Trump's America is destabilising global trade order. For India, it's an opening

"No trade is free," declares Dani Rodrik, a Harvard economist who writes extensively on globalisation and economic policy. He argues that trade between countries always involves some form of regulation, cost, and/or strategic interest. Several others — including rather famously, Robert Lighthizer, the former US Trade Representative (USTR) in the first Trump administration — have repeated the sentiment. Lighthizer published a tome in 2023 by that title. A lawyer by training, he dug in his heels for "fair trade" rather than free trade, presumably to promote American strategic interests rather than unmitigated market-driven choice. That trade is not free is…