Gallagher Publishes Article on Trump’s Trade Policy
Kevin Gallagher, Director of the Global Development Policy (GDP) Center and Professor of Global Development Policy at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, recently published a critique and alternative to United States President Donald Trump’s trade policy.
Gallagher’s article, entitled “The Trade Strategy We Need,” was published in The American Prospect on October 24, 2018.
From the text of the article:
Hardly a week goes by without another U.S. tariff hike on China, Mexico, Canada, or one of our European allies. Different justifications are given each time: to stop Mexicans from immigrating to the United States, to shrink the trade deficit, to make China and Germany play by the rules, and of course, to “make America great again.”
But Trump’s tariff tantrum is doomed to fail because it isn’t driven by a clear idea of what is wrong with the system. His policies will inflict pain on the United States and across the global economy, and crack the foundations of the international system. Worse, they are not part of an underlying economic strategy to restore balanced and equitable growth in the U.S. and world economy.
The one real bright spot is that Trump’s actions have revived an overdue debate about reform of the global trading system. Argument has been going on for decades, while trade policy was made by a bipartisan establishment cheered on by mainstream media—with critics banging on the door. Trump’s tirades have made trade reform prime-time.
Gallagher currently serves as co-chair of the T-20 Argentina task force on “An International Financial Architecture for Stability and Development” to advise the G-20 and its members on financial infrastructure and monetary policy globally. He also served on the U.S. Department of State’s Investment Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy and the International Investment Division of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. He has served as a visiting or adjunct professor at the Paul Nitze School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico; Tsinghua University in China; and the Center for State and Society in Argentina. You can follow him on Twitter @KevinPGallagher.