The USA largely wrote the free trade regime that has been in place, with much hypocrisy it must be added, using its dominance and control over global institutions. Now that China has played the game mostly by the rules set by the USA, and won, Trump abruptly sets out to smash the rules USA put in place and reset the global trade rules to suit USA. This is not free trade or good faith bargaining- this is a fucking bully sore loser throwing a tantrum. Smaller trading nations like mine, New Zealand have long since removed all trade barriers- all imports for all nations are subject to zero tariffs- but USA has retained strict quotas on our exports to the US and refused to open to trade in our superior lower cost products. The USA is a bully hypocrit, throwing around its weight and demonstrating it is no longer fit to lead the world in trade rules negotiation. Trump is desperate to blame other nations when the fault is USAs alone- USA has lived beyond its means- using its USD petrodollar domination of global banking to print endless dollars and accumulate endless debt and now that debt is reaching dangerous levels where the markets look likely to stop seeing USTs as a safe haven asset because the USA is unlikely to continue to be capable of honouring them.