This article originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal. Below is an excerpt from the article.
By Ed Fast, July 21, 2025
When President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2017, I was profoundly disappointed. In 2015, as Canada’s minister of international trade, I helped negotiate the ambitious agreement that set high standards for the global economy and countered China’s influence in the Asia-Pacific region. It was more than a trade deal—it was a strategic blueprint for shared prosperity and security among like-minded nations.
That withdrawal signaled a larger shift. The Trump administration over its two terms has steadily retreated from the multilateral, rules-based order the U.S. had built since World War II. It has refused to appoint judges to the World Trade Organization’s appellate body, effectively paralyzing the system that enforces global trade rules. It has turned to tariffs as a blunt instrument of coercion, wielding them against strategic competitors like China and longtime partners such as Canada.
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Ed Fast is a distinguished fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. He served nearly two decades as an MP, and from 2011 to 2015 was Canada’s international trade minister.
