March 3, 2026 | WSJ Letter to the Editor
Trade Rules Must Be Clear to Restrain China
A trading world organized around rules rather than coercion has an obvious antagonist.
March 3, 2026 | WSJ Letter to the Editor
Trade Rules Must Be Clear to Restrain China
A trading world organized around rules rather than coercion has an obvious antagonist.
Excerpt
David Hebert writes that the world is growing tired of the U.S. and “reglobalizing around partners who commit to rules rather than those who wield tariffs like a club” (“Everyone Else Is Trading Without Us,” op-ed, Feb. 27). It’s a fair observation, but his piece avoids addressing the threat from China.
Recent Commerce Department data adds crucial context. American imports from China collapsed by nearly 30% in 2025 while European flows into the U.S. grew. Notwithstanding the real potential of Chinese goods making their way into the U.S. by way of Europe, that looks less like American isolation than the beginnings of a reorientation Washington has been trying to engineer.
Max Meizlish is Senior Research Analyst for the Center on Economic and Financial Power (CEFP) at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.