Trump's Year-One Trade Policies: Belligerent Rhetoric - But Still Unsettled

Abstract

It has been one year since President Trump took office. He came to office riding a tide of anti-trade rhetoric as one of the most protectionist candidates ever to have won an election. Most recently, in his first State of the Union Address President Trump directly addressed global trade but only in five surprisingly short sentences. He neither announced any new trade actions, nor lambasted the global trading system or its institutions or specific countries. Interestingly, President Trump seemingly narrowed his concerns primarily to protecting American intellectual property rights through trade enforcement. What can be then be said about the US trade policy after one year of the Trump administration?