Let us not forget that there was in place a large multulilateral trade deal that was designed for the US to leverage economic power in the Pacific Rim.
It was imperfect… because everything is… but it would have been useful to have right now.
I completely agree. And I think one of the biggest abdications by this administration was that they did not immediately engage in bilateral trade negotiations with each and everyone of the members of TPP upon our withdrawal. That vacuum left by us has already largely been filled, and continues to be filled in our absence.
Yeah. If they had a plan in place to have started bilateral agreements day one… which would have been pretty hard since the TPP still exists but without us… I would have less criticism.
But the administration is either extremely incompetent, doesn’t give a ■■■■ or both.
Same here. And I think it is a combination of both, with a heavy emphasis on the prior.
Trump actually doing something. Dems just think of it as a tax increase, and you’ll feel better…
Putting out a grease fire with water is “doing something”.
Sometimes you do the wrong something.
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You fight fire with fire. What would you do?
Not start a trade war. If tariffs are levied, should be specifically on goods/services that violate free trade regs. Dumping, heavy government subsidies, etc.
That’s what Trump is doing.
No he’s not. He is levying tariffs, but they are not that targeted.
No longer $200B, they want to put tariffs on almost all Chinese imports.
Now it’s $450B.
Wonderful. And this is going to quickly move past just tariffs as well.
U.S. business groups said members were bracing for a backlash that would affect all American firms in China, not just in sectors facing tariffs. Jacob Parker, vice president of China operations at the U.S.-China Business Council in Beijing, said China would “begin looking at other ways to enforce action against U.S companies that are operating in the market.”
