1.America First International Trade Policy - A Case Study of Protectionism and Trading Blocs?

Donald Trump campaigned for election to President of the United States on a platform to protect American borders and stop international trade destroying domestic jobs Irwin, D.A. (2017). The latter issue he claimed could be addressed by specifically targeting the inherited trade deficit in goods with China of $347bn.

""We have almost an $800 billion a year trade deficit with other nations," Trump said in November 2017, after returning from his first trip to Asia as president. "Unacceptable. We are going to start whittling that down and as fast as possible."

However, the recent debate with regard to America's political and economic response to the country's trade deficit - the disparity between American production and spending - is not new. At various points over the past 40 years, discussions have ranged from how domestic manufacturers can effectively compete with imports from low-wage countries, to the merits and possible costs of designing and implementing international trade policy which addresses America's economic self-interest.

The America First approach to international trade specifically identified tariffs, quotas and regulatory barriers as mechanisms to address the trade deficit. These, it postulated, would redress internal domestic economic harms such as rising unemployment and lowering wages within specific industries such as steel and also car manufacturers (Cottier, 2014). The first steps were to withdraw from binding international trading agreements in order to re- negotiate terms which the Administration stated would be more favourable to the America economy (Irwin, 2017; Larres, K.W., 2020). This then lead to the re-negotiation of trading agreements between America and Mexico, USA-Canada and also USA-China, with varying degrees of success.

When the Trump Administration left office in January 2021, the trading deficit in goods with China had changed since 2016 (United States Census Bureau, 2021) although political relations between the two countries may have also fundamentally changed.

Key words: America First Trade Policy; Trade Protectionism; Market Liberalisation; Tariffs and Non-tariff Barriers; Trade Deficit; Trade Wars; Trade Blocs.

Case Study Questions

1. Analyse the stated purpose of the America First trade policy and identify why you believe it was chosen as the key economic and political policy of the Trump Administration (2017-2021)

2.Identify relevant theories of international trade and critique how they informed the America First policy. Specifically identify and critique where the theory informed and diverged from the actual policy . Answer should be very descriptive

3.Identify and critically discuss the measurable economic and social welfare impact of the America First trade policies (2017-2021) on each of the industries below: Answer should be explain in detail form

American Steel manufacturing

American Car manufacture