https://arab.news/rktu4
In his bestselling 1987 book “The Art of the Deal,” Donald Trump highlights a series of tactics to try to win big in business negotiations. Fast forward almost four decades, and the now US president is increasingly seeking to translate this approach to the global political and economic landscape.
In the tariff arena, for instance, Trump regularly seeks to demonstrate key themes of his book. These include using leverage to find and exploit pressure points, plus being unpredictable to keep counterparts, even if they are longstanding US allies, guessing to try to gain the upper hand.
A good example of Trump’s philosophy translated into practice came last week when the US administration, amid much current geopolitical and geoeconomic turmoil across the world, announced major new trade investigations which are likely to lead to new US tariffs from this summer. This new front of uncertainty is clearly designed, in part, to test the mettle of nations who are targeted.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that the so-called Section 301 unfair trade practice investigations under the 1974 Trade Act will start immediately. Perhaps the most high-profile of these probes is being undertaken, according to Greer, because “the United States will no longer sacrifice its industrial base to other countries that may be exporting their problems with excess capacity and production to us.”
