America's Trading Partners Are Having Plenty of Fun Without Us

[DonViejo]

By Wendy S. Cutler

Ms. Cutler served as acting United States trade representative from June 2013 to October 2015.

June 27, 2018

There is a new buzzword in trade circles these days: diversification. “There has never been a better time to diversify,” a spokesman for Canada’s trade minister wrote in a tweet after the disastrous recent Group of 7 meeting.

South Korea became so frustrated as it renegotiated its six-year-old trade agreement with the United States in the spring that it became determined to turn elsewhere. South Korea’s trade minister started a “trade diversification” strategy soon after the agreement was announced.

Diversification is the polite way of saying that America’s friends and allies believe we have become an unreliable partner, and they are now looking elsewhere. From Ottawa to Brussels to Seoul, our trading partners are fed up with the Trump administration’s tariffs, and they have given up on trying to charm President Trump or persuade him that free trade is good. To reduce their economic dependence on the United States and their exposure to a potential global trade war, they are forging trade deals that leave us out of the picture altogether.

On June 14, Canada’s government asked Parliament to ratify a new version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which the United States backed out of last year. On June 18, the European Union trade commissioner visited Australia and three days later, New Zealand to begin negotiations for free-trade agreements; and on June 22, South Korea announced plans to pursue negotiations for its first free-trade agreement with Russia.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/opinion/trump-tariffs-allies-trade-deals.html

[Hoyt]

1. We are going to be begging the world in the long-run for help, but it'll be too late. n/t

[KT2000]

2. then come defense treaties

that will boost China and Russia. In China they can't believe they are realizing their goals so quickly because of trump.