Republicans and Democrats heap scorn on Trump.
AB Wire
The Republican Party presumptive nominee Donald Trump is baring his claws on protectionist policies, an indication that if he were to become president, India would have a hard time to negotiate new trade deals favorably and perhaps even lose out on some of the existing deals if he doesn’t see eye to eye with those.
Trump for the first time on Tuesday announced he would scrap the current North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) while saying he would label China a currency manipulator and kill America’s involvement in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), reported The Wall Street Journal.
“I’m going to tell our NAFTA partners that I intend to immediately renegotiate the terms of that agreement to get a better deal for our workers,” said Trump, adding that if they don’t agree to favorable terms, “America intends to withdraw from the deal.”
Trump made these declarations speaking at an aluminum factory in suburban Pittsburgh. It drew wholesale condemnation from both Democrats allied with Hillary Clinton and Republicans who have long sought to boost U.S. trade, reported the Journal.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s trade proposals amount to a wholesale rejection of longstanding Republican orthodoxy on trade and leave the party with a candidate arguing against policies that most GOP leaders have supported and helped enact. His position also echoes the anti-trade-deal rhetoric employed by progressive Bernie Sanders to attack rival Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primary.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which often aligns with Republicans, spent much of Trump’s speech arguing against Trump on its Twitter account, saying his trade policy would cost 3.5 million jobs and result in “higher prices, fewer jobs and a weaker economy.”
Trump on Tuesday didn’t mention the most aggressive trade policies he touted during his primary campaign: a tariff of up to 45% on Chinese-made goods and stiff financial penalties on American companies that move factory work to Mexico.
But he did seek to tie his own brand of economic nationalism with the United Kingdom’s vote last week to leave the European Union.
“Our friends in Britain recently voted to take back control of their economy, politics and borders,” Trump said. “I was on the right side of that issue as you know—with the people. I said it was going to happen, I felt it, while Hillary, as always, stood with the elites. Both she and President [Barack] Obama predicted that one and many others totally wrong.”
On her Twitter account, Hillary Clinton noted that Trump’s golf shirts are manufactured in Bangladesh. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a protectionist Democrat from Ohio, said in a conference call arranged by the Clinton campaign that the New York businessman “is part of the problem in the worst way,” noting that Trump’s clothing line is made in Mexico, his furniture line is manufactured in Turkey, and his Trump-branded picture frames are produced in India, according to the Journal report.
1 Comment
Trump is right, We need to bring back Manufacturing.. This line from Hillary is the same line from 30 years of Trickle – down economic . For higher education and training for jobs..Were I believe in education . Its the escape goat and the excuse for shipping jobs overseas ..