It's all about China, stupid! Handelspolitische Perspektiven nach dem Machtwechsel in den USA

The election of Joe Biden as the next US President was celebrated with great acclaim within the international community. The history of US trade policy shows that many Democrats, as US presidents, have succeeded in accelerating the trade liberalisation process. The composition of the new administration underlines the intentions of the newly elected US president to end Don-ald Trump's confrontational course towards allies and instead to rely on cooperation to tackle common challenges, for example with regard to the design of global trade rules. But even during the election campaign, the political discourse clearly showed that the change in power will change the tone of trade policy, but less so the direction. On the one hand, trade policy is likely to play a subordinate role in the next four years in view of the domestic political challenges. On the other hand, the US President's trade policy plan for the next four years seems to have one main objective: to deal with the largely undamped rise of China and to ensure fair competition in the future. [...]