Why The United States No Longer Leads on Free Trade
Chris, Melanie, and Zack try to understand the U.S. government’s approach to global trade. Two successive presidential administrations have turned their backs on trade liberalization, and there is little enthusiasm in Congress for free trade – and a fair amount of outright hostility. For all the talk of “friendshoring” and building resilient supply chains, Washington’s allies and partners seem mostly concerned about rising protectionism in the United States. If Washington is no longer leading the world on trade, who is? Or who will? Or is the United States trying to lead toward a particular type of trade, one that doesn’t benefit revisionist autocrats? And will that fly?
Grievances for Joe Biden’s granddaughter, for getting married at the White House when the APEC summit was going on, to Ukraine and its supporters for falsely claiming an errant missile that landed in Poland was a deliberate Russian attack, and to incoming House Republicans planning a series of hearings designed to score political points. Attapeople for recent authors Will Inboden for his new book on Ronald Reagan, and Arthur Ross award winners Carter Malkasian and Mary Elise Sarotte, and an Atta Vice President to Kamala Harris for her planned trip to the Philippines.
Episode Reading:
- Alan Beattie, “America’s deep suspicion of globalisation makes it an outlier,” Financial Times, November 10, 2022.
- Arthur Ross Book Award, Council on Foreign Relations.
- William Inboden, The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink. New York: Dutton, 2022.
- Bogdan Kochubey, “Ukraine’s Zelensky Blames Russian Missiles for Deadly Poland Explosion,” Reuters, November 15, 2022.
- David Lauder, “US Senators Complain Biden’s Indo-Pacific Plan Won’t Cut Tariffs,” Reuters, March 31, 2022.
- Troy Stangarone, “Inflation Reduction Act Roils South Korea-US Relations,” The Diplomat, September 20, 2022.
- Deepa Shivaram, “Harris is traveling near the South China Sea. Here’s why that matters,” NPR, November 21, 2022.
- Yuval Levin, “Democrats Lost the Midterms, Too,” The New York Times, November 17, 2022.
- “VP Harris to replace Biden at last of three Asia summits,” Yahoo, October 29, 2022.
Image: The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons