Former US trade representatives agree: they wouldn’t do it Donald Trump’s way
Six former lead US negotiators dissect the Trump administration’s approach to China and other trade partners and find it potentially catastrophic
Former United States trade representatives (USTRs) on both sides of the political aisle heaped scorn on the Trump administration’s approach to global trade, even as the government prepared to slap another round of import tariffs on Chinese products.
At a discussion hosted by the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies on Monday, six former chief US trade negotiators decried the protectionist trade policies the administration of US President Donald Trump is pursuing and warned of the catastrophic effect they could have on the US position in the global economic order.
For the first time in 70 years, Americans had found themselves the “outliers” on the world trade stage, said Michael Kantor, who served as US trade representative in the Clinton administration from 1993 to 1996.
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“We’ve lost leadership,” said Kantor, who led the negotiations that laid the foundations for the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
“We created a vacuum. It’s been terribly dysfunctional for our businesses and for our economy.”
In his 20 months in office, Trump has withdrawn the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement with countries in East Asia, the Americas, and Australasia; dissolved the North American Free Trade Agreement, a trilateral deal with Mexico and Canada; and initiated an aggressive trade war with China.