Expert: Trump's decision to leave Asia-Pacific trade pact remains one of the worst made by an American president

Donald Trump's decision to remove the U.S. from the Asia-Pacific trade pact will go down as one of the worst made by an American president in decades, according to an expert on international trade.

The decision looks even worse than it did in 2017 now that China has applied to join the Comprehensive Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, and if it's approved that would deal a significant blow to the United States' influence on the international economic landscape, wrote columnist Stuart Anderson for Forbes.

"The Trump administration's trade policy was a story of inflicting great harm and achieving few successes," wrote Anderson, executive director of the nonpartisan National Foundation for American Policy. "The administration levied tariffs on $350 billion worth of imports from China. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the Trump tariffs cost the average U.S. household more than $1,200 a year. The Biden administration has maintained the tariffs."

Trump's trade policies cost many manufacturing workers their jobs, and his tariffs bled an estimated $1.7 trillion in market value for companies listed on the U.S. stock market.

"The Trump administration's trade policies harmed consumers and companies and failed to achieve their stated objectives with China or America's other trading partners," Anderson wrote. "Donald Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership created an opening for China and will continue to put U.S. workers and companies at a competitive disadvantage."