Donald Trump’s trade policies have been characterized by an aggressive use of tariffs, driven by his belief in balancing bilateral trade and prioritizing American production. While these measures have reshaped trade dynamics and escalated protectionism within the U.S., they have also inadvertently strengthened China's global economic position and highlighted the limitations of decoupling efforts.

Republican proposal, along with heavy tariffs promised by Donald Trump and certain retaliation by U.S. trading partners, would drive the global economy into a new Great Depression. Rather than trying to punish China, the U.S. should continue to maintain dialogues and establish practical trade and investment collaboration.

The multilateral trading system faces an existential challenge as the United States and European Union seek to continue — or even expand — trade protectionism. If Donald Trump returns to the White House, there are good reasons to believe that he will try again to hijack the World Trade Organization. Meanwhile, protectionism by Europe only makes things worse.

America’s fundamental strategy of creating trading blocs of approved partners will have disastrous global consequences. The Great Depression in the 1930s was brought on, in part, by U.S. protectionism. The world must now guard against a similar calamity.

The Biden administration’s new tariffs on Chinese goods are primarily symbolic and political, with negligible economic impact, but they aim to protect and foster the U.S. clean energy supply chain, particularly in the EV sector. However, the tariffs are politically motivated and could undermine industrial policy goals by focusing on geopolitical competition rather than applying uniformly to all countries.

While high officials in the Biden administration — and President Joe Biden himself — have repeatedly proclaimed that America does not seek to decouple from China, the latest move to impose extreme tariffs on certain Chinese goods goes in exactly that direction. It’s a bad idea driven by U.S. election year politics.

Washington’s claims of non-compliance by China are a wish list in disguise. It wants to abrogate China’s rights and impose its own will in reshaping the Chinese economic model. So it should be no surprise that it cooked up a way to do that via the World Trade Organization.

New international institutions, mechanisms and laws — as well as the reform and improvement of existing ones — should no longer be dominated by the West. The shaping of a new global order should be done through multilateral cooperation.

America’s professed commitment to the WTO is suspect: What it really wants is to reshape the organization in its own image. By rejecting the WTO ruling against it, the U.S. is putting the teetering trade body at risk.

After the Xi-Biden meeting in Bali, attention should turn in earnest to a global vision in which the two countries share a common obligation — supporting globalization and multilateralism — not only to manage differences but also to avoid economic fragmentation.