How Trump Could Accidentally Fuel a Global Trade Boom

(Bloomberg) - Far from jolting the U.S. into a protectionist lurch, might President-elect Donald Trump unwittingly help buoy global trade next year? Here’s one scenario to mull over: A strong dollar and a tight U.S. labor market, combined with Trump’s proposed fiscal plans, may fuel a rise in net U.S. imports in 2017, a boon for commodity exporters and goods manufacturers such as China—in defiance of the Republican’s protectionist vows on the campaign trail. That’s the view advanced by Gabriel Stein, a developed-market analyst at Roubini Global Economics LLC. He reckons the stars are aligning for a broad-based pickup in investment activity that will see a rise in America’s current-account deficit next year, as all three domestic players—the public sector, households, corporations—draw down on their savings.