The global trading system is starting to rearrange itself
Funny how things change.<p>In the 90s the U.S., EU and Japan were the champions of free trade for industrial products and services.<p>However, when it would come to agricultural goods they were the champions of tariffs and protectionism. Why? Easy: because 3rd world countries were very competitive on agriculture. Egypt had better cotton, Argentina had beef, Brazil had orange juice, Cuba had sugar, etc, etc.<p>3rd world countries would complain about the hypocrisy and the rich would reply that they should just shut up and give up on protectionism.<p>Now the whole Southeast Asia is competing with rich countries in industrial goods and protectionism is not protectionism anymore, is "decoupling".