I don’t think US has accepted any unfair trade deals. Any deal is give and take. US can’t win on everything.
What China has been lacking is that they didn’t keep the promise they made when they joined the WTO. They didn’t open the markets they said they would open. It’s based on those promises that the West allowed China to join WTO. But within the WTO framework China has been mostly obeying the rules. If US felt we were mistreated we can complain to the WTO and impose tariffs, and we did that a couple times in the past.
What makes Trump’s tariffs so problematic is that he’s short circuiting the whole WTO system. He’s just claiming national security on things that don’t have anything to do with national security. The painstakingly constructed rule-based system goes to the wayside. This is very dangerous. It’s an open invitation for other countries to do the same.
Which proves that we have a liar inventing any excuse to make himself grandiose. He is working to make himself a Mussolini of some sorts, always “on the campaign trail” but what he is doing is letting his own supporters down one at a time. And they are noticing since his approval record went below 40% now.
They are noticing that wall is not going to be built, and Mexico is getting away Scott free. No tariffs being increased on both Mexico and Canada, and that NAFTA is not going away any time soon.
The Chinese knew since the 10 minute meeting Xi had with this so called president that they had a guy they could handle. They knew it was a matter of a twit to start a war with consequences to both countries, so they had the advantage of knowing he would mumble jumble any stupidity any minute, and they were prepared.
Now, they are doing a $3 Billion, that is just the hook for this president to do something they want. As I said, they know already what he is going to do. They can read him pretty well, they always had.
That is costing this country $ billions lost in the stock market. Lots of $ Billions.
If a country consumes more than it produces, it must import more than it exports. That’s not a rip-off; that’s arithmetic.
If we manage to negotiate a reduction in the Chinese trade surplus with the United States, we will have an increased trade deficit with some other country.
Federal deficit spending, a massive and continuing act of dissaving, is the culprit. Control that spending and you will control trade deficits.
I fully support cutting the deficit spending of the government.
WTO is ineffective at best and useless at its worst. It takes years to have a claim resolved. There’s also little recourse for enforcement besides going back to WTO. It’s not nearly quick enough and the rulings don’t have good enforcement mechanisms.
Prior trade deals were negotiated by people who felt it was the obligation of the US to help other countries. You see it in EU tariff is 10% for US cars while US tariff is 2.5% for EU cars. Why on earth would any rational person accept that? The goal should be a 0% tariff not US paying a tariff that’s 4x higher. Yet, the US has accepted higher tariffs on US goods in many trade deals.
If we actually get equal treatment on trade and combine that with lower corporate tax rates, the US economy will boom.
Trump is a politician. He can’t go around saying Americans deserved it. He can blame anyone except Americans.
Trump is forcing it by intentionally not fully fund the tax reform.
In short, Trump is indeed trying to save America but can’t blame Americans, and don’t know where to cut government expenditures. This is the best he can do. No pain, no gain.
USA is no longer rich enough to do so. Has to force zero tariffs
“Some of the issues they put on the table are legitimate,” Froman stated. “What that says is, over the long run, we want a stronger dispute settlement process, one that’s quicker, gets resolutions more expeditiously [and] has real teeth.”
