- Critics can’t stop whining
- Slaves to theory just got spanked by human “negotiating” reality
- Latest EU vibes suggest we may get to something closer to zero tariffs
- It is Trump’s doing and his critics offered no clue how asking nice and grand eloquence about trade theory (as opposed to negotiating reality) would alone carry the day.
“Free trade for them not for us” critics of Trumps trade negotiation stance – have some splaining to do, as in how any deal where our trading partners can restrict our goods while we get theirs at little or no tariff is good for the United States’ long term overall economic health and industrial diversity (yes I think that is a value to be factored in but Trumps critics seem not to). Further, how such deals help us compete generally, not just with a tariff imposing country but with other beneficiaries and as regards the competitive economic milieu.
Trump’s critics theory is . . . so what do we care what they charge us to sell there, or how much they subsidize their industries to put us at a competitive disadvantage as to sales (their or elsewhere) as long as we get some things cheap from them. Further, if there are some adverse effects admitted to, they don’t outline an approach to get to a better deal — only that we ask them nicely, — not have a tit for tat tool in our back pocket to get them to see the light.
Trumps critics on the doctrinaire right (a opposed to conservative right) refused to accept anything other than that Trump is a dangerous trade war instigator inextricably implying that existing deals were just hunky-dory, the best to be had. As if they were developed with pure negotiating prowess and that certain group interests did not have more sway than others, that trade negotiations previous to him did not inherently pick winners and losers depending on internal politics or the clout of whatever business or other interest group at the time.
So when we posted a defense of Trump’s negotiating approach one day discounting its impact on farmers and read the next day that . . .
Trump announces trade concessions from EU officials on soybeans, energy, tariffs
. . .well we really did not expect too much magnanimity from his liberal critics, that they would find some way to admit nothing. They did not disappoint. But in our view anyone who does not applaud the development (as solid as any in the trade game) inextricably implies that they feel the current deals are superior, that the current mix is better than progress and admissions toward “zero tariffs” presumably for many, the load-star .
More reading: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/07/25/president-donald-trump-said-wednesday-he-and-european-commission-president-jean-claude-juncker-agree/836583002/
