Hal Brands, Columnist

Trump's Trade Victory Over South Korea Will End in Defeat

Part of being the world's superpower is not always exploiting your allies' weaknesses.

April 5, 2018 at 8:00 AM EDT

Hal Brands is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and the Henry Kissinger Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.

This ship won't sail.
Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

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Donald Trump says he got a “great deal” in renegotiating America’s bilateral trade agreement with South Korea. This is the first trade pact Trump has successfully revised, and it reflects the intellectual core of his America First approach to trade: The U.S. can use its great economic and geopolitical leverage to drive harder bargains with weaker powers.

QuickTake Free Trade and Its Foes

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