FREE TRADE

Once the US and EU were the originators of Free Trade. It was their greatest gift to the lives of hundreds of millions of the impoverished of the world, especially those in Asia.

The opposite of Free Trade is PROTECTIONISM.

There is deep concern now, about the cognoscenti that the US and EU feel threatened by the growth prosperity of China and the emerging nations.

So, the tilt is now to retreat into 

Fortress US and PROTECTIONISM.

When this happens, China, ASEAN and India will wonder what they can do.

If they do not find the answers to their woe, they will free fall into the the abyss that they have taken these recent decades to crawl out of.

In turn, their stance vs the US and the EU will be extremely guarded. 

Certainly their will be NO gratitude and automatic deference to US/EU economic hegemony and US military hegemony.