US’s economic colonisation

In recent weeks, US President Donald Trump has announced a string of new trade deals with dozens of countries across the globe. Although the details of those agreements remain limited, a closer look at them clearly shows that President Trump has leveraged the threat of his higher tariffs imposed on most countries on April 2 and the US’s economic power to force massive trade concessions and investments from its trading partners. Broadly, Washington has used threat of steep tariffs to a) coerce its trading partners into pledging investments worth trillions of dollars in the US to finance the revival of its manufacturing industry; b) secure preferential access — in some cases duty-free and in others concessional — for its energy and agricultural exports; c) influence the global supply chains and national industrial policies of its trading partners; and d) isolate nations seen as violating American trade or geopolitical interests. In return for tariff relief and continued access for their goods to the US market.