Foreign policy experts urge regional leaders to shift trading with US

As Cari­com Heads of Gov­ern­ment meet to­day, Pro­fes­sor of In­ter­na­tion­al Re­la­tions Andy Knight urges lead­ers to con­sid­er strength­en­ing part­ner­ships with Cana­da and Chi­na to di­ver­si­fy trade away from the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca (US).

Last week, US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump di­rect­ed his eco­nom­ic team to de­vel­op rec­i­p­ro­cal tar­iffs on coun­tries tax­ing US im­ports, cit­ing fair­ness. Speak­ing at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies’ vir­tu­al Vice-Chan­cel­lor’s Fo­rum, ti­tled Pres­i­dent Trump’s Great Pol­i­cy Shift, Knight not­ed that Trump’s nu­mer­ous ex­ec­u­tive or­ders af­fect­ing for­eign pol­i­cy present an op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­duce de­pen­dence on the US.

He sug­gest­ed in­vest­ing in dig­i­tal in­fra­struc­ture and e-com­merce plat­forms to open new mar­kets and en­hance trade re­la­tions.