The Future of the Global Trading System

The project on the Future of the Global Trading System explores the protectionist turn in U.S. trade policy. The election of Donald Trump was the most vocal challenge to the consensus for trade liberalization that materialized in the early days of the Cold War. He became the first president since Herbert Hoover determined to raise barriers to trade, including tariffs. What should have been a protectionist moment has endured into a broader political realignment on trade that has slowly simmered into a major historical shift. While Democrats and Republicans have grown further apart on social and cultural issues, on trade they have never been closer. The project will culminate in a book titled A New Era of U.S. Trade Policy: The Bipartisan Consensus for Protection. The book will tell the story of the origins of this shift, the defining features of the new era of U.S. trade policy, and what it means for the future of the world trading system.