ABSTRACT
Things are even worse in the financial arena, where international monetary fund (IMF) members issued a statement indicating that they would "promote a level playing field in International Trade," but did not reiterate a previous commitment to "resist all forms of protectionism." In any event, it is the world trade organization and not the IMF which is the international organization in charge of International Trade matters. Regarding the multilateral trade level, the issue is that International Trade is not making any substantial progress. Perhaps for this reason, some trade economists have proposed to focus on plurilateral agreements. However, the trade policies that the United States. President elected for the term 2017–2021 has announced seems clearly protectionist. To begin with, the Secretary of Commerce is a millionaire with investments in industries such as steel and coal, which might benefit from the new protectionist policies.
