Donald Trump recognized something others had overlooked. The US market is so lucrative for exporters in other nations that they must have access, regardless of tariffs posed by our government.
Exporters of high tech and luxury goods face what economists call a “oligopsony,” a market with few buyers which gives those buyers leverage over the suppliers. We had power we weren’t using, maybe didn’t even recognize we had, until Big Don decided to activate it.
The evidence for this power is the rush by other nations to cut trade deals with the White House. Some have analogized this rush to the “prisoners’ dilemma.”
