Globalization has 'backfired': ex-Trump trade official

Nations must pick partners that help ensure security, Nazak Nikakhtar says

Nazak Nikakhtar formerly served in the U.S. Commerce Department and is now a partner at Washington law firm Wiley Rein. (Photo by Dupont Photographers)

TAISEI HOYAMA, Nikkei staff writer

April 11, 2023 22:02 JST

TOKYO -- High hopes for globalization in the early 1990s have given way to the cold reality of a segmented trading system as China and its allies try to carve out a bloc against the U.S.-led West, argues Nazak Nikakhtar, a former U.S. Commerce Department official.

"Globalization, that all nations are going to be friends and trade freely within a rules-based system, has completely backfired," says Nikakhtar, who served as the U.S. assistant secretary for industry and analysis under the administration of President Donald Trump. She sees a trend toward regionalization.