Trumps Trade Threats.....

By attacking trade agreements, the Republican presidential front-runner is channeling the belief, common among many of this year’s angry voters, that foreign competition is robbing American jobs and shrinking wages.

(IT IS NOT A BELIEF. SANTA CLAUSE IS A BELIEF. THE TOOTH FAIRY IS A BELIEF. FREE TRADE STEALING US JOBS IS A FACT. IT IS LIKE SAYING THE SUN RISING IN THE EAST IS A BELIEF. IT IS NOT. IT IS A FACT.)

“We’re being killed on trade — absolutely destroyed,” Trump says.

(TRUMP IS WRONG ON A LOT OF THINGS……..BUT ON THIS ISSUE HE IS CORRECT)

His assault on trade deals — which in some ways echoes arguments of Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders

(YES…. BERNIE SANDERS IS ALSO CORRECT ON TRADE) —

seems to be winning politics. But Trump’s analysis of how trade hurts American workers is flawed,

(IT IS NOT FLAWED AT ALL. IT IS CORRECT.)

and as president, he would struggle to deliver on his promises.

(TRUE…HE WILL STRUGGLE BECAUSE CONGRESS LOVES KILLING US JOBS TOO.)

The United States does have an unbalanced trade relationship with other nations

(DUHHHH!!!).

Last year, it imported $2.76 trillion in goods and services and exported just $2.22 trillion. That $540 billion gap — the trade deficit — was the seventh-biggest on record. Not since 1975 has the United States run a trade surplus.

(YOU HAVE A BETTER CHANCE OF WALKING OUTSIDE AND SEEING A PTERODACTYL FLY OVER YOUR HOME THEN YOU DO OF SEEING A US TRADE SURPLUS.)

Trump, author of the 1987 best-seller “The Art of the Deal,” argues that American negotiators are snookered by smarter deal-makers in China, Mexico and Japan who manage to penetrate the U.S. market without granting equal access to their own.

(THIS IS PARTIALLY CORRECT. FREE TRADE IS NOT ABOUT BEING ABLE TO SELL PRODUCTS AROUND THE WORLD. FREE TRADE IS ABOUT DRIVING DOWN WAGES. IT IS ABOUT GETTING THE CHEAPEST SLAVE LABORER YOU CAN FIND. SOMEONE WHO HAS ABSOLUTELY NO RIGHTS WHATSOEVER. SOMEONE YOU CAN TREAT LIKE COMPLETE SHIT AND WHO RESIDES IN A COUNTRY WHERE YOU CAN POLLUTE THE ENVIRONMENT WITHOUT ANY RESPONSIBILITY. THAT IS WHERE YOU WANT TO BUILD YOUR PRODUCT. THAT PRODUCT IS THEN SOLD BACK INTO THE UNITED STATES. OTHER COUNTRIES ARE NOT DRIVING FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS. US CORPORATIONS ARE DRIVING THEM. THE ENEMY IS THE US CORPORATIONS NOT THE FOREIGN COUNTRIES.)

Many economists call Trump’s arguments off-base.

(MANY ECONOMISTS ARE WRONG)

Trade deals usually have little overall effect on jobs — positive or negative

(LIAR)—

partly because the American economy is already open to foreign competition.

(IF IT IS ALREADY OPEN….WHAT IS THE POINT OF THE TRADE DEAL?)

Bigger forces such as huge wage gaps between the United States and developing countries (TRUE), and automation that lets companies replace workers, play a much larger role in job losses.

(AUTOMATION DOES PLAY A ROLE. NOT A LARGER ROLE. CHEAP LABOR IS THE BIGGEST ISSUE. THAT IS WHY WE NEED TARRIFS TO EVEN THE PLAYING FIELD AND TAKE AWAY THE INCENTIVE. THIS IS WHAT TRUMP IS SAYING AND HE IS CORRECT.)

Economists at the Peterson Institute think the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a pending deal involving the United States and 11 Pacific Rim countries, would barely affect American employment.

(LIARS)

Jobs created by greater access to Asia-Pacific markets would likely be offset by jobs lost.

(LIAR)

(AN ECONOMIST IS THE ONLY PROFESSION WHERE YOU CAN BE WRONG 100% OF THE TIME AND STILL HAVE A JOB. FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS COST US WORKERS JOBS. ANYONE WHO STATES OTHERWISE IS LYING TO YOU.)

He also said he would demand that United Technologies reverse a decision to move two Indiana plants to Mexico, eliminating 2,100 jobs. If it refused, he said he would impose a tax on anything the company built in Mexico and exported to the United States.

(THAT IS GREAT. TARRIFS ARE THE CORRECT ANSWER. LOTS AND LOTS OF TARIFFS. WHEN THERE IS NO MORE INCENTIVE TO MOVING JOBS THEN THE JOBS WILL STAY. THEN EVERYONE WINS.)

Levying those tariffs would probably require congressional approval. It would violate commitments the United States made when it joined the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, and the tariffs would trigger retaliation from Mexico.

(SO? THE USA NEEDS TO DROP OUT OF NAFTA. 6 MONTHS NOTICE AND WE ARE OUT. LET MEXICO RETAILIATE. LET CHINA RETALIATE. WHO CARES. WE DON’T MAKE ANYTHING FOR THEM TO RETAILIATE AGAINST. IT IS AN EMPTY THREAT.)

Regardless, leaving NAFTA would cause chaos for businesses that have arranged their operations around its rules.

(GOOD LET THERE BE CHAOS. THERE WAS CHAOS WHEN THE FACTORIES LEFT THE UNITED STATES AND MILLIONS OF AMERICANS LOST THEIR JOBS. CORPORATIONS DIDN’T CARE THEN AND WE DON’T HAVE TO CARE NOW. NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT.)

Trump has threatened to hit Chinese imports with a 45 percent tariff.

(GREAT)

If Trump replaced the low tariffs provided by NAFTA and World Trade Organization rules with punitive tariffs on Mexican and Chinese goods, he probably would ignite a trade war

(GOOD)

that would raise prices for Americans

(PRICES WILL NOT CHANGE. THE PRICE IS THE PRICE. PROFIT MARGINS WILL BE CUT. TOO BAD.)

and cause diplomatic havoc. Economists recall that the 1930 Smoot-Hawley legislation,

(SMOOT HOWLEY….EVERYONE LOVES TO TALK ABOUT SMOOT HAWLEY WHEN DISCUSSING TRADE. IT IS NOT 1930 ANYMORE. SMOOT HAWLEY IS IRELEVANT TO ANYTHING HAPPENING IN 2016.)

which raised tariffs on imports, inflamed trade tensions and worsened the Great Depression.

Whatever the merits of Trump’s arguments on trade, they have found an audience. More than half of Democratic and Republicans voters in last week’s Michigan primary (won by Trump and Sanders) told pollsters they felt trade kills jobs.

(AND THEY ARE CORRECT.)

http://www.dailynews.com/government-and-politics/20160313/would-trumps-trade-threats-work-many-experts-are-skeptical