US promoted free trade after WWII, when it was the last man standing and the only manufacturer. Free trade meant "we sell made in America all around the world". Leading by example meant opening their market, at no cost since nobody was in a position to export. The rationale was "open your markets as we do, and we will all get richer". But the real intent was to foster the dominance of American manufacturing
So we did. The whole world has been painfully opening markets for 70 years, and slowly, by finding cracks in the system designed to favor American interests, developing countries have indeed started to grow richer. Still poor compared to the US, but definitely better off.
Those open markets, designed by the US to export, have been used by two actors to import to the US:
- emerging markets (China, India, ...). This was the selling point of opening the markets, so this is perfectly fair
- US capitalists, trying to increase profits by moving production overseas and reduce costs. This is what is causing problems in the US, by losing jobs. This is a homegrown problem, and nothing the rest of the world should care about.
Basically, now that the world is starting to benefit from globalisation, after the US being the main beneficiary for over 50+ years, we somehow need to start caring about internal US problems.
That isnt true. The countries that participated in the WW-II had industrial capability which is why European nations and Japan were the first to participate in free trade.
Germany and Japan were almost totalled but it took them just a decade to comeback because they still had the weapons factories which they repurposed to produce goods.
> .. painfully opening markets for 70 years, and slowly, by finding cracks in the system ..
Developing nations real problem was their protectionism. When India opened up its markets in 1991 it has seen a lot of progress compared to the previous time. Competition is fair practice, it forces people to produce better quality products or unique goods where they can compete in. India found its strengths and weaknesses so did China. The point is to compete with strength and weakness both, Not to compete on strengths alone. because if you do that others will do the same. This is what trump is doing now, protecting its weaknesses as China and India does.
> This is what is causing problems in the US, by losing jobs ..
US does not have a job problem, the current unemployment is 3%, which is the lowest in a century in American job markets.
> Basically, now that the world is starting to benefit from globalisation ...
US has always benefited from globalisation for being the market innovator, US invented so many things in the last 100 yrs that is indispensable to the rest of the world. For instance Semiconductors, Telephone, Mobile Phone, Television, Light Bulb , Internet, Airplane, Satellite communication. What has china and India invented in the last 100 yrs? The best way to compete is invention and innovation, ofcourse for some the pace will be different than others. China has a lot of funds now what invention comes out of Chinese labs? They are still involved in espionage in US companies so many Chinese spies have been caught in the last 10 yrs itself. I dont think chinese manufacturing has the gall to compete on fair grounds because if they do they should lift import tariffs on everything. Trump too will remove all the tariffs. It is that simple.
If that was true the US would have had giant import tariffs after WW2 and been promoting the absence of them in other countries. Even if you assume the US would have abolished tariffs knowing it'd cost them little immediately after WW2, they'd have put them back in the decades that followed as places like South Korea, Japan, most of Europe recovered and started exporting again. But the US didn't do that, as far as I know. American tariffs are something I didn't hear about until very recently. The US can be criticised for hypocrisy on various issues but this doesn't seem to be one of them.
So we did. The whole world has been painfully opening markets for 70 years, and slowly, by finding cracks in the system designed to favor American interests, developing countries have indeed started to grow richer. Still poor compared to the US, but definitely better off.
Those open markets, designed by the US to export, have been used by two actors to import to the US:
- emerging markets (China, India, ...). This was the selling point of opening the markets, so this is perfectly fair
- US capitalists, trying to increase profits by moving production overseas and reduce costs. This is what is causing problems in the US, by losing jobs. This is a homegrown problem, and nothing the rest of the world should care about.
Basically, now that the world is starting to benefit from globalisation, after the US being the main beneficiary for over 50+ years, we somehow need to start caring about internal US problems.
I do not buy this.