CNAS Commentary: Globalization, Trade, and Competitiveness

President Donald J. Trump has sought to make the concerns of American workers the centerpiece of his administration – especially those who feel left behind by the significant economic transformations of recent years. His critiques of the contemporary American marketplace are not without merit. As vast swaths of the world emerge from poverty and demographic heavyweights like China and India inch toward great power status, the American worker has never faced so much competition.

Yet the administration’s proposed solutions have so far tended to misdiagnose the problem. Global engagement fueled the 20th century emergence of the American superpower and underwrote our modern standard of living. Rather than walling off the United States from the world and subsidizing aging industries, Washington should instead seek to equip American workers with the tools and skills necessary to be competitive for the future – and in so doing, make global engagement work again.