Trump Adds Woes to Rural US's Declining Fortunes

Politico's Adam Behsudi has an interesting piece on how Donald Trump's trade pull-out goes against the rural US's very sources of growth.

Behsudi's focus is set right on Wright County, Iowa, which is roughly 100 miles from Des Moines, and with a landscape marked by corn and soybean fields. This seemingly isolated territory depends on the system of global trade and economic openness that Trump has strongly criticized. And while many of Trump's rural supporters, sharing his distrust of coastal elites, voted in favor of a revisionist approach to trade negotiations, they have started to realize the potential damage of his abrasive style and outright protectionism:

"The dimming of any new trade opportunities or the disruption of existing ones creates a ripple effect not only vertically along the direct farm value chain, but horizontally into the economic welfare of the surrounding community," writes Behsudi.

Politico's piece focuses on the costs of Trump's decision to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): the projected $10bn growth in agricultural output, which the US International Trade Commission would materialize as a result of TPP, is now off the table. And the other 11 TPP countries are now involved in separate negotiations with large economic powers, which could negatively affect US commercial interests in the medium term.

Writing for The New York Times, meanwhile, Patricia Cohen focuses on Trump's policies' effects on employment – I recommend pairing both reads to get a broader picture. 

Focusing on the state of Tennessee's experience, Cohen argues, "more than two dozen companies from 20 countries have set up shop, generating billions of dollars in investment, employing thousands of workers and helping drive [the] jobless rate to 3.6 percent in June". Trump's "Buy American" may add woes to the previous decline of these industries.