Donald Trump has won the presidency, despite losing the popular vote. The US has, as a result, chosen as its next president a man whose inexperience, character, temperament and knowledge appear to make him unsuited for this high office. The consequences of a Trump presidency will be many and various. But the economic ones will not be the least important. His administration might even reverse globalisation, destabilise the financial system, weaken US public finances and threaten trust in the dollar.
US-led globalisation is already fragile. Mr Trump seems likely to push it into its coffin. After his victory, the Trans-Pacific Partnership looks dead. That might leave an opening for a Beijing-led alternative: the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. But TPP might be replaced by nothing. The proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership was moribund and is now dead. Mr Trump has also suggested repeal or renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Above all, he has suggested imposition of high tariffs, especially on imports from China and Mexico, “to discourage companies from laying off their workers in order to relocate in other countries and ship their products back to the US tax-free”. They would almost certainly be contrary to World Trade Organisation rules. They would also create a risk of retaliation. The costs to the US, world trade and the credibility of the trading system might prove very high.