India, Aug. 16 -- Trump has incentivized many other alliances to exist, without Washington, the European Union's external trade architecture being the clearest case.

It is no secret that America's alliances are in tatters after a second round of battering under Trump, and will be even worse after another two years of a loss of confidence, reliability, and legitimacy. It is a wonder that America retains any of its alliances at this time and is questionable whether the plethora of alliances that existed with Washington in 2016 will ever be replicable again.

Yet, Trump has incentivized many other alliances to exist, without Washington-the European Union's external trade architecture being the clearest case. The EU-Mercosur interim agreemen...