{"id":34988,"date":"2018-06-20T05:45:50","date_gmt":"2018-06-20T09:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=34988"},"modified":"2018-06-19T12:55:04","modified_gmt":"2018-06-19T16:55:04","slug":"our-escalating-trade-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/06\/our-escalating-trade-wars\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Escalating Trade Wars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>President Trump had announced the imposition of tariffs on $50 billion worth of goods imported from China.\u00a0 So China retaliated by imposing tariffs on $50 billion worth of American goods.\u00a0 So now the President has upped the ante to $200 billion.\u00a0 China is saying that they will respond in kind.\u00a0 So the President is threatening that if they do, they will face tariffs on another<\/em> $200 billion.<\/p>\n

This is President Trump\u2019s style, which we have seen consistently in his rhetoric and now in his policies.\u00a0 If someone hits you, hit back even harder.\u00a0 This applies to anyone who criticizes him and to his diplomatic strategy.\u00a0 He considers himself a master of \u201cthe art of the deal,<\/a>\u201d in the words of his book, and such tit-for-tat retaliation and all-in gambling are characteristics of his negotiation tactics.<\/p>\n

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We will see how well this works in the economic sphere.\u00a0 Arguably, the ever-escalating threats from both sides did bring North Korea\u2019s Kim Jong-Un to the summit meeting with President Trump, though the outcome of those talks is not yet clear.\u00a0 Notice that despite his earlier hostile rhetoric against Kim, President Trump immediately softened his tone, to the point of seeming to praise the bloody tyrant.\u00a0 So we shouldn\u2019t necessarily take the President\u2019s over-the-top rhetoric at face value.<\/p>\n

But in the summit meeting with our G7 allies, President Trump\u2019s tactics were not well-received.\u00a0 While improving our relations with North Korea, the President hurt our relations with our allies, including Canada!<\/p>\n

Though I posted about how hardly anyone talks about Hell anymore, I should have made an exception for the Trump administration and its consigning of Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau to the everlasting fires.\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door,\u201d said White House Trade Director Peter Navarro<\/a>, who added that the sentiment \u201ccomes right from Air Force One.\u201d\u00a0 In this case, what will incur eternal punishment is crossing President Trump.<\/p>\n

But such fire and brimstone invocation of divine wrath, for which Navarro later apologized<\/a>, was accompanied by the imposition of tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum.<\/a>\u00a0 Canada responded in kind, so now the Trump administration has announced<\/a> a 10% tariff on automobile parts and a 25% tariff on assembled automobiles.\u00a0 Justin Trudeau, whom our president has made wildly popular, has said he will retaliate.\u00a0 Canada is our largest trading partner!\u00a0 Canadians are now organizing boycotts of American goods.<\/p>\n

As that situation escalates, our other allies are on notice.\u00a0 If we have a trade imbalance with other countries, they too will have to pay!\u00a0 But are trade imbalances necessarily the fault of the countries?\u00a0 Aren\u2019t our businesses and consumers the ones buying from them?\u00a0 Shouldn\u2019t Americans be free to respond to market forces, such as lower prices?\u00a0 Won\u2019t Americans be the ones who pay for these tariffs, through either passed-along price increases or by being forced to pay for higher-priced alternatives?<\/p>\n

Do protectionist economic policies ever achieve their goals?\u00a0 Will they really protect American jobs if American exporters, including farmers and factory workers, lose their international markets?<\/p>\n

Or do you think President Trump is just making threats to get concessions from these other countries, some of whom have trade barriers of their own?\u00a0 If so, do you think his tactics will succeed?<\/p>\n