Most politicians, whether they practise what they preach or not, use “protectionism” as an insult. Not so Donald Trump. When the US president said in his inaugural address that “protection will lead to great prosperity and strength”, he was proposing the most dramatic changes in trade policy in years. With Monday’s announcement that he wanted to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and pull out of the almost-completed Trans-Pacific Partnership, Mr Trump signalled a clean break with recent bipartisan US trade policy.
多数政客不论是否会践行自己所宣扬的内容，都把“保护主义”用作一种侮辱。唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)却不是这样。当这位美国总统在其就职演说上表示“保护会带来极大的繁荣和实力”时，他是在提议对贸易政策实施多年来最大幅的调整。周一，他又宣布打算就《北美自由贸易协定》(North American Free Trade Agreement)重新谈判，并退出几近完成的《跨太平洋伙伴关系协定》（Trans-Pacific Partnership，简称TPP）。通过宣布上述意向，特朗普释放了这样的信号：彻底抛弃美国两党共同奉行的近期美国贸易政策。