President Trump doesn’t need to make trade deals with every country now knocking at our door. He just needs one big one. If he can get a solid agreement with one major global player — like Japan, China, the EU, or South Korea — that alone could change everything.
Why? Because once one country cuts a fair deal with us, the others will not want to be left behind. More will come rushing in to make deals of their own because, nobody wants to get stuck paying higher tariffs while their neighbors enjoy better trade terms, right?
If we can take a $200 billion trade gap and cut it down to, say, $100 billion, or $50 billion, or even $20 billion through just one agreement, that would go a long, long way in calming the stock market and greatly boosting our economy, as well. It would show the world we are indeed serious — and that being fair with the U.S. has real economic benefits in return.
Many countries say they have low tariffs, but they make up for it with other tricks and slights of hand. They use hidden taxes, like value-added taxes (VAT), or make up fake safety rules to block American products coming into their countries.
For example, Europe won’t accept U.S. chicken because we use chlorine to clean it — which is actually safer – after all, salmonella in rampant in chicken. Australia used to block our beef because of an old issue from Canada stemming back over 20 years ago when mad cow disease was discovered in their cattle. These aren’t tariffs, but they work very much the same way, and we need to eventually address these too.
Trump wants to fix all of it all; not just tariffs, but these hidden trade barriers too. That is called a holistic approach, but let us treat this like a prize fight with several rounds. In the first round, let us practice K.I.S.S. — keep it stupidly simple. If a country has zero tariffs, we should match that; if not, we hit back. It is not cruel, it is negotiation. In rounds two, three, four, and beyond, then we go after the sneaky stuff like bogus regulations and such.
In the meantime, the ship is being righted and the dangerous trade situation we have been heading toward for years is being adverted. Herculean efforts are now being made to stabilize and improve a struggling economy propped up for years with cheap money, stimulus, a diminishing U.S. dollar, and frothy speculation bubbles here-and-here. It involves taking necessary actions to ensure things are back on track, and winning at global trade again. And that may take some time to fully address.
May God continue to bless America!