US Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump on Tuesday vowed to rip up international trade deals and start an unrelenting offensive against Chinese economic practices, framing his contest with Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as a choice between hard-edge nationalism and the policies of “a leadership class that worships globalism.”
Speaking in western Pennsylvania, Trump sought to turn the page on weeks of campaign turmoil by returning to a core set of economic grievances that have animated his candidacy from the start. He threatened to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and pledged to label China a currency manipulator and impose punitive tariffs on Chinese goods.
He attacked Clinton on her past support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade pact negotiated by US President Barack Obama’s administration, and challenged her to pledge that she would void the agreement in its entirety.
Photo: Reuters
Saying that Clinton had backed free-trade agreements like NAFTA in the past, Trump said: “She will betray you again.”
At a rally later in the day in eastern Ohio, Trump attacked the TPP in more provocative terms, saying it was a “rape of our country.”
As a policy manifesto, Trump’s Pennsylvania speech was an attack on the economic orthodoxy that has dominated the Republican Party since World War II. It is an article of faith among establishment Republicans and allied groups such as the US Chamber of Commerce, which represents the interests of large corporations, that trade is good and more trade is better.
Trump, by contrast, has made blistering attacks on trade his primary economic theme.
In his address, he rejected the standard view that countries benefit by importing goods, saying that globalization helped “the financial elite,” while leaving “millions of our workers with nothing but poverty and heartache.”
It is a critique that has been leveled for years, mainly by a small group of liberal economists who have gained little traction even on the Democratic side.
Trump not only embraced their views, but also cited the work of the liberal Economic Policy Institute by name.
Trump, as president, would have significant authority to raise trade barriers, and his speech included his most detailed account to date of his plans to do so, saying that he would pull the US out of NAFTA if Mexico and Canada did not agree to renegotiate it.
However, it is far from clear that any president has the power to reverse globalization. Under existing law, Trump could impose only tariffs on specific imports. The most likely effect would be to shift production to other low-cost nations.
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