Trade Liberalisation Never Lifted All Boats

Opinion by Jomo Kwame Sundaram (kuala lumpur, malaysia)Tuesday, August 04, 2026Inter Press Service KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, August 4 (IPS) - President Trump has blamed trade liberalisation advocated by globalists for US deindustrialisation. Instead, his own weaponisation of economic policies, instruments and institutions purport to ‘make America great again’ (MAGA). Jomo Kwame SundaramTrump 1.0 claimed to do so by ‘reshoring’ industries that had relocated abroad. Trump 2.0 uses more threats to secure investments, markets and other economic advantages for US big business, at the expense of others, including allies and especially the Global South. While rejecting globalists’ claim that trade liberalisation enhances growth, employment and incomes for all, his own ‘America First’ policies are slowing the world economy, including the US. Post-war trade policy The US has dominated international relations and institutions, including multilateral economic governance, since World War Two (WW2). The US Congress rejected the 1948 Havana Charter proposing the International Trade Organisation (ITO). Selective trade liberalisation was key to the ‘neoliberal’ Washington Consensus, which has been r...