DONALD TRUMP has described his foreign-policy priorities in only the vaguest terms. But he has made very clear that he believes his years in business have equipped him to negotiate better, smarter and tougher deals for America, whether by threatening to slap tariffs on foreign imports or to walk away from decades-old defence pacts. In Mr Trump’s descriptions of world affairs, talk of complexity is a trick, designed to befuddle honest Americans who wonder why the American superpower of their youth now seems less feared by enemies and disrespected by allies. In his telling, America’s problems are simple, self-inflicted and easily reversible, once the right man is sitting in the Oval Office.
Free trade is one of the subjects that first drew him into politics. He has been grumbling about foreign powers cheating America and stealing jobs since the 1980s, when he would appear on television talk shows to tell Oprah Winfrey or Larry King that Japan and others were robbing his homeland blind.
Today there is still a retro whiff to his ideas. Whether addressing grey-haired ex-factory hands in Ohio on the campaign trail, or greeting reporters at...Continue reading
Source: United States http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21709921-americas-next-president-wants-pull-out-existing-trade-deals-and-put-future-ones?fsrc=rss
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