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Other US trade policies hurt poor states too, eg, higher tariffs on
goods from developing than rich states, and restrictions on textiles
and clothing imports. Global intellectual rights, trade in services and
investment agreements were also designed to benefit rich states.
Flows benefiting poor states were discouraged, eg, of people to the
US and of aid to poor states.
Since the global hegemon also usually runs fiscal deficits, partially
due to the costs of global policing, they also return via the US public
debt purchased by states like Japan and China with excess dollars
earned from their trade surpluses. Without safe investment options
for these states, the US incurs this debt at low interest rates. This
cheap debt fuels the US public and private consumption frenzies
which again cause US trade deficits.
My little daughter often watches this story about a bad wolf which
goes around destroying the hay and wood houses of little pigs by
merely huffing and puffing. But he ultimately comes across a pig
who constructed a brick house given the experiences of his sibling
pigs. The wolf fails to bring down the house.
Much the same is true in global politics today. Learning from past
dealings with the US, more and more states have built brick houses
which bad wolf Trump cannot destroy merely by huffing and puffing.
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