Developing countries suddenly have a new role: convincing Washington about the desirability of the Washington Consensus. Not much is clear about the policy of the US under its new political administration, but one thing has become brutally clear: the US is planning to roll back global free trade. US president-elect Donald Trump said he planned to begin pulling out of the 12-country Pacific trade deal "on day one" of his term in office. That decision and other statements like it have caused ripples throughout the world and are raising concerns that the US will turn its back on its Asian allies and, by default, allow China to assert its economic might in the region. The Financial Times reported this week that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe poured cold water on the idea that the trade deal could go ahead without the US. The comments underline a broader fear that under Trump, some of the basic tenets of global trade will be undermined. For the best part of a century, US support for ...
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