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It is my observation, that both political parties, and all the American business establishment are all sold out to China.
Maybe not. But Trump seems COMPLETELY like the only guy who was saying even one word about China during the campaign, and now Bannon was forced out - it seems the sell-out crowd is running things.
Trump. This is not why I voted for you.
You are not doing ONE THING, to improve things yet.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-reports-biggest-ever-annual-trade-surplus-with-u-s-1515730973
Link to the full article.
More leverage on China to get North Korea in line.
No tariffs. Just step up customs inspections and hold up the shipments. Jam the flow.
We need companies coming back and/or starting up here....not in China.
We need a tariff and we need it now.
William Blake
Patience, grasshopper :-)
well if people would stop buying chinese made products that would help.
I try to not buy mexico/foreign produce either.
One thing to add to the angst is a sizeable cause of the trade deficit is our own fiscal deficit.
Creating much artificial demand.
Lowering or (gasp!) eliminating deficit spending will help reduce that trade deficit.
Still, that doesn’t excuse all the manufacturing and production outside this country.
Another sign of an improving economy.
“You (Trump) are not doing ONE THING, to improve things yet(with the Chinese trade deficit). “
The increase in the deficit last year, was basically driven by the rising US economy (US demand) - a good thing.
The Trump Administration has put in place powerful long term policies that will improve the trade deficit, and likely has more planned to roll out when the time is right (like NAFTA re-negotiation or withdrawal).
Before just relying on the blunt hammer of sweeping tariffs, which invite retaliation, widespread condemnation, and are vulnerable to being overturned by treaty; there are other powerful levers to be used. Changing the incentives to businesses (the tax cuts are earth-shaking in this respect, de-regulation is powerful) to make the US more competitive is the first and best priority. Enforcing against trade practice cheating is also huge, because China gets a good deal of its advantage by such cheating (theft of Intellectual Property, manipulating markets and subsidizing industries). The US has already begun cracking down on cheating in several ways, including simply collecting fines, that Obama waived for Chinese trade violators.
Another huge thing that has been done, is Trump’s cancellation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). These huge trade deals often end up being a thousand small restrictions on US sovereignty, like the many small ropes they Lilliputians used to try to bind Gulliver. Another has been the US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, which put the US at huge trade disadvantage, by increasing the costs of basic energy inputs to our economy, and loading top end regulation and taxes, which would bind us, but not China.
The opening of ANWR, and the off-shore areas of the US for oil and gas development, is much bigger than most people realize. They are by far the largest leases in US history. New wells like this typically produce for 20 - 30 years. Trump has a deliberate policy of making the US energy dominant, rather than merely self-sufficient. FYI, the USA recently became the world’s largest total producer of oil and gas (combined), and are flirting with being the world’s single biggest oil producer (likely will solidify that position at current rates of change). We have only developed the facilities to begin exporting natural gas in the last few years, and just lifted the 40 year ban on oil exports in 2016. Hydrocarbon (oil and gas) exports will likely continually (and strongly) improve our trade balance in the long term.
Also, the Trump Administration has already placed some targeted tariffs on Chinese banks, companies and individuals, for a variety of reasons (the biggest is over sanctions on North Korea). So far, the blunt hammer of tariffs has been more tested and demonstrated, rather than strongly wielded. But it definitely looms as pressure over the Chinese Government, most of whom have their own corrupt businesses which could be targeted.
Bottom Line: The Trump Administration is focused strongly on improving US economic competitiveness. They have already enacted huge shifts, that dwarf the efforts of recent decades.
With Wilbur Ross leading our Commerce Department (a super-savvy billionaire turnaround expert), and noted China trade hawk Peter Navarro as Director of Trade and Industrial Policy, and the Director of the White House National Trade Council, China is no doubt facing its greatest trade challenge against the US since Deng Xiaoping re-opened the Chinese economy in 1978.