How will Joe Biden change America’s trade relations?

Chinese bags, French wine, and Scottish cashmere – all have been put together by President Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed tariff man.

In his attempt to put “America first” – for jobs and profits – the president liberally applied tariffs, charges on imports, from those nations he judged were trying to give their producers an unfair advantage, with few discernible benefits for their territory. originally.

What difference will a changing of the guard at the White House make to American trade policy? Will that long-awaited trade deal between the United States and the United Kingdom finally be reached? And can Italian Parmesan producers take a break?

Here are five things to keep in mind:

Joe Biden’s “Buy American” slogan for his campaign has echoes of Trump’s playbook.

Given that unemployment in the US has more than doubled over the course of the pandemic, promises to bolster livelihoods in the home country have great appeal.

Biden’s promises include penalizing American companies that move jobs abroad. And like Trump, he is concerned about China’s ambitions and way of doing business.

But Biden has very different ideas about how to succeed on the world stage.

President Trump chose to go it alone, using tariffs and threats against China while trying to coerce Europe into joining his battle against companies like Huawei.

Biden prefers the idea of ​​strength in numbers, a multilateral approach, by involving traditional allies.

That likely means offering an olive branch to the EU, with an offer to pour oil (with lower tariffs) into troubled waters.

The dispute between US aircraft manufacturer Boeing and its European rival Airbus over claims of unfair state aid preceded President Trump. But it was he who decided to impose tariffs on European luxuries worth $ 7.5 billion (£ 5.7 billion) in response.

Analysts believe that Biden, at the very least, will avoid raising tariffs and could well eliminate existing ones, as well as those applied to steel and aluminum imports.

The threat of car rates is also likely to decrease. But Bordeaux winemakers may have to wait: with so much on the national agenda, breaking down those barriers may take a backseat.

And the UK may be even further behind in that queue.

Although British trade officials have been courting Biden’s team for some time, they are unlikely to be in a rush to sign a deal with the UK.

The incoming president is not a fan of Brexit and has said there will be no deal if the Good Friday deal is undermined.

That was after the UK’s proposed internal market law risked imposing a physical customs border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The UK government has quietly held out hopes that a deal will be struck by the middle of next year, before a deal to expedite a deal through Congress expires.

That could be ruined. But there could be a solution: both Mr Biden and the UK are considering membership in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a free trade association of 11 Pacific countries.

There is more to trade than the shipping containers that line the ports.

For example, while President Trump viewed the World Trade Organization with suspicion and scorn, there is hope that Biden will instead focus on pushing for reform and modernization of the organization, which pursues global trade policies.

However, some tensions will remain: the problem of a European digital services tax on the profits of mainly American tech companies persists.

Ultimately, while there is the possibility of a change in a new president’s business stance, his bulky national inbox may distract him for some time.