Outside In | 5 reasons Trump’s attack on global trade will backfire on the US
As a trade policy nerd for the past four decades, passionate about the importance of global trade trends, I am quite disappointed when I am reminded that reader interest in trade issues is miserably low.
Even in a place like Hong Kong, where trade accounts for 359 per cent of gross domestic product, the subject seems deadly boring to most people, including those whose livelihoods critically rely on it.
In normal times, this may not matter. In such times, people have better and more interesting things to do or care about. Not for nothing is trade in services often talked of as “trade in invisibles”.
Perhaps it’s wishful thinking on my part to believe that if the nonsensical claims behind Trump’s war on the global trading system are taken apart, then some of his harmful excesses may be reined in. Nevertheless, I’m giving it a go.