Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has become the latest victim to be caught in the new diplomatic roller-coaster at Washington. The crude way the US President Donald Trump is handling international diplomacy is however likely to empower the Chinese and Russian economies as major world economies and even those from the developing countries shift dimension to the East. China’s trade regulations are perceived to be accommodative than what Trump may propose.
Trump has criticized TPP
The recent executive order issued by President Trump pulling the US out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership collaboration has widely been criticized by other partner countries including Japan which is the world’s third biggest economy.
Though Trump had persistently termed the TPP deal as ‘a disaster’ many economists agree on the fact that it greatly contributed in the growth of the US economy after the great depression of 2007.
Africa countries largely remain guessing where President Donald Trump stands when it comes to matters economy with the continent. These emerging economies have particularly struggled even during the former US regimes to penetrate the US markets. The new trade deals that the Trump administration has vowed to formulate will make even harder for products from Africa to reach the US markets.
President Trump's diplomacy?
Trump has openly referred the agreement to receive refugees from Australia ‘a dump deal.’ The war of words regarding the surging refugee crisis in Europe, Iran’s nuclear deal, the transfer of US embassy to Jerusalem and President Trump’s blatantly ban on seven Muslim countries perceived to be bedrocks of terrorism may just act as platforms to push many emerging economies towards China and Russia which are relatively friendlier.
Even the vague argument that Mexico should reimburse the US for the construction of the ‘wall of fame’ at the Mexican border through imposition of some form of taxes on products imported from Mexico further complicates the situation because once the new taxes come into play, traders will automatically increase the cost of their products and the local US consumers will end up paying more for the same products.
Inclination towards the East
World Economists agree that indeed some of the existing trade deals have not worked for the interests of countries they were meant to benefit. However, pulling out by issuing executive orders and seeking to negotiate new ones may prove to be a great challenge especially with increased despotic tendencies Washington is adopting in international diplomacy with potential trade partners like German, France and even Australia.
Should Washington not tone down its current messy diplomatic relationship with the world, even forging new trade agreements may just prove problematic. This is because world economies are not on the same scale of growth. At times, even the US which is without dispute the world's greatest economy may have to cede some ground to emerging economies when it comes to importation of products to the US markets.
