The Trump administration’s trade policy with China has gradually come to be associated with the phrase “decoupling.” The emergence of the phrase, which is generally used to mean a simple pullback in trade between the two countries, shows how far the Trump administration has shifted the debate on trade.
Decoupling is not the stated goal of the administration, or of Beijing, but President Trump has said numerous times that he wouldn’t mind if it happened and, on one occasion, issued a tweet that appeared to directly order that. Such rhetoric, combined with the aggressive tariffs and retaliatory actions by both sides throughout the trade war, have made the prospect of decoupling seem real enough that it has become a topic of discussion among policy experts.
