The Sustainability of Trump's Trade Policies

The protectionist trade measures promulgated by U.S. President Donald Trump during his campaign for the presidency in late 2016 have gradually become a legal reality since his inauguration. The continued proliferation of these protectionist measures has been characterized as an irresponsible policy that ignores deleterious economic effects, while others describe them as a predictable result. If the Trump administration’s trade policy is little more than a set of arbitrary determinations made through an irrational decision-making process, as many experts propose, our capability to respond is very limited. On the other hand, if Trump’s trade policy is determined in a lucid way through a prepared process, we can form expectations of what effects such policies might have, and can prepare a systematically-devised response. This study recognizes Trump’s trade policy not as an irrational conviction but rather as something that has been carefully formulated, and aims to find ways to systematically respond to the continuing proliferation of protectionist trade measures. For this study, we will examine current trends in the proliferation of the U.S. government’s protectionist trade policy and its impact on the economy. This will show that there is a high level of concern about Trump’s trade policy within the U.S. itself.