Time to stop licking your wounds and get your act together. With the victory of Donald Trump, the old world order has been blown up and a thorough review of the multinational policies and the global economy that have defined the last eight decades is required. Despite the unpredictability of the American president, his first four years in the White House and the commitments made during the campaign allow us to detect some of the principles he wants to impose. It is time to design a survival manual to confront the avalanche of deregulation and neoprotectionism that will shake up the world economy.
Trump cooking fries at a McDonald’s during his election campaign
Not since 1930, when the Smooth-Hawley Act taxed an average of 6% on North American imports, has global trade faced such a bleak outlook. China may bear the brunt with a 60% tariff surcharge; Mexico, between 10% and 20%, although cars could suffer an increase of 100%. With the new tariffs, Europe will also suffer, because 50% of its GDP comes from global trade and therefore replicating with more protectionist measures is useless. The alternative is to encourage critical sectors to improve competitiveness and reduce foreign dependence by promoting large transnational conglomerates capable of standing up to the Americans or the Chinese.
An avalanche of deregulation and neoprotectionism will shake up the global economy
The United States’ renunciation of globalization is an opportunity for the European Union to seek trade agreements with affected markets such as those in the Southern American Cone, North Africa or Asia. But this requires unity of action, promoting transversal proposals and forgetting about reductionist nationalisms and bell tower policies. The challenge is enormous, although projects like Airbus, the sum of continental efforts that have ousted the aeronautical giant Boeing, are a glimmer of hope.
Even though tariff protectionism combined with a historic tax cut promised by Trump worsens the deficit and debt and triggers inflation, the hurricane will inevitably arrive. The blood, sweat and tears of the world are the relief of the pockets of the American middle class, precisely the one who has given their trust to the future president of the United States and has imbued him with almost absolute power in exchange for taking advantage of them. from the well. Therefore, it is time to tighten our belts and assume that certain rights that we took for granted may be questioned, because when the sheet covers the head, it always uncovers the feet.
Source: www.lavanguardia.com
