Trade Negotiations aren’t Chess, Poker, or Go. They’re Bridge.

Trade Negotiations aren’t Chess, Poker, or Go. They’re Bridge.

Trade negotiations are often mischaracterized as adversarial contests akin to warfare or chess. (The latter is increasingly invoked in varying degrees: 3d, 4d, and nth degree). Headlines speak of countries “battling” over tariffs or “outmaneuvering” each other in the global marketplace. But while those analogies may be emotionally satisfying and undergird ideological fervor, they fundamentally misunderstand and distort the nature of trade itself…