Where Does U.S. Trade Go From Here?

Why It Matters

Council on Foreign Relations

News

4.2 • 876 Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The unprecedented trade policies since the beginning of this year, driven largely by the Donald Trump administration’s pro-tariff agenda, have propelled the United States into uncertain and rocky territory. When it comes to our trading partners, the potential damage to U.S. alliances has left economists and policymakers in Washington questioning what’s next. Where do experts foresee U.S. trade policy heading? This season, Why It Matters is taking you through the ins and outs of trade. In this season finale, CFR’s Michael Froman and Shannon K. O’Neil tackle your biggest questions about what’s at stake and what’s next for U.S. trade policy. Featured Guests: Michael Froman (President of the Council on Foreign Relations) Shannon K. O’Neil (Senior Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair, CFR) To hear more from Michael Froman, subscribe to his newsletter, The World This Week. For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/wim/where-does-trade-go-here

Transcript

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0:00.0	For the past four months, the world has been caught up in trade tensions,
0:05.0	unlike anything we've seen in generations.
0:08.0	To help sort through and better understand what's at stake,
0:11.0	we at Wyatt Matters decided to dedicate a whole season to exploring trade.
0:16.0	The modern history, where U.S. trade policy fell short,
0:20.0	and the Trump administration's agenda.
0:22.2	For our final episode, we wanted to answer your questions, this time with CFR President
0:27.9	Michael Froman and head of studies Shannon O'Neal. Will China gain from this moment? Can
0:34.1	manufacturing jobs come back to the U.S.? Has the United States risked valuable alliances because of the Trump administration's tariff policy?
0:42.8	For our conversation about this historic moment, we take you to our headquarters in New York.
0:48.5	So, hello. Welcome to the Wyatt Matters season finale of our all-trade season.
0:57.9	So to start, I just sort of wanted to ask how you both decided to wake up one morning and get into trade as part of, you know, what you do day to day.
1:09.7	Well, mine was sort of accidental.
1:12.6	I initially started working on U.S.-S.-soviet relations and arms control and negotiations,
1:18.6	and then the Cold War ended.
1:19.6	I thought, gee, I've been studying negotiations.
1:22.6	What's another area of negotiations I should pivot to and trade was it?
1:26.6	So that's how I got started.
1:27.9	I'm very grateful to President Trump for making trade great again, because there was a
1:31.8	period of time when it was very hard to get reporters to cover trade, to write articles
1:36.3	on trade because they thought it was boring.
1:38.1	Of course, they were wrong.
	...

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