Rules-Based Trade Made The World Rich, Trump's Policies May Make It Poorer

Nations sell goods and services to each other because this exchange is generally mutually beneficial. It's easy to understand that Iceland should not be growing its own oranges, given its climate. Instead, Iceland should buy oranges from Spain, which can grow them more cheaply, and sell Spaniards fish, which are abundant in its waters. That's why the explosion in free trade since the first bilateral deal was penned between Britain and France in the mid-1800s has generated unprecedented wealth and prosperity for the vast majority of the world's population. Hundreds of trade agreements later, the United States and several other countries established an international rules-based trading system after World War II. But now the U.S., which has played an integral role in bolstering this system, is actively trying to subvert it.