B'zzzt! Wrong to the extent of the $700 billion trade imbalance. You are losing sight of that imbalance, and favoring the few trade items we still have an advantage in, and not recognizing that will soon go too if we fail to redress the fundamentals.
The vector of change is clear, and unanswered by the free traders. The US is hemhoraging its life blood. Ignore it at our peril.
"B'zzzt! Wrong to the extent of the $700 billion trade imbalance"
B'zzzt-B'zzzt-B'zzzt! I'll take static analysis for $1000 Alex.......
I'm not saying the $700B trade imbalance is a good thing, I'm just saying that your "cure" would likely (we will probably never get to find out) erase far more capital and cause far more job losses than doing nothing.
The $700B trade imbalance doesn't count everything, but not being well versed in the source of the imbalance numbers, I'd look for someone with more expertise to chime in.....I am pretty sure....pretty sure....that this doesn't include services. I'm also pretty sure it's skewed a bit by export/reimportation practices (but admittedly, I'm out on a limb) I'm not saying it makes up for $700B, but that number needs some context.
There is more to consider than trade imbalance......we could reduce it to ZERO by stopping all economic activity - I think you would agree that would be a bad thing. What you suggest comes pretty darn close to that.