Trade
By Tom Haughey
I have been watching with interest the proposals made recently by presidential candidates as to how to compete effectively with China. None of them, however, makes a great deal of sense. Donald Trump sees the solution in threatening China with high tariffs unless that country returns its currency to its real value (about twice its current level) rather than constantly devaluing it so that China's exports worldwide are cheaper and give it an unfair competitive advantage. When pressed by his rivals about why he's gung ho to start a trade war, Trump responds that he wouldn't actually impose tariffs because China would back down. His argument is logically absurd because he's just spilled the beans to the Chinese that he won't impose said tariffs, so they won't back down. He would, therefore, as president be forced to impose tariffs. That would certainly bring about retaliation.