The John Batchelor Show

VIDEO: Trump on Trade

May 11, 2016

Tuesday  10 May 2016   / Hour 1, Block B:  James Pethokoukis, columnist & AEI, in re:  For every one American who’s lost a job in the US, ten or twenty people have gained economically from global trade. Is Trump a mercantilist – a Nineteenth Century promoter of local production?  No, what he should talk about is not the phantom overseas jobs taken over but overseas robots is training Americans to do the jobs of the future,  Not “I’m bringing back steel and coal.” Not retrograde economic nostalgia. He’s being called a pro-growth supply sider for the last day and a half.  I do think there are some unfair aspects, so tear down foreign barriers so we can export. China, Japan, and others break the rules: they counterfeit, steal IP, hack into our systems. Trade protections often damage the home country more than the foreign country. Recent presidents have done a poor job of negotiating with China; also, floating rates are dangerous, and we need more currency coordination.
At the end of the day, the Great Trump Trade War will be for Hollywood intellectual property.
LK: Yes, auto production won't return here entirely, but Trump wants to incentivize corporations to bring their HQ here and by that will be bringing in trillions of dollars if we have a more competitive tax and regulatory regime. Onerous regulations need to be rolled back.
JP: I have no confidence in what the Trump economic plan is – he just wants to get to the end of a 45-second TV interview, hasn't thought it out.