Foreigners are apparently still ripping us off bigly, more than ever before.
The Commerce Department said Wednesday that — despite more than two years of President Trump’s “America First” policies — the United States last year posted a $891.2 billion merchandise trade deficit, the largest in the nation’s 243-year history.
The trade gap with China also hit a record $419 billion, underscoring the stakes for the president’s bid to reach a deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping as soon as this month.
Well, Trumo specifically identified the trade deficit as the issue. He calls it a loss.
The trade deficit with China and Mexico increased so the tariffs didn’t work. Of course we could argue that the deficit would have been even greater without the tariffs.
And USMCA had not yet been ratified so NAFTA is still the law of the land.
Meanwhile we continue to import like never before.
With soybeans and natural gas, the Chinese are giving us preferential treatment. Those are commodities that should be bid on world markets, just like oil. The price should be based on world supply and demand.
[quote=The-Shoveler]Most of the shouting etc.. is just politics.
Deep down both sides of the aisle really know doing nothing was no longer an option.[/quote]
Seem like an inconsistent statement since you just earlier intimated that we benefit because we trade paper (or electronic) dollars for real physical goods we can use.
Why is that no longer an option? When will our money be “no good”?
[quote=The-Shoveler]The point is not that you would ideally want to do that,
but that you could. (it gives you negotiating power, the power to walk)[/quote]
I don’t know…..Trump extended the March 1 deadline without receiving anything in return.
So far the trade war is not hurting Chinese exports. It’s hurting American companies’ profits. It’s like a tax that corporations have not fully passed on to consumers. I guess socialism works.
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