Opposing view: ‘ Today’s failure might be tomorrow’s success’

Surprise: President Trump is not the Picasso of deal-making. But his handiwork is art gallery quality. For starters, Trump has opened a Pandora’s box on trade orthodoxy, sealed shut since the 1990s. Good luck resealing it.

Consensus on free trade has shifted almost 180 degrees since Trump took office. Here’s one example: Last year, the World Economic Forum heralded Xi Jinping and China as the new leader of free trade globalization. It was a poorly disguised swipe at “anti-trade” Trump.

A year later, Foreign Affairs magazine, The Economist, and The Washington Post are all in agreement: China does not play fair. The trade arrangement between China and America is rife with problems. Without fully acknowledging it, they basically admitted that Trump is onto something.

Trump brought tariffs back to life. They were taboo for decades, only used as temporary punishment, usually ahead of WTO arbitration hearings. His threats of steel tariffs brought a better trade deal with South Korea. Those threats did not change Brazil’s policies, so Brazil is now subject to quotas.

Trump is trying to manage trade outcomes to the benefit of U.S. citizens. He brings countries to the table to rewrite the rules.

Diplomacy follows a similar in-yourface course. The North Korea negotiations worked, now they are falling apart. Each side blames the other. Sen. Marco Rubio thinks Trump did the right thing. The table was not set properly, so no deals.

If recent history is any guide, today’s failure might be tomorrow’s success. No one imagined Kim Jong Un agreeing to leave his country to talk to an American president, a long-standing enemy of his state.

If NAFTA and North Korea remain status quo, or worse, then Trump’s art of the deal is just 1980s nostalgia. But if he keeps getting countries to negotiate with him, then flippantly calling his trade tactics a failure is merely fodder for those who hate him, not a full picture of what is really happening.