The commercial war unleashed by Trump and the serious damages that are causing (deterioration of human rights, market instability and more poverty in the most fragile countries) are not the result of. Commercial relations between nations have known other moments that have provided prosperity to very different countries. The key was cooperation.
The aggressive discourse of the Republican is the most opposite of the agreements policy with other countries established by another US president, Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is useful to remember the purposes of the Bretton Woods Conference (United States) held in 1944 in order to order international trade and establish financial stability. 730 thin sessions from 44 countries participated in their sessions ,. Although US and British delegations were the most numerous and influential with 45 and 15 delegates respectively and added 48.4% of the votes, there was the will to agree on decisions.
Bretton Woods’ spirit was evident in Henry Morgenthau’s speech, secretary of the US Treasury: “We have become aware that the most prudent and effective way to protect national interests is through international cooperation: that is, through a joint effort to achieve common objectives.”
The Conference created the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (BM) and established the dollar as a reference currency with the $ 35 dollar parity, which gave stability and confidence. The system, driven by the progressive sectors, worked until the seventies of the last century when the dollar could no longer maintain its equivalence in gold. Today, however, IMF and BM are rightly considered right as the symbols of neoliberalism. The change intensified in the eighties with the rise of neoliberal ideas and was formalized in the so -called Washington consensus that advocated the reduction of public spending and taxes, labor deregulation to facilitate dismissals, and the privatization of public companies.
The great paradox is that today the Chinese Enarbola, whose influence grows among numerous countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America and whose most influential organization is the one that groups the BRICS countries, which since January 2025, already represents 51% of the world’s population and 40% of global GDP. The new correlation of populations and economic forces makes the current distribution of votes in the IMF insectable in the United Kingdom holds 29.6% of the votes; United States 16.5%, and countries like China and India 6.1%and 2.6%, respectively. The US has a possibility of blocking because certain votes demand a majority of 85 % of votes %.
In the real world the firmness of China is what. The return to cooperation is the only solution as it was in 1944. China and the European Union has a lot to say.
