The shock and awe delivered by President Donald Trump’s multiple announcements of trade measures and trade plans has produced paralysis at home and abroad. America’s trading partners, operating independently, are testing whether any ad hoc bilateral solutions can be found in direct dealings with the US, while they consider how to gain additional economic security through making alternative trade arrangements or by become more self-sufficient.
The world trading system is in a period of disruption. Commercial conflicts will have costs, directly and through lost opportunities. The question of what sort of global order there should be for trade remains unaddressed. Over $80 billion worth of trade in goods and services takes place daily under the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) rules. Have the central elements of that global system been nullified by recent American actions?
What should all the other trading countries do? What happens now is largely in their hands.
