When you say “free trade”, are you implying that other countries have the same understanding of free trade as you do? Or, do other countries deny our companies the ability trade freely?
Is Donald Trump right about Fair Trade? You bet.
Trump has been spouting off the same “we make bad trade deals” line since the 1980s. It just sounds like loose barroom banter to me, not anything I take seriously. I don’t believe he’s studied any deal and can tell anyone what specifically is wrong with it or what needs to be changed. Unless someone tells me what specifically is wrong with the deals, it’s a meaningless statement to me.
If someone can point to something specific in an existing trade deal that is “unfair,” I’ll hear it out. I wouldn’t doubt that something can be found, but I don’t buy that that’s the issue. Trump is appealing to the “China steals our jobs” crowd explicitly. He throws in the “I like free trade but I want fair trade” when he’s criticized for that from the right. This is all politics. It’s meaningless crosstalk and bluster that amounts to nothing serious.
His only specific change I’m aware of that he’s suggested is that he wants to tax imports from any U.S. company that builds a factory in another country. I disagree with that as strongly as I disagree with ANY tax hike.