WASHINGTON, D.C.: Tired of the bullying, bluster, and threats from U.S. President Donald Trump with regard to tariffs, countries that America considered its allies are signing deals among themselves as protection against the president's impulsive actions.

Many U.S. trade partners are diversifying their economies away from a newly protectionist United States. Some European governments and institutions are reducing their use of U.S. digital services such as Zoom and Teams and developing their own technology.

Central banks and global investors are dumping dollars and buying gold. Together, their actions could diminish U.S. influence and mean higher interest rates and prices for Americans already angry about the high cost of living.

Last summer and fall, Trump used the threat of taxes on imports to strong-arm the European Union, Japan, South Korea, and other trading partners into accepting lopsided trade deals while virtually forcing them to make massive investments in the United States.

But his trading partners are now realizing that even a signed deal is just a worthless scrap of paper for the mercurial president, who repeatedly finds reasons to impose new tariffs on them.

Last month, he threatened Canada with 100 percent tariffs after it agreed to reduce Canadian tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. Then, last week, Trump warned the U.S. would decertify Bombardier Global business jets and threatened 50 per cent import tariffs on all aircraft made in Canada until the country's regulator certified a number of jets produced by U.S. rival Gulfstream.

Canada announced soon after that Prime Minister Mark Carney would travel to India in March this year to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss a significant sale of oil and uranium and to sign a trade deal.

Earlier, after reaching an agreement with the EU, Trump threatened new tariffs on eight European countries for opposing his attempt to seize control of Greenland from Denmark, a threat he soon walked back.

"Our trading partners are discovering that the largely one-sided deals they concluded with the U.S. provide little protection,'' said former U.S. trade negotiator Wendy Cutler, senior vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute. "As a result, trade diversification efforts by our partners are on turbocharge, looking to reduce dependence on the U.S.''

India, EU Clinch Long-Awaited Deal

However, the deal that caught everyone's eye, including the Americans, was the free trade agreement hammered out last week after nearly twenty years of negotiations between the 27-country European Union and India, the world's fastest-growing major economy.

EU exporters were jubilant over the India deal. VDMA, a group of European machinery and plant engineering companies, welcomed lower Indian tariffs on machinery.

Likewise, the EU announced a trade deal two weeks ago with the Mercosur nations of South America after nearly 25 years of negotiations. It will create a free-trade market of more than 700 million people. Mercosur nations are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, Peru, and Suriname are associate countries. Venezuela is a full member but has been suspended since December 1, 2016.

U.S., India Trade Deal Still Work in Progress

On February 2, Trump went on social media to announce his own deal with India. The U.S., he posted, would reduce tariffs on Indian imports to 18 percent from 50 percent after India agreed to stop buying oil from Russia, which has used the sales to fund its four-year war in Ukraine. While welcoming the trade deal, India made no mention of Russia or its oil purchases.

The president also announced that India would reduce its tariffs on American products to zero and buy US$500 billion worth of American products. Again, while India did not mention zero tariffs on American products, it did clarify that the $500 billion sale would be spread over five to seven years. American businesses and legal analysts were still awaiting official White House documents detailing the deal.

What Trump is banking on is America's power as the world's biggest economy and consumer market. "We have all the cards,'' he told Fox Business.

But the growing rejection of Trump's policies is already having an impact. It has pulled the dollar value down to its lowest level since 2022 last week against several competing currencies. The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) nations and their allies already trade among themselves in their own currencies.

The rest of the world has realised that there is a vast market beyond America that they haven't explored yet, and, pushed into a corner by Trump's threats, they are willing to look elsewhere.