So let me explain what I mean when I say the President has fouled up in executing his trade policy. I will try to explain how he undermined our trade position. But first some context.

We are the worlds default currency. That means everyone want to do bussiness in dollars and hold dollars for safety. It is a big deal. When and if that goes our country will be in trouble.

When a country’s currency is the world reserve currency trade deficits are inevitable I believe.

Labor in the US is much more valuable than most anywhere else so it is also inevitable than some goods can be produced cheaper somewhere elsewhere.

The offshoring of US jobs that has occurred since the 1980’s has been done by US companies. Not by the countries themselves. Walmart and Home Depot are major examples of companies who led the push to have products made overseas.

Plenty of US manufactures saw Walmart or Home Depot taking their goods to be knocked off in private labels overseas. Soon the companies themselves had to follow suit or be dead. We got cheap stuff at Walmart and Home Depot they got jobs.

Heck even Trump played and still plays the game. As he has his Trump branded stuff made overseas. Check your Red Hat !! Made overseas

So to fix our trade deficit we need to start at home. Create laws and policies that make it harder to offshore jobs.

As far as trade policy let me give you a example we can all understand. The Grocery store.

When we go to the store we all understand certain thing. Simple them rules or agreements. Pay cash or card. We can’t bring goods to barter. We have to use a cart we can’t bring our own wheelbarrow.

We don’t set up a grill and BBQ by the meat department or open a can of soup and take out a spoon and start eating.

We stand in line and wait our turn and unless you are a jackass you put your cart away so it doesn’t whack someone else’s car.

International trade is like the store. The are rules, conventions and practices that go back centuries. Their is international law that allows products to move relatively freely and highly efficiently around the world.

International buyers and sellers count on consistency in those areas to keep doing Bussiness. If there is a major dispute it gets sorted out in the WTO but those cases are pretty rare.

By jumping in and inserting himself in international trade Trump fouled up the marketplace.

We had good trade agreements thrown away that had to be renegotiated and we lost valuable time and market access.

Trump is a bully in his negotiating style but like most bullies when he gets push back he folds. Which is what has happened so far. The USTR did a pretty decent job salvaging some of it because he is a pro.

But in the end we have the biggest trade deficits about 15 years who to me proves Trump failed miserably and screwed up the trading environment at the same time