Trump’s isolationism is pushing countries into China’s arms

(Photo: Esteban Felix – AP)

What happened last week at a meeting of Latin American nations with China and other Asian countries in the Chilean city of Viña del Mar is a prime example of how President Donald Trump’s isolationism will diminish U.S. influence in world affairs.

The meeting was convened following Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement that had been signed in 2016 — after seven years of negotiations — between the United States and 11 Asian and Latin American countries, including Japan, Singapore, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Peru and Chile.

Trump had claimed that the TPP was a “potential disaster for our country,” and signed an executive decree shortly after taking office ordering the U.S. pullout. He had earlier vowed that “Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo.”

But the U.S. withdrawal from the trans-Pacific treaty did not stop the other TPP member countries from seeking to go ahead on their own, without the United States.

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