Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Karthik Sankaran
“For about a decade, American trade policy has been buffeted by competing impulses on how it should engage economically with the world. The controversy is over whether the U.S. should expand trade with all countries; use it as a tool that buttresses alliances and deters or coerces adversaries; or just step back from trade and aim for self-sufficiency. The debate goes back at least to Hillary Clinton’s 2015 decision to abandon the Trans Pacific Partnership, an agreement she had championed as Secretary of State. It is also a debate in which the divisions do not map cleanly along party lines, making predictions about policy under the new administration difficult. But it might help to identify the different factions and their interests in order to make sense of trade-related headlines rolling off the wires, like the below examples.” (12/23/24)