Global Impact of a Protectionist U.S. Trade Policy

Since Donald Trump’s inauguration, the risk is growing that the US trade policy will count increasingly on protectionist measures. The aim of this isolationist policy is to secure jobs and maintain incomes in the US. But actually, higher import tariffs and other import barriers lead to worldwide income losses – including in the USA. Such is the main conclusion of new simulations – calculated by the ifo Institute on behalf of the Bertelsmann Stiftung – on the worldwide impacts of a protectionist US trade policy (only available in German, title of the study “Konsequenzen einer protektionistischen Handelspolitik der USA”), of which this GED Focus Paper summarizes the main results.