TRUMP JUST GOT PLAYED BIG TIME BY CHINA ON TARIFFS

Donald Trump announced that his promised tariffs will go into effect next week, and that the “tariff pain will be worth the price”. Of course, he himself will experience no pain from the tariffs; nor will his wealthy advisors, Cabinet members, or donors. Nope. Just us, the people that his Press Secretary refers to condescendingly as “ordinary Americans”. The tariffs on Canada and Mexico will be up to 25% and 10% on China.

The tariffs on Canada and Mexico are a unilateral tearing-up of the USMCA trade agreements that he himself approved and signed during his first term, when he boasted of them as a vast improvement over the existing NAFTA treaty. What he is proving to the world that he is of unstable character and the USA cannot be trusted to keep its word.

The much lower 10% tariff on Chinese goods may reflect the fact that we are not that important to China as a trade partner as we have been in the past. For years now China has been expanding its trade with partners around the world. US-China trade relations are complicated and ever-changing, as one might expect with the world’s two largest economies. But to squeeze it down to bumper sticker size, the fact that Trump is imposing higher tariffs on Canada and Mexico than China seems to say that it is better to be an adversary than an ally of the United States. Not a good look. China made it worse, though.

Rather than immediately vowing retaliation to Trump’s tariffs, China took a much milder path. Canada and Mexico have little choice but to fight back against Trump’s aggressive and unnecessary tactics. China instead is treating him as a petulant and demanding child. It will file a complaint with the WTO, the global trade organization of which both nations are members. That seems the civil thing to do when there is a disagreement. Donald Trump’s “my way or the highway” only works when you have all the power. China is showing him that he doesn’t have all the power. I wish the US Congress would do the same.