US economic policy: Security interests or nationalism first?

FREE traders have been breathing big sighs of relief during President Donald Trump's first year in office.

His administration still hasn't (yet) withdrawn from the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), and has declared that the US would continue to exercise "leadership in pursuit of lowered trade barriers and increased market access".

Indeed, notwithstanding the pledges that Mr Trump made on the stump to advance an aggressive economic nationalist agenda, it seems that the new president's mercantilist instincts have been inhibited by his more internationalist aides, having refrained from launching a trade war against China by imposing punitive tariffs on it. But free traders should not pop the champagne corks and consider the possibility that the Trump administration's mercantilist approach remains alive and well, and that when it comes to China, it may actually enjoy wide bipartisan support in Congress.