Trump’s trade message
Critics are focused on President Trump’s clumsy and offputting statements Wednesday about trade with China, in which he credited the Chinese for nurturing a trade imbalance that hurts the United States and blamed previous U.S. administrations for allowing it “to get so out of kilter.” It seemed a dizzying turnabout for the man who once accused China of “raping” the U.S. economy.
But that turnabout seems to have been more rhetorical than substantive. The cringe-worthy statement was yet another example of Trump’s mouth getting him in trouble (he doubled down in a tweet Thursday night). But the overall message during the trip — including from Trump — is that China’s unfair trade practices can’t continue.
“As we all know, America has a huge annual trade deficit with China — a number beyond anything what anybody would understand,” the president said in China’s Great Hall of the People, in remarks that preceded his awkward praise for the Chinese. “Estimates are as high as $500 billion a year. We must immediately address the unfair trade practices that drive this deficit, along with barriers to market success.”
He was specific, citing “access, forced technology transfer and the theft of intellectual property, which just, by and of itself, is costing the United States and its companies at least $300 billion a year.”
In a briefing with reporters, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson cited “very, very specific exchanges” between U.S. trade representative Bob Lighthizer and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in talks with their Chinese counterparts. Tillerson acknowledged Chinese efforts but “quite frankly, in the grand scheme of a $300 to $500 billion trade deficit, the things that have been achieved (by the Chinese) thus far are pretty small.”
“There’s still a lot more work to do,” Tillerson said. “And that was made very clear by both the trade representative and the commerce secretary. And the Chinese acknowledge much more has to be done.”
The takeaway from the talks on trade should have been the Trump administration’s firm approach to the Chinese. The president certainly knows how to step on his own story.