Posted on 12/16/2016 2:33:36 AM PST by expat_panama
During these last twenty-three months of my first term in Congress, I crisscrossed 820 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border between El Paso and Eagle Pass, Texas, many times talking about international trade. Despite the campaign rhetoric, I believe that under a Trump Administration we have a real opportunity to improve North American Competitiveness in the rest of the world through an upgrade of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
This belief was confirmed during several days of discussions on energy, commerce and rule of law in Mexico with business and political leaders.
Our recently concluded election cycle has almost made NAFTA a new four-letter word. Supporters of NAFTA have probably inflated the economic gains of the accord and detractors have likely overestimated the resultant job losses. While the economies of the United States, Canada and Mexico have grown, there have been both winners and losers.
It is undeniable that U.S. trade with Mexico and Canada has more than tripled since the signing of the agreement and, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, goods exported to Mexico and Canada last year supported almost 3 million U.S. jobs...
...Canada was the leading market for U.S. exports...
...When we talk about border security we must talk about international commerce... ...invest in border infrastructure, and modernize the movement of goods and services.
It has been almost 25 years since President George H.W. Bush signed NAFTA in my hometown of San Antonio. A lot has changed in American politics and our economy since then.
Before the election, Mexico was one of our strongest trading partners and since the election that fact has not changed. Mexico will continue to be a strategic trade partner for North American Competitiveness. Just as we build things together, the United States and Mexico will modernize NAFTA together.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
I've heard this cliche for decades and I have yet to hear a supporter of NAFTA explain why trade deficits are healthy for the economy.
It means that we have the money to buy stuff. I suppose I’m the first. You are welcome.
Importing more than we export isn’t a sustainable economic model. DJT will remove US trade barriers hence his election.
Common sense would dictate that you are correct. However, as long as those selling into the US market will take US currency in payment, it works out great.
Quickest way to reduce the trade deficit is to cause a recession. Obama tried it, with some success.
The USD has always been the reserve currency so why is our trade deficit growing annually?
The US has been able to easily handle a systemic trade deficit because it is able to pay for foreign goods with US currency. The US has an infinite supply of US currency. As long as the producers of foreign goods will accept US currency in payment, the US can finance it's trade deficit.
When, not if, the US dollar is no longer the world's reserve currency the game will change and the chickens will come home to roost. In life, and finance, timing is everything. If Hillary had been elected the reign of the US dollar would have been shorter, maybe really short. Trump's election has pushed the day of reckoning off by about eight years.
what precisely do you think a trade deficit is?
Is there something from Mexico we really need? Bauxite or something?
Imports exceed exports = trade deficit.
Why should America handle a trade deficit when it's healthier to maintain a balance, regardless of how many FRNs we can print?
actually the trade deficit is not sovereign and the term is propaganda. The trade imbalance is between individuals and companies where one individual or company buys from another but the other does not reciprocate.
I have a very large imbalance of trade with Mercedes that will never be remedied.
“I have a very large imbalance of trade with Mercedes that will never be remedied.”
I should be so lucky!
Beware the REPO man.
Well, in a perfect world, it shouldn't. However, it is much easier to print dollars (or coin electrons) to pay for cheap foreign goods then to wring more production out of your own population. And such a policy leads to electoral success. How do you think the dems stay in power?
This is the very threat trade deficits present; servicing US national debt, as interest rates rates rise, with a debased fiat currency, is a formula for disaster.
Of course.
Of course.
Why would you confuse the national debt with the trade deficit?
FYI, financing the national debt is easier when foreigners have tons of dollars they want to safely invest.
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