Trump tariffs: shrinking our way to irrelevance?


In addition to driving down the stock market and driving up inflation, Trump tariffs will drive historical trading partners to shop with China.

 

“While ASEAN and the GCC are unlikely to embrace Beijing to the extent that the Chinese government would like, they will be more receptive to Chinese overtures as they aim to offset the negative impact of Trump’s tariffs on their economies. Moreover, the economic destabilization caused by the US-China trade war will also weigh on the outlook to the global economy, incentivizing regional blocs like the GCC and ASEAN to rely more on one another for growth and trade, rather than just replace the US with China. Much as Trump’s attacks on traditional US allies in Europe and the Americas have done there, a more hostile US government trade policy will push Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian governments to bandwagon with their local neighbors as well as new trading linkages. The result is likely to be a world of stronger regional blocs with deeper ties to other such multilateral groupings; and a much less deferential international community towards Washington post-Trump.”

 

Trump’s tariffs and commercial isolationism won’t create American jobs. They will create new jobs and markets in the countries Trump is abandoning, making the US increasingly irrelevant in global commerce.

https://www.juancole.com/2025/03/trumps-tariffs-driving.html

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