DAVOS, Switzerland—As the U.S. seeks allies in a new cold war with Russia and China, it does so without a lever that helped win the last one: new economic pacts like the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the North American Free Trade Agreement. They are nonstarters in a Congress in which both parties have turned more protectionist.
“In the era between World War II and now, the U.S. has used traditional trade agreements to get close to our allies,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week.
