Posted on 09/25/2015 11:19:28 AM PDT by Steelfish
Trump Calls NAFTA A "Disaster" Trump on trade: The Republican presidential candidate calls NAFTA a disaster he will either break or renegotiate if he's elected president
Donald Trump wants to rip up the North American Free Trade Agreement as one of his strategies for creating new jobs for the middle class. The Republican presidential candidate tells Scott Pelley the free trade agreement between Mexico, Canada and the U.S. is a "disaster." He says he will either break or renegotiate it so he can enact tariffs that would dissuade manufacturers like Ford from building cars elsewhere that are meant for the U.S. market.
The Trump interview, in which he also tells Pelley his plans on immigration and reveals a major part of his tax platform for the first time, will be broadcast on the 48th season premiere of 60 Minutes, Sunday September 27 at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Interesting on several points. First, the reporter had to interject on tariffs and NAFTA, then that Trump said it could be renegotiated or ripped up.
Trump should be using sound bites about repealing or amending NAFTA, not about imposing tariffs, because you cannot consider the latter until you accomplish the former. But Trump is running by heavily leveraging sound bites, not policies.
Second, renegotiating is not a simple answer. He would be not only renegotiating with two foreign nations, he would also be dependent on three nations legislatures/parliaments ratifying or passing legislation to approve the new law. What does Trump plan to do before all of that is completed? We are talking several years of work.
And as I commented before, breaking or ripping up NAFTA is simply not possible. Only repealing the law is possible, and I don't see NAFTA being repealed without an alternative agreement.
I think all of our trade agreements should have a sunset date. It would be nice for the nation to have to periodically renegotiate them.
Snicker! :-)
If we could replace income and payroll taxes with tariffs, I would support that. But when the government raises taxes in one place, it rarely cuts taxes elsewhere to compensate.
Mexico has to be wondering WTF. And the Russians, and the Chinese, and the Iranians, and ....
You are selectively picking your facts here. Many members of nafta subsidies their products through government subsidies and currency devaluation. This makes their products cheep here in the USA and American products very expensive. Hence the trade deficits. The trade agreements were sold as leveling the playing field, but in truth they tilt it dramatically away from American products. nafta and other trade agreements that our government has signed us up for, both republican and democrats, are based on a one world government model.
Oh wow! That overrides all the laws of economics then doesn't it?
So the gloBULList venom seeps out of your craven mind.
You know what? I could give a crap about the rest of the world. I am an American and only care about America. I could care less about gloBULLism you traitorous POS. Go f you self if you care about dung eating Chinese peasants than you do Americans.
By the way Reagan had a pretty good record of protectionism, so you might change your handle.
It is an incentive for US companies to relocate production back to the US. Also an incentive for new US companies to step in for those companies that choose to not relocate back to the US. Anything that brings jobs back to the US is a good thing.
U.S. Constitution - Article 1 Section 8 The Congress -- not the President.
You just made my point.
The President has no power to implement tariffs.
The President has no power to "rip up" laws.
It would take 218 votes in the House, then 60 votes in the Senate for cloture and 51 votes in the Senate to pass a law, which then the President could sign.
Then if Trump wants to rip up the original NAFTA for the cameras, he can.
But if you really think Trump is the solution to a bad bunch of people in congress, you are going to be very disappointed in an actual Trump presidency.
How about never.
Yep. And the United States is one of the worst offenders, both of subsidizing decrepit industries and of inflating (devaluing) the currency.
Yes it does. Either we have a country or we don't. Your economic freedom ends at the waters edge, as with a lot of freedoms you play in the US sandbox or leave. Don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.
So what other parts of the US Constitutions would we throw away?
In principle I agree, but the NAFTA deal stinks because of all of the slimely side deals that came out AFTER it was signed.
Canada and mexico sued in some court and won.....the case was about labeling country of origin for meat and poultry. We had it and wanted it but now we lost.
Anyone one here want to eat chicken/meat/pork from mexico?
The one who is going to "eat the tariff" is you. You will pay higher prices for the protected goods.
Trump is pro union.
We had enough of this rule by executive fiat with Obama. We need to get back to the rule of law.
......................................
Reversing what BO has done would be getting back to the rule of law.
You don’t get it. Apparently, when an American pays $20,000 for a car built on foreign soil they have a higher standard of living than when they pay $20,000 for one built in the US.
Happily and joyously so. Eventually domestic manufacturing will come back and lower prices. The tiny inflationary effect will be offset BY AMERICANS GETTING OFF WELFARE AND BACK TO WORK. So overall it is neutral to the taxpayer. this must upset you so....
That's right. That's why you can still buy from those countries. So don't distort the facts.
NAFTA was a sovereignty-destroying, job-killing abomination which allows nations to, for instance, use slave labor and thus send their more cheaply manufactured products to America and enjoy exaggerated profits.
You might not like tariffs, but at least they're totally Constitutional, and I believe they can be appropriate in certain extreme cases. And there are plenty of extreme cases.
Furthermore, NAFTA lowers trade barriers between the US and other countries disproportionately.
That's right: the US reduces or eliminates our tariffs, while trading partners get to maintain theirs at a higher rate, or reduce them much more slowly.
NAFTA was patently unfair to the US, just like GATT which followed it. Nobody who is a fan of these lopsided trade agreements has the best interests of the US worker in mind.
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