As US and EU trade barriers go up, developing economies must learn to help themselves

Western protectionist policies are often driven by legitimate domestic and global concerns, such as climate change

Instead of condemning them, developing nations must seek their own prospect-boosting policies that benefit the global economy too

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A worker assembles Western musical instruments at a factory in Wuqiang, Hebei province, China, on February 23. The export-oriented industrialisation model has run out of steam for reasons that have little to do with the Global North’s protectionist policies. Photo: Xinhua

Dani Rodrik

Dani Rodrik, a professor of international political economy at Harvard University’s John F.

Published: 8:15pm, 9 Apr 2023

Developing countries are increasingly worried that the United States will turn its back on the multilateral trade regime. Amid rising geopolitical tensions, policymakers in lower- and middle-income countries fear that a breakdown of that regime could make them hostages to great-power politics, undermining their economic prospects.

Their concerns are not groundless: US trade policies have changed significantly over the past few years. What seemed like a series of haphazard measures under former president Donald Trump – sanctions on Chinese companies, increased tariffs and the fatal subversion of the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement body – has become a broad, coherent strategy under President Joe Biden.

This strategy, which aims to reconstitute America’s role in the global economy, embodies two imperatives. First, the US now regards China as its main geopolitical rival and views its technological ascendance as a national security threat.

As the administration’s sweeping restrictions on the sale of advanced chips and chip-making equipment to Chinese companies show, the US is willing to sacrifice international trade and investment to thwart China’s ambitions. Moreover, it expects other countries to do the same.