London, April 3, 2025 (Lusa) - The general tariffs announced by Republican President Donald Trump on foreign products are a reflection of a trend towards progressive US isolationism, former EU ambassador to the United States João Vale de Almeida told Lusa.
Contrary to other analysts, the former Portuguese diplomat, who spent eight years in that country at the service of the European Union (EU), first in Washington between 2010 and 2014, and then at the UN between 2015 and 2019, believes that the matrix is not new and that it existed in previous administrations.
"These trends were already there, and they float through the history of the United States (US). He (President Donald Trump) brings a strong dimension of economic nationalism," he said in an interview with Lusa news agency in London.
On Wednesday, the US President announced a basic tariff of 10% on all US imports, but this tariff varies according to different countries or blocs, such as the European Union (20%), Japan (24%), India (26%), or Vietnam (46%).
Separately, 25% tariffs will be applied to cars and light trucks imported by the US, in addition to the 25% imposed in February on steel and aluminium.
The former Portuguese diplomat fears that the US distancing itself from its allies represents yet another sign of the end of the international consensus inherited after the Second World War, which he calls the "divorce of nations", the title of a book he is publishing today in English in the UK.
The Portuguese edition of "The Divorce of Nations" will be released in October.
"I think that this 2nd April is, contrary to what Mr Trump says, who thinks it's the day of liberation, for me it's the day of divorce. It's a good illustration of the thesis of my book. Basically, we are, we have been, and unfortunately we continue to be, perhaps even at a faster pace, after the election of President Trump, towards the divorce of nations," he said.
Vale de Almeida says we are seeing "a fragmentation of the global order, a tension in economic, commercial and political relations between states, not from a perspective of cooperation to find common solutions to common problems, but from a logic of competition, of power for power's sake, of power for the sake of the powerful, of zones of influence, which is the opposite of everything we have tried to build, certainly since the Second World War and very particularly since the end of the Cold War."
During the almost nine years he lived in the United States, Vale de Almeida made a point of visiting all 50 states and interacting with different presidents, from George W. Bush to Barack Obama, Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, but also businesspeople, academics, and ordinary citizens.
He thought Americans consider the US to be "a superior country" worldwide.
"Exceptional, is the expression they use," the result of “a feeling of almost inviolability, because two great oceans protect them” and without threats to the north or south, the former diplomat continued.
"They have a continental dimension geographically, a great military force, a great scientific and technological force and a great "soft power", a great capacity to influence the world culturally. They feel relatively calm, from the point of view of external threats, and regularly develop outbreaks of isolationism that lead them to say: "We don't care about the rest of the world, we have to concentrate on our problem now"," said the former ambassador.
Despite breaking with this isolationism during the Second World War or in Vietnam and more recently in interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Kosovo, Vale de Almeida noted a resistance to direct involvement in other conflicts, as Barack Obama did in Syria and Joe Biden did in Ukraine.
Trump's second presidency, whether in his foreign or trade policy, represents historical trends, "nuanced or accentuated by this dimension of economic nationalism and some imperialism," he emphasised.
BM/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
