Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)

Ever since President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in 2017, Washington has been engulfed in a contentious debate whether leaving the treaty was a geo-economic blunder or a necessary step to protect the American economy.

Taiwan and the US should develop a policy for if, and when, tensions with the People’s Republic of China escalate. For Taiwan, the opportunities of COVID-19 present the perfect time to do so.

Last month Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong offered three recommendations for the US government to enhance its relationships in Asia in the context of US-China tensions.

We were mostly right about his hateful rhetoric, fundamental dishonesty, trade wars, admiration for foreign dictators, and wild inconsistency. But we overestimated Trump’s competence and work ethic. His ability to bring material harm to the United States has been limited by how little he works and how little he knows about the presidency.

The Trump foreign policy is like the administration’s domestic policy: a little irreverent, ambitious, and completely impervious to experts’ warnings.

Trump has a better chance of averting a trade war with China than with the G7.

They agreed. At least on the single issue of foreign trade, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton agreed the United States must retreat from free trade agreements. In the midst of the most polarized presidential election in living memory, both major party candidates converged on the need to reconsider American-led globalization and take a more protectionist stand in foreign markets.

Given that America is (by far) Canada’s top trading partner, the prospective renegotiation of NAFTA is now by necessity Canada’s top foreign affairs priority.

While I am an optimist with regard to global poverty alleviation, my optimism is sorely tested when it comes to my beloved birth continent, Africa.