The U.S. has long had a protectionist streak. At a time when mercantilist doctrines that held international trade was fixed in volume and domestic markets needed strong protection were dying out in Europe, American leaders from Alexander Hamilton to Abraham Lincoln were still advocat-ing them. It seems that the pendulum is swinging back to this economic isolationism.
Since the launching of negotiations at Doha in 2001, the U.S. has actually abandoned the role of being the leader in international trade. Instead, it has turned to building a multinational free trade pact.
However, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the U.S. didn't want to be a leader of multinational trade either. It began to be unsatisfied with free trade agreements that were almost finished. Many agreements were on the brink of being abandoned.
For instance, the U.S. blamed South Korea for restricting the imports of automobiles and components. It also criticized Columbia for neglecting workers' rights and in-terests and thus delaying the agenda of free trade negotiations.
Now the U.S. is preparing to initiate free trade negotiations with Australia, but the result is hardly optimistic.
The U.S. return to isolationism seemingly contradicts its plan to double its exports, but this is not really the case. Looking at history, one will find that the U.S. trade and diplomatic policy has been unexceptionally based on realism.
For instance, during the Great Depression of the 1930s, every nation threw up protectionist barriers to try and defend their own economies, which ended up choking world trade. In the U.S., the extremely high tariffs established by the Smoot-Hawley Tarriff Act of 1930 blocked foreign goods from American markets and contributed to the severity of the global crisis.
Today it's deeply hypocritical for the U.S. to build walls around its own economy while constantly trying to force down the barriers of others.
Such protectionism can only drag down others, while bringing no ultimate benefit to the U.S..
The author is a member of the editorial board of Hong Kong-based World Chinese magazine. forum@globaltimes.com.cn
(Source: Global Times)
