ABSTRACT
The ‘America First’ agenda promoted by US President Trump has turned into actual policy in the areas of international trade and investment, challenging the postwar multilateral trade order and even the value of trade openness. This chapter takes stock of how the trade policy of the United States fits within a more uncertain, more anti-globalization, and more multipolar world where the European Union and China are now almost equal actors. It first examines the structural power of the US in international economic relations, before exploring the recent populist American backlash against globalization by focusing on the protectionist impulses of President Trump and a growing bipartisan consensus on protectionism. It then analyzes the complex challenges to both the free trade orthodoxy and the populist anti-globalization backlash brought about by the rising economic power of China. To conclude, this chapter questions the evolution of the liberal international economic order, asking whether the apparent retreat of the US from global governance will result in the EU or China taking over the management of the international trade regime.
