The White House’s trade policy is totally scrambled.
by Eric Boehm
Reason.com
The Trump administration can’t seem to decide whether it wants the price of eggs to fall or rise.
That might tell you something about the White House’s confused, economically illiterate approach to trade policy more generally.
At a Cabinet meeting in late February, President Donald Trump demanded action to reduce egg prices. “We have to get the prices down,” he said. “The prices of eggs and various other things.”
Egg prices had spiked to an average of $5.90 per dozen in February, largely due to a bird flu epidemic that led to the death of over 30 million chickens (many of them killed by farmers in an attempt to slow the spread of the disease) during the winter months. In response, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced plans to import more eggs, largely from South Korea and Turkey. (Yes, those would be Turkey eggs, but not turkey eggs.)