Global uncertainty looms as Trump prepares to take office

17 Jan, 2017 by Dwarka Lakhan

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Come January 20, the controversial Donald Trump will become President of the world’s most powerful

country. Since he was elected, the US markets have made substantial gains, contrary to most pre-

election predictions. Can they sustain those gains? Or will Mr. Trump’s actions lead to uncertainty in the

US as well as global markets?

The truth is, Mr. Trump has a penchant for being controversial and unpredictable. As the New York

Times notes “Mr. Trump’s unpredictability is perhaps his most predictable characteristic.”1

The Germans are angry. The Chinese are downright furious. Leaders of NATO are nervous, while their

counterparts at the European Union are alarmed. And that’s just a short list of global powers and

institutions identified by the NY Times. To add a couple more: the North American Free Trade

Agreement could soon become obsolete and Mexico has almost been blacklisted.

No one knows where exactly Trump is headed — excepting for Russia, the only major country he has not

criticized, observes the NY Times.

At home, his domestic policies – from trade to healthcare to environmental issues to immigration –

could also add to uncertainty under a Donald Trump Presidency.

1 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/16/world/europe/trump-eu-nato-merkel-brexit-russia-germany-china.html?emc=edit_th_20170117&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=38955795&_r=0

Dwarka Lakhan

Dwarka Lakhan is a pioneer in emerging markets journalism in Canada. His first emerging markets article, “Africa Joins Ranks of the Emerging,” appeared in Investment Executive, Canada’s leading newspaper for financial advisors, in September 1994. Since then he has written hundreds of articles on the full spectrum of emerging markets and has conducted more than two thousand interviews with emerging and frontier markets investment professionals.