How to keep your country safe from Trump's whims

In the face of arbitrary, one-sided trade deals offered by the US, countries are scrambling to explore alternatives.

- Vikram Khanna

A lack of coordination among countries when formulating a response to the Trump administration's tariffs has enabled the US to divide and rule, and deal with countries bilaterally, which gives it more leverage, says the writer. PHOTO: REUTERS

(REUTERS)

One of the silver linings of the global trade war is that the world is de-risking its trade away from the US. Between 2018 when the trade war started, triggered by the Trump administration's embrace of protectionism and November 2025 (by which time Mr Trump had taken his tariff tantrums to a new level), approximately 90 new regional trade agreements (RTAs) were signed or negotiated globally, a sharp acceleration compared with roughly 60 new deals in the 2011 to 2018 period.

The post-2018 agreements, covering Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America, are often broader in scope than earlier deals, focusing on inclusivity, digital connectivity and supply chain security. The signature achievement of this era has been the rise of mega-regional agreements. These include the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), signed in 2018, which unites 11 Pacific Rim economies plus the UK and sets high-standard disciplines for trade in goods, services, investment and digital flows; the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), signed in 2020 and effective since 2022, which is the world's largest free trade agreement, comprising 15 Asia-Pacific nations; and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), launched in 2019, which aims to create a single market for goods and services covering 54 African countries.