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Trump’s trade policy, development cooperation and the Global South

Brandi, Clara
Staff - Other (2025)

in: Stephan Klingebiel / Andy Sumner (eds.), Development and development policy in the Trump era, Bonn: German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), 82-87

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23661/idp23.2025

Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency marks a decisive turn towards economic nationalism, with wide-ranging implications for the Global South. This paper examines how Trump’s trade policy – characterised by high tariffs, reshoring and a retreat from multilateralism – challenges the foundations of the post-war liberal trade order. Drawing on traditions in development economics and international political economy, it explores how Trump’s agenda disrupts export-led growth strategies in developing countries and exacerbates vulnerabilities tied to global value chains. Crucially, it links this trade realignment to a parallel withdrawal from global development cooperation, reflecting a nationalist posture that undermines both aid and trade norms. The paper outlines three scenarios for how Trump’s trade strategy may affect the Global South, ranging from fragmentation and marginalisation to strategic realignment and developmental sovereignty. It concludes by arguing that Trump’s policy stance, while destabilising, also creates an opening to rethink development cooperation, not as aid-driven, but as a vehicle for structural reform, fairer trade rules and renewed institutional agency for the Global South.

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