U.S. Trade Policy

[LFC]

Well, well, well. Now that Trump is out of office we have a group of Republican Senators suddenly growing a tiny pair of balls and begging Biden to undo Trump's disastrous trade policies. Where were they several years ago? Cowering in their little right-wing bunkers or Trumpsucking to the max. Look at the names and you can see it's more of the latter than the former.

A group of Republican lawmakers asked President Joe Biden to end the “self-inflicted harm” his GOP predecessor, Donald Trump, caused in starting a multi-front trade war with China and European allies.

Seven Republican senators sent a letter to the White House asking Biden to repeal tariffs and other trade barriers that Trump implemented during his time in office affecting a wide range of industries, including agriculture, carmakers and manufacturers.

“An important first step would be to reduce barriers to trade with our allies,” the letter said. “By doing so, we can stop damaging actions and retaliation and mend relationships while listening to businesses across the country that have suffered from the negative economic consequences.”

The letter, dated Wednesday, was signed by Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Mike Lee of Utah and Deb Fischer of Nebraska.

[AnBr]

Jul 2, 2021 15:23:44 GMT LFC said:

The letter, dated Wednesday, was signed by Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Mike Lee of Utah and Deb Fischer of Nebraska.

Trump suckers all.

[pnwguy]

Jul 2, 2021 23:16:43 GMT AnBr said:

Jul 2, 2021 15:23:44 GMT LFC said:

Trump suckers all.

Only a tiny handful of those remaining in the GOP are not. The rest are auditioning for another sequel to Deep Throat.

It’s easier to count those who are NOT Trumpsuckers. It’s a pretty short list.

[LFC]

Remember how well Trump's "easy to win" trade war with China worked out? Well he finally cut a deal. China ended up not spending any more. Another classic from Mr. Art of the Deal. That can go on his wall of shame with the Foxconn deal in Wisconsin.

Even on the day two years ago that the trade deal was inked, there was skepticism that China would live up to its pledge to spend $200 billion more on U.S. goods and services.

But a new study finds China didn’t even spend an additional dime on U.S. products.

Capitol Report (June 2020): Trump asked China’s Xi to buy U.S. farm products to help him win re-election, Bolton book says

Also see (June 2020): Bolton book adds urgency to Trump bid to depict himself as a China hawk and to paint Biden as a Beijing apologist

Chad Bown of the Peterson Institute for International Economics examined the so-called Phase 1 agreement inked during the administration of former President Donald Trump.

The article then mentions a number of reasons, including the pandemic of course, but also notes that while ag exports went up they barely recovered and never met the trade deal promises.

U.S. agricultural exports, which were politically significant, did recover from the trade war but also fell shy of commitments under the deal, Bown said.

Bown conceded that the deal wasn’t a total washout. “The deal did halt his spiraling trade war. And several of its elements should be kept, notably China’s commitments to remove technical barriers to U.S. farm exports, respect intellectual property, and open up its financial services sector,” he said. But the main lesson of the phase one agreement, according to Bown, was that different terms for the trade relationship are still needed.