While there is no generally agreed list of middle powers, the term is intuitively understandable and has been used widely as referring to countries ranked below a handful of great powers, but significant enough to be able to act in response to external stimuli with some agency and impact, especially regionally, argues Hung Q. Tran in his article for the Policy Center for the New South.. Trump has promised to put a 10-20 percent tariff on all goods entering the U.S., and 60 percent on those from China. In addition, he has threatened tariffs on Mexico and Canada because of the flows of illegal immigrants to the U.S., on China for the flows of fentanyl, and on the BRICS countries for trying to develop alternative cross-border payment mechanisms to bypass the U.S. dollar. A number of middle powers will be squeezed between Trump’s tariffs and the competitiveness of manufactured products from China, the only manufacturing superpower in the world. How those countries navigate the twin shocks in pursuing a manufacturing-based development strategy will be a defining feature of at least the next four years. https://www.policycenter.ma

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