We Are Finally Moving Towards Actually Free Global Trade
Singing a New -
and Much Better - Song I am a retired musician. I play three instruments - but I sang, is what I mainly did. My first band in high school was big into three-part vocal harmonies. We covered a bunch of songs - and wrote a few - that featured this rousing sound. One thing you immediately learn (if you didn’t already know it) is that when three or more voices are simultaneous and in harmony - they create a resonance that is louder than the voices operating individually. It is beautiful music - more powerful in coordinated conjunction. So it is with global trade. Now-President Donald Trump - is introducing proper music education to Washington, D.C. DC for decades has been perfectly happy with - and accommodating of - the world’s many nations performing from sheet music far different than the pages we have. The phony “free trade” in which we have long engaged - has had us lowering tariffs and government impediments to the globe’s goods and services entering our market. While nigh every other nation on the planet has taxed and regulated the living daylight out of nigh everything we send them. While subsidizing the daylight into their domestic products. Imagine the lead singer in the key of “G” - and every other nation crooning in “C#dim7.” So it now is with global trade. The rest of the planet is in harmonious sync - all working from the same anti-free trade songbook. We’re the lead singer - and our go-it-alone less government trade approach is dissonantly clashing. These many nations have used our decades of stupidity against us - and have drained hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth out of here and into there. Very many of them have had year after year, decade after decade of ridiculously huge Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth - at our exorbitant expense, as ours continued towards flatline. Trump has finally pointed out the obvious - that the global trade market is the Emperor with No Tone. That the Singing Emperor - is naked, and off-key. That it’s high time that EVERY nation - join us on the free trade song sheet. Most of DC - still doesn’t get it. They confuse things like Trump threatening to impose a massive tariff on all things China or tariffs on imported steel - with Trump actually imposing them. What Trump’s doing - is using the threat of tariffs as a can opener to pry open the world’s closed markets. And piece by trade piece, Trump is moving us - and the world - in the free trade direction. We’re getting less government impediments to trade - all over the place. An Ag Subsidy Dream for Buenos Aires: “WTO members this week also wrapped up a session of agriculture talks where they discussed a deluge of six new proposals on farm subsidies…. “On the top of the pile was a proposal led by the European Union and Brazil that aims to limit trade-distortive support by setting a percentage threshold on the amount of support a country can provide as it relates to the total value of its agricultural production. The EU at the meeting said the proposal "provides a new architecture which would put all WTO members on the same basis and encourage reform efforts,” according to a Geneva trade official.” US Beef is Back on Market in China: “(W)henever changes make foreign sales easier, they are welcome. In that regard, a new trade pact with China is an especially positive development. The door to U.S. beef exports to the world’s most populous nation has been re-opened after being closed for 14 years. “According to the USDA, the return of U.S. beef and beef products is a part of the U.S.-China 100-Day Action Plan that was announced by the Trump administration on May 11.” U.S., Mexico Clear Way for NAFTA with New Deal on Sugar Trade: “‘The Mexican side has agreed to nearly every request by the U.S. industry to address flaws in the current system and to ensure fair treatment of American sugar growers,’ Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said at a news conference Tuesday.” That’s a whole lot less government - all over the world. A shocking novelty in DC trade. And portending a whole lot more less government going forward. Not everyone doesn’t get it. Five Good Reasons Trump’s Agenda Is a Win for America: “Trump’s priorities are more than defensible; they are essential to the future of our country….1) Resetting the scales with our trading partners to ensure U.S. workers are treated fairly….5) Letting the world know that the U.S. will stand up for its citizens” Those are two massively important principles for which to stand. They will vastly improve America’s prospects in innumerable ways. It is way past time to level the international trade playing field. It has for far too long been tilted sharply against us. And harmonizing global trade policy - will harmonize a great many other things. There’s a whole lot less acrimony and mistrust - when everyone knows everyone is getting a good deal. This first appeared in Red State.