DowDuPont Sees `Amazing' Trump Effect on Negotiations Overseas

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump’s approach to international trade is giving U.S. companies an unexpected boost when they negotiate overseas deals, according to DowDuPont Co. Chairman Andrew Liveris.

In what he called “a paradigm shift,” U.S. companies suddenly have leverage when negotiating with foreign countries, Liveris said Tuesday on a webcast panel from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. That’s because nations now are concerned that if they don’t give an American corporation “a shot,” their companies could be denied opportunities in the U.S., he said.

“It’s had an unintended consequence, which is actually amazing,” Liveris said. “And maybe that, at the end of the day, is President Trump’s strategy.”

Trump abandoned the Trans-Pacific Partnership and has started renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, excoriating such multilateral deals as unfair to the U.S. On Monday, he slapped tariffs on imported solar panels and washing machines, saying he wanted to level a playing field that was tilted against American companies.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jack Kaskey in Houston at jkaskey@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Case at bcase4@bloomberg.net, Tony Robinson, Susan Warren

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