The global trading system is starting to rearrange itself
Funny how things change.In the 90s the U.S., EU and Japan were the champions of free trade for industrial products and services.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.3rd world countries would complain about the hypocrisy and the rich would reply that they should just shut up and give up on protectionism.Now the whole Southeast Asia is competing with rich countries in industrial goods and protectionism is not protectionism anymore, is "decoupling".