by David Stockman
LewRockwell.com
Donald Trump’s War on America’s $5.4 trillion of two-way trade with the rest of the planet is surely one of the most senseless acts of state aggression in modern times, if ever. That’s because its predicate—that America’s giant, unsustainable trade deficits are owing to unfair trade—is dead wrong.
And we do mean wrong—as in completely, unequivocally and with no if, ands or buts. Indeed, Trump thinks large trade deficits are prima facie evidence of cheating by our trading partners, yet the evidence debunks that primitive axiom with such alacrity as to literally shutdown the argument.
For instance, the Donald never stops bragging about his negotiating the USMCA in late 2018, which he claims was a vast improvement upon the existing three-way free trade arrangement between the US, Mexico and Canada known as NAFTA. In truth, of course, it was mainly a name change with some sops to the UAW and other American unions, which provided more stringent wage standards in Mexico. But the core feature—zero tariff trade between the three countries—was maintained.