Outside voices: Has the U.S. forsaken the international trading system?

The editorial board at the Australian National University, home of the East Asia Forum, thinks the answer to that question is yes. In a new analysis , the board writes of a “significant U-turn in U.S. economic policy,” one that is dealing “a major blow to the rules-based economic order, of which the United States had historically been the primary defender.” The U.S., having moved from “architect-in-chief to enforcer-in-chief,” has now become the “spoiler-in-chief of the international trade regime,” say...