Most politicians, whether they practise what they preach or not, use “protectionism” as an insult. Not so Donald Trump. When the US president said in his inaugural address that “protection will lead to great prosperity and strength”, he was proposing the most dramatic changes in trade policy in years. With Monday’s announcement that he wanted to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and pull out of the almost-completed Trans-Pacific Partnership, Mr Trump signalled a clean break with recent bipartisan US trade policy.
多數政客不論是否會踐行自己所宣揚的內容，都把「保護主義」用作一種侮辱。唐納•川普(Donald Trump)卻不是這樣。當這位美國總統在其就職演說上表示「保護會帶來極大的繁榮和實力」時，他是在提議對貿易政策實施多年來最大幅的調整。週一，他又宣佈打算就《北美自由貿易協定》(North American Free Trade Agreement)重新談判，並退出幾近完成的《跨太平洋夥伴關係協定》（Trans-Pacific Partnership，簡稱TPP）。通過宣佈上述意向，川普釋放了這樣的信號：徹底拋棄美國兩黨共同奉行的近期美國貿易政策。