Poison pill terms will kill fair trade

In order to win in its trade competition with China, the Trump administration is preparing to establish international trade and investment rules that favor the United States by building discriminatory trade blocs with its allies.

It wants to replace the WTO rules with trade rules of its own devising, and take advantage of trade terms that are in its favor to seize the high ground in its economic competition with China.

To this end, the US included "poison pill" terms in the United States-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Agreement (USMCA), which was inked in September, to isolate so-labeled non-market economies. And on Oct 16, the United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer informed the US Congress that he intends to accelerate the trade negotiations planned with the European Union, Japan and the United Kingdom.