Trump has made a lot of fine cabinet appointments, but the of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, and the head of a new entity called the National Trade Council, Peter Navarro, are quite worrying advocates of so-called nationalist economics. Like Mr. Trump, they see trade as a form of warfare. It isn’t. I'm just saying this is worth keeping an I on, Both eyes..
I'm not arguing to leave things as they are i'm all for better deals but there are possible ironies here 1) The people who will suffer from trade protectionism are the poor and working classes who will pay higher prices for goods, and see their jobs lost due to higher prices of imports (half of imports are used in American manufacturing, some of which go to exports). 2) China is benefitting even now from other nations’ fear of US changing policy on trade. Instead of American-led free trade agreements, China is lining up Pacific nations for a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, in which Beijing calls the tune. 3) The US is the world’s largest trading nation. Protectionism is a punch in our own eye. To punish China or anyone else for selling us too many products, Mr. Trump could be imposing higher prices only on Americans.
We know the president has a great deal of independent power on trade matters. Here is something for you and I as well as Republicans in Congress to mull: If President Trump, the great businessman, ignites a trade war and tanks the economy, voters will draw the lesson “Those free-market Republicans have done it again. Capitalism equals depression.”
