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Resurgence of global economic chauvinism
Bent Greve in his book Welfare, Populism and Welfare Chauvinism ( 2019 ) states that the development of populist right political parties in various countries encourages the development of welfare chauvinism.
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US President Donald Trump speaks to the press during a meeting with President of Finland Sauli Niinisto at the White House October 2, 2019, in Washington, DC.
(AFP/Brendan Smialowski )
I
n the era of Trump’s leadership as president of the United States, free trade suffered a drastic setback. The resignation of the US in January 2017 from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement agreed upon by its 12 member countries is the beginning of a setback of the free trade scheme. Trump’s policies that are contrary to the spirit of multilateral economic cooperation are increasingly complicated by the emergence of a trade war between the US and China.
The trade war is Trump’s initiative to secure the United States market and cut US investment that has grown in the Bamboo Curtain country. The US-China trade war is part of the promise of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign to protect market access and employment of US citizens.
The US effort sparked a reply from the Chinese government resulting in a battle between the two world’s largest economies. The impact of trade wars between the two countries not only had an effect on the global economy but also led to excesses in the form of trade wars between other countries, such as China-Canada, Japan-Korea and even Indonesia-European Union.
Uniquely, the trade war was carried out to protect certain industrial groups that became the economy motors of each country involved in the conflict. The trade war developed into economic chauvinism. Economic chauvinism, often called welfare chauvinism, is an economic understanding that considers the welfare of one’s country as number one and must be privileged in the world economic arena. Bent Greve in his book Welfare, Populism and Welfare Chauvinism ( 2019 ) states that the development of populist right political parties in various countries encourages the development of welfare chauvinism.
Economic chauvinism must not be allowed to drag on amid the development of the world economy which leads to interdependence and integration. The first president of Indonesia, Sukarno, in his speech on June 1, 1945, stated that nationalism could not flourish if it did not live in the park of internationalism. That was an extraordinary view that transcended the era. The economic development of a country can work by encouraging its strength in the global market and encouraging more intensive cooperation with other countries in the form of bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation.
Post World War II the global trade landscape shifted with the entry of the US as a major player and the development of a multilateral system organized by the International Bank on Reconstruction and Development/World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade/World Trade Organization. It is these three organizations that regulate the free trade ecosystem throughout the world by being influenced by the political and economic interests of the US and the EU.
The role of the US and EU as a driving force of free trade needs to be questioned again. The US and EU are currently implementing policies that are contrary to the principles of multilateralism and free trade. The US step out of the TPP agreement and trade war with China prove that the country’s economic policy controlled by investors is very instrumental in its policies.
