign cheaters have ransacked our factories, and foreign scavengers have torn apart our once beautiful American dream,” he said. “Our country and its taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years, but it is not going to happen anymore.”
Trump’s tariffs are the culmination of a decades-long shift in political perceptions in the United States, in which trade has gone from an unalloyed good to the source of all ills. The U.S. once sought to bring down barriers and open markets globally—forging trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, and supporting the World Trade Organization. The resulting global trading system lowered the cost of goods, which benefited the companies and consumers of wealthy countries such as the United States. It also connected poorer countries, such as China, to international supply chains, allowing them to create jobs, woo investment, and alleviate poverty. The United States became, in effect, the world’s ultimate consumer, which tied other countries to its economy and its interests.
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