Stephen Pollard
starkly protectionist stance of his inauguration speech. That’s not just a reference to the phrase “America First” with its awful echoes of the isolationist movement of the same name in the 1930s.
The problem is even more explicit. As he put it on Friday: “We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies and destroying our jobs. Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength.We will follow two simple rules: buy American and hire American.”
Protectionism makes everyone worse off. Whatever the immediate impact of a tariff barrier, in the medium and long term any nation that imposes tariffs to keep out trade impoverishes itself, too.
One of President Trump’s first acts was to sign an executive order withdrawing the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. And TTIP, the proposed trade deal between the EU and US, is also dead.
It’s clear that President Trump has no time for large trade deals between regional blocs. But although his inauguration speech appears to suggest he is against all trade deals, that seems to be a misinterpretation. His preference is, rather, for bilateral deals between nations – hence his support for a US-UK deal. Indeed, it’s not just regional trade deals that he’s against: it’s regional blocs themselves. Hence his support for Brexit and his obvious antipathy to the EU: “I think people want their own identity, so if you ask me, I believe others will leave.”
So despite his protectionist speech, Mrs May could be pushing at an open door when she pushes for a trade deal. But she may find things trickier when she raises Nato with him.
As a candidate Trump sent shockwaves throughout the alliance when he said that Nato states should spend more on defence and that in any case Nato was redundant. He went further in his interview last week with Michael Gove, describing it as “obsolete”.
It’s true that his defence secretary, retired Marine Corps general James Mattis, has spoken of the US’s “unshakeable commitment” to Nato.
BUT the President’s words are deeply worrying and Mrs May is well placed to explain why to him. Our military co-operation with the US is second to none, and we are one of the few Nato members he cannot accuse of not pulling our financial weight.
Countries on the alliance’s eastern side that have Russia as a neighbour rely on the US as the guarantee of their defence as well as being the main source of weapons.
The apparent determination of President Trump to achieve a rapprochement with Russia is worrying enough, given his view that Russia had a legitimate interest in the Crimea. If the US president thinks it’s ok for Russia to invade Ukraine, they worry, why not them too?
Add to that fear his views about Nato and you see why they are so worried and why Mrs May simply has to make this clear to President Trump. For all the pleasantries and likely warm words there are real issues to be discussed.
President Trump may not be to everyone’s taste but he is the president and we simply have to deal with that.
Mrs May’s job is to foster a relationship built on trust – but which doesn’t ignore the real differences.
No one ever is easy.
‘Wrong to ignore differences of opinion’
said politics