A more important question is how China and the US transform economic-trade interdependence into strategic mutual trust and mutual concern.
Accordingly, many national leaders find themselves at a point where they have to choose--both as a matter of policy and politics--whether they are in or out, whether they accept the rules of globalization, free trade, and interdependence, or whether they will opt for a return to economic protectionism and political self-preservation.
Yet, it is undeniable that American ingenuity and enterprise have fueled the spread of market economies, international trade and economic interdependence, which together have made conflicts between nation states in regions like Europe unthinkable.
An increasingly integrated global economy has upset nearly all models of economic and financial markets, rendering most forecasts unduly cautious and unable to see the broad benefits of growing trade and commercial interdependence.
China has already overtaken the US as India's most important trading partner, and economic interdependence will create common cause in trade negotiations with advanced economies.
But increased interdependence -- trade now accounts for about a quarter of world output, double its share 25 years ago -- means that much of the world can move down in tandem, just as it moved up in tandem, some economists say.
The point about the European single market, however incomplete, is that EU member states actively try to promote more interdependence through trade because they trust each other – and build accompanying political institutions to entrench and extend that trust.
However, one beneficial side effect of freer trade is that our interdependence with other nations will increase as we increasingly rely on their workers and their markets, and they on ours.
The economic argument claims that free trade leads to increasing levels of interdependence between states, thus decreasing the chances of war.
The major loophole arises from the interdependence between cross-border trading and national imbalance energy pricing.
But it is also an almost magical tool for stabilising a whole continent, creating new markets and letting free trade and free movement build ties of interdependence.For these reasons and more, Europe's most recent expansion was not just a good idea.
