Peter Navarro:
“…First, articulate fair and principled goals. The Trump team insisted from the beginning that the outdated rate-setting system must be modernized and that all member states must have more power in setting their own postage rates.
Second, make the redline demands clear. The administration’s unwavering condition was to allow the United States Postal Service to immediately set domestic postage rates at a level sufficient to recover costs.
Third, be ready to walk if those redline conditions are not to be met. Here, it is vital to show unwavering resolve in the face of the inevitable resistance that will come from the defenders and beneficiaries of the status quo.
To demonstrate that unwavering resolve, we had to be fully prepared to exit the postal union. So even as our negotiations unfolded, we prepared to exit the agreement without disrupting international mail, particularly election and military mail. Through such meticulous preparations — which we made clear publicly and through diplomatic channels — we clearly signaled there was no hesitation in our threat to walk.
Fourth, change is rarely achieved by going it alone. Early in the negotiations, we engaged with the union’s leadership, even as we identified partners we could work with to win the reform we wanted — countries like Brazil, Canada, Iceland, Norway and South Africa were all similarly harmed by the status quo. Through intense negotiations, we built a coalition of pro-reform countries, founded on the principle that what is fair to American businesses and workers is also fair to the world.
Finally, hit back hard on those who opposed the needed reforms. An obvious antagonist was China, the biggest beneficiary of the distorted system. It tried to bully countries, particularly in Africa, to which it had lent considerable sums of money. We countered that there was much more to lose if the United States exited the postal union — and much to gain by working with a democracy rather than an authoritarian state.
A more subtle problem lay with several countries like Germany, the Netherlands and Britain. At the Geneva meeting, their powerful postal systems sought to advance narrow rent-seeking interests that clearly deviated from the broader strategic relationships the United States has with these countries. We countered by bringing this divergence to the attention of higher-ranking government officials — and putting the issue in its broader strategic perspective.
Collectively, these five lessons represent a new kind of Trumpian diplomacy that achieves results while advancing the interests of American businesses and workers across the globe. Through gritty determination and creative diplomacy, we clearly have the ability to remake and revitalize many of the antiquated international organizations that today ill serve American interests…”