Trump's spectacular trade failure

Washington, DC

SINCE World War II, the global economy has performed beyond the wildest dreams of its post-war architects, yielding unprecedented gains in health, education, living standards, poverty reduction and wealth. Central to this success was the growth and liberalisation of international trade, which was made possible with US leadership in the creation and stewardship of an open multilateral trading system.

That system - enshrined first through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and then in the World Trade Organization (WTO) - established international rule of law over global commerce, non-discrimination among trading partners, and a forum for negotiating tariff reductions and the removal of other trade barriers.