From populist rhetoric to economic pragmatism
Eclectic, vindictive, reactive are all traits associated with Trump and his attitude towards commerce, but does his trade policy tell the same story ? To answer this question, we propose to deconstruct Trump’s agenda according to the economic zones affected by the President’s major executive decisions. For example, the America First doctrine is articulated, applied and interpreted differently regarding Canada than in relation to a hegemonic opponent such as China. This method makes it possible to prune Donald Trump’s speech and thus to analyze trends and inconsistencies. We conclude that American commercial diplomacy under Trump is structured around an ideological ambition aimed at gradually delegitimizing the liberal order and the multilateralism that underlies it. In conjunction with our hypothesis, we also note that trade policies that are in contradiction with the president’s rhetoric are more the result of a pre-Trump institutional, economic and political structure rather than a change of approach.