Exchange rate volatility falls after a trade deal, driven by a decline in the systematic component of risk. The average trade deal increases trade by 50 percent over five years, reducing systematic risk by a third of a standard deviation across countries. We examine this connection in an Armington model where the structure of trade networks determines the risk in exchange rates. We estimate our model to current data and find i) that countries at the periphery of the world trade network benefit the most from lower trade barriers and ii) that a counterfactual experiment of a trade war between the US and China shows a global increase in currency risk, with effects concentrated among peripheral countries.

We show that US monetary policy is transmitted internationally through the factor structure of exchange rates. Following an easing of monetary policy, investment funds sell safe and buy risky currencies. Global US banks, similarly, tilt their distribution of foreign loan origination toward currencies with greater systematic currency risk. The effects of monetary policy on currency flows and loans persist for several months and feed into the leverage and real investment decisions of firms and, in particular, those that operate using a high-risk currency. We conclude that the risk factor exposure of currencies is a significant channel through which we can understand the international transmission of US monetary policy.