"The new US chief executive is clearly unveiling his administration’s foreign and trade policies."
President Joe Biden in his first day of office has reversed a number of executive orders on wide-ranging measures that former President Donald Trump signed. The new US chief executive could undo more directives of the Trump administration and, in the process, unveil clearly his administration’s foreign and trade policies.
President Biden this early plans to rejoin the Paris Agreement, a global initiative dealing with climate change that Trump threw away. The return to the international agreement will have an immediate impact—President Biden is set to cancel the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline that will send Canada’s dirty oil sands to US refineries.
For the rest of the world, the US commitment to mitigate climate change means America will pursue more aggressive measures to cap and eventually eliminate the world’s dependence on coal and other polluting fuel sources in favor of renewables. The US will likely impose sanctions in the form of trade exclusions and a cut in foreign aid to developing nations to keep erring parties in sync with the Paris agreement.
The Biden administration, meanwhile, will rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade agreement linking the economic powerhouses of the Asia-Pacific region—the US, China, Japan, South Korea—to further reduce trade barriers. Former US President Barack Obama spearheaded the trade initiative during his term as part of the US pivot to Asia policy.
America is losing trade and economic opportunities in Asia, specifically the emerging economies of Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. Trump did not care about it—and simply dropped the huge trade bloc among the Pacific Rim countries that comprised 40 percent of the global economy combined.
As part of the resumption of the US pivot to Asia policy, President Biden will naturally encourage the US military to scour the sea lanes of the South China Sea more often to deter China from bullying her Asian neighbors, especially in the disputed Spratly archipelago. The US, through the pivot shift, can hopefully erase the outlandish territorial map drawn up by China on the South China Sea.