[UNCTAD] How Trump's Nationalism Hindered USA's International Relationships

Written by Alternet

Donald Trump, the former president of the US, openly and proudly declared that he was a nationalist in 2018. Based on his pure ideology form of promoting an “America First” foreign policy agenda marked by US nationalism, protectionism, and unilateralism, Trump imposed a series of poorly considered tariffs on China in an attempt to reduce his country’s dependence on foreign resources while boosting its economy during his presidency. This marks the start of the US-China Trade War and the beginning of the deterioration of US international relationships.

Although his primary and naive idea of shrinking the large trade deficits between US and China has been achieved with the decrease of it from US$419 billion to US$319 billion from 2018 to 2020, many other aspects of trade and development have been negatively impacted, going against Trump’s will.


In the US, the growth of Growth Domestic Product (GDP) fell from 2.9% to 2.2% from 2018  to 2019, while that of China remained high at 6.1%. 300,000 jobs and 0.3% of the US GDP were also the cost of this trivial decrease in trade deficits, which was just the opposite of what our proud nationalist Donald Trump wanted to achieve. 


Furthermore, with the intention of recouping the US’s loss due to the heightening tariffs, Trump started imposing tariffs against other nations. For example, tariffs on steel and aluminium were imposed against the European Union, Canada and Mexico, discouraging these countries from forming a positive trade relationship with the US. 


In addition, Trump pulling out from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and leaving UNHRC and UNESCO shows the lack of faith in multilateral organizations. He has also refused to appoint new members to the WTO’s appellate body, which further reflects his determination to adopt protectionist trade policies. 


Despite Biden’s decision and action to reverse Trump’s decision, such as stop blocking the appointment of Nigeria’s former finance minister to become the new director-general of WTO and provide a large amount of COVID-19 vaccines to the countries in need, the broken international relationship still become the fuse for other countries to diversify trade partnership away from the US. Although many countries such as Thailand and the United Kingdom are still willing to maintain good economic ties with the US on the surface, their action of actively seeking partnership and forming trading blocs unveiled their distrust towards the cooperation with the US.


The Delegates of Ukraine, New Zealand and many other nations have demonstrated their willingness to shift away from the United States of America and China as central economic powers, as a result of the volatile US-China Trade War. New Zealand has suggested that “stronger economic ties” should be fostered with developing countries and other economic powers, such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). 


Luckily, with the solid foundation of the US economy built by the decades-long liberalism economic policies before the Trump administration and the effort of our charitable delegate, a more positive scene has been observed in the second and the third conference session. Regarding the issues of helping the countries being negatively affected by the US-China trade war, the US delegates offers technology support for the LEDCs both in agricultural and manufacturing fields, in addition to fundings, to improve the skill levels of the workers in these countries. Her suggestion is welcomed and supported by many other delegates in the council, even including the delegate of China. The ice on the international relationship of the US has slightly melted with the cooperative policies and progressive attitudes, which will bring a benefit in the long run.


In conclusion, Trumpism is the key factor hindering the US’s international relationship and economic development. On the contrary, cooperation and trade agreements would improve the trade infrastructure and reduce trade-distorting domestic policies, blueprinting a sustainable and beneficial future of economic development. 

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