Dear RealEcon readers,
President Donald Trump’s latest round of reciprocal tariffs went into effect on August 7. On the same day, U.S. Trade Representative Jaimeson Greer declared in a New York Times op-ed that under Trump, “the United States has laid the foundation for a new global trading order” based on tariffs and bilateral deals that will “rebalance” the international trading system.
Perhaps. But in his recently published Foreign Affairs article, CFR President Michael Froman offers a different vision for the future of the international trading system. Instead of a system based on threats and deals, Froman argues that the best option moving forward is an open plurilateral system where like-minded coalitions work together on shared issues. The full article can be found here.
This edition of RealEcon features other great content on trade and international economics from CFR fellows and outside contributors, including pieces on higher food prices, by RealEcon Associate Director Allison J. Smith and RealEcon Director Matthew P. Goodman; on what actual trade agreements entail, by Fellow for Trade Policy Inu Manak and Research Associate Helena Kopans-Johnson; on U.S.-Brazil trade developments, by RealEcon advisor James Wallar; and on the independence of the Federal Reserve, by Senior Fellow Roger W. Ferguson Jr. and Research Associate Maximilian Hippold.
Thank you for your interest in the RealEcon Initiative. I value your feedback on this newsletter and your ideas for how the initiative can have more impact.
—Matthew P. Goodman, Director of the Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and Director of the CFR RealEcon Initiative
