[vette6387]

“Trump proposed PUNISHMENTS for violations of agreements. Difference from tariff for tariff’s sake. Though I prefer we don’t grant China equal status as true democracies like in the EU or India.”

I think ALL countries deserve the same scrutiny. Not unlike NATO, we seem to always get the raw end of the deal. India is peddaling Mahindra tractors here and probably hurting John Deere in the process. I don’t really see countries like India and Japan as “democracies.” Japan, in particular, is sociaism masquerading as democracy. I don’t know what to make of India except it’s a human $hit hole.

[dfwgator]

The problem is that there must be consideration for both sides.

Opening up our markets to your products should be reciprocated with that country opening up their markets to ours’. But that is rarely ever the case. That’s not Free Trade. That’s Robbery!

[Trumpinator]

India is still a freer country than Red China and a genuine republic - shit hole or no. We should have scale based on how closely they are like us. Democracies like the USA get preferential treatment and dictatorships are given high tariffs for non essential goods (some raw goods we don't produce or can obtain from democracies would get a pass).

This gives an incentive for countries to become more free and like us and punishes nations not like us. The UK and EU would be like in the 90s percentile of free trade, Russia and India would be in the 80s to 70s, etc.