Rumours of the trade deal’s death are greatly exaggerated

To understand the new landscape, start with the birth of the modern trade deal. The first half of the 20th century saw escalating tariffs and two world wars. Then, in 1948, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was signed in an effort to temper zero-sum competition. The construction of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which formalised continuous negotiations, followed in 1995. One of its core principles is the “most-favoured nation” clause: if you change tariffs on one country, you must do so for all the others, too.