Tariffs and trade deals: Where’s Trump taking the global economy?
As Trump tries to rewrite rules on global trade, are trade wars helping or hurting the US and people around the world?
One of the priorities of United States President Donald Trump has been to undo deals and policies put in place by his Democratic predecessors.
At the top of his list is to end the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which came into effect in 1994, when Bill Clinton was president. The renegotiated treaty is called the US-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement, and it awaits ratification by Congress.
One of the Trump administration’s key motivations with the USMCA has been to create more jobs in Mexico, to stem the tide of immigration from the south.
No one disagrees that NAFTA needs an update, but many wonder whether Trump’s “America First” trade policies will slowly kill the idea of open trade globally.
Launching tariff wars on China, the European Union and others has left many businesses dependent on importing and exporting wondering how to plan their future.
Join Steve Clemons and his panel as they debate whether Trump’s trade wars are helping or hurting Americans. What is being done about how huge US corporations treat their lowest-paid workers? Will Trump’s policies bring back jobs to the US after decades of outsourcing? And as soybean farmers in the American Midwest witness a rise in bankruptcies and suicides, is any relief in the works?
Guests:
Carla Hills – former US Trade Representative and member of the National Committee on US-China Relations
Thea Lee – president of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington and former leader of the AFL-CIO federation of labour unions
James Glassman – former US under secretary of state for Public Diplomacy and author of Dow 36,000
Read the full transcript here.