Posted on 09/15/2015 6:56:05 PM PDT by sushiman
They prefer others which is evidenced right there in your excerpt by the fact that they lower tariffs for the Australians. That shows they would rather have a different supplier.
Or, it shows that the Aussies were better negotiators. Probably some of both...
Tell me why he always singles out Japan (along with China and Mexico ) and never mentions Germany , for example , who has just as large a trade deficit with the U.S. as Japan does .
He said the farmers (beef producers) have protested it - different than saying the Japanese in general don’t want it.
I think he just doesn’t get that far on the list. What I hear Trump say about “unfair trade” (and I definitely don’t have time to listen to even 1/10 of what the Donald says — granted it’s mostly repetitive) is in the order China (magnitude of deficit), Mexico (proximity), then Japan (almost everyone can relate to Japanese car imports, even though a lot are built here these days - I own an Outback made in Indiana & love it.)
Your comment about Germany is VERY interesting though: I didn’t know that, and surely Germany is not “beating us” because of lower labor costs or fewer regs. So, how are they doing it? Work ethic alone? Knowing could be very instructive to our own problems...
I would add that if Trump mentions more than 3 nations, and the reasons for the deficit with Germany are different, or maybe even if not, then the issue becomes too murky for simple presentation.
On the other hand, it might be that Germany is the best example of all, of poor negotiation on our part. Hmmm...
Maybe others can comment - I’d love to learn.
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