Wednesday, February 8, 2017

America First

Opinion article by: Juliana Maya Herrera*
Universidad EAFIT

The results of the United States Presidential elections astonished many people around word when it was announced the victory of Donald Trump as the country’s 45th president. As President Trump is willing to disregard social norms so he can accomplish his ambitions and promises he made to the American nation. Indeed, Trump’s radical political position in contrast to the former president Barack Obama caused controversial embroilment and causing doubt what the future holds for the world.

On January 20th 2017 the inaugural speech was carried out on Washington D.C where Mr. Trump pledged to keep his presidential principle: ¨From this day forward, it’s going to be only America First¨ Which implied by the idea of giving priority to his nation by preventing other countries from taking advantage of the United States thought his administration. From the early 1940s this movement has been based upon the belief that “the security of a nation lies in the strength and character of its own people. It is a policy not of isolation, but of independence; not of defeat but of courage.” (Surer, 2010 ). Trump is willing to turn his country inward in order to develop his infrastructure plan, and he will strip power away from Washington and give it "back to the people".

The eyes of the world are certainly upon United States and in Trump’s protectionist view. “His victory effectively dooms the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) and portends a renegotiation of Nafta (North American Free Trade Agreement)” (Townsend, 2016); From the US Pentagon, Trump has order to temporarily ban the entry of citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries, on the ground that they could pose a security threat so they can to keep out “radical Islamic terrorists”. Also, Trump has implemented a program of suspending the admission of all refugees into the US. On the other hand, in an executive order he said that a wall must be built at the US border with Mexico and he asked this country to pay for the wall and threatened to impose a 20% tax on Mexican products in order to finance it.

The developing countries must be prepared for major shock news, as this are the ones who will suffer the most as some of them are fully dependent of the decisions taken in the United States of America. All of this new politics have caused uncertainty and skepticism among the people in all of those countries fearing what other issues can come in the future from the new president Donald Trump.

It must be reinforced that this article doesn’t implies to prompt neither disrespect United States nor the other countries involved in the several issues previously mentioned. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the institutional position of UNCTAD, or of the authors' affiliations.

References


Surer, Jeremy (2010 ). American Foreign Relations Since 1898: A Documentary Reader. Wiley-Blackwell.

Townsend, Mark (2016). Emerging Markets Vulnerable After Trump Win. Global FInance .