Speaking of mercantilism, here's something from a Greta Van Susteren interview with Donald Trump:
VAN SUSTEREN: ...
All right, the economy, the unemployment rate not getting better. If you were advising the president, what would you tell him to do?
TRUMP: Obviously the word is "jobs." How do you get jobs? I hear so many people talking so many different things. The problem is our jobs have left this country. We are making our products in China and in other places.
And what the politicians have done to this country, they should be ashamed of themselves. The other day I was watching "60 Minutes" I see a place, Newton, Iowa, beautiful place, beautiful people they lost Maytag. The jobs went to Mexico, most of the jobs to Mexico.
I'm saying to myself, isn't that a shame. Here you have this beautiful community with these incredible people and the jobs went to Mexico.
So the problem with this country is between China and other places, we just don't make product any more. We do health care here, but that's not the kind of product I'm talking about. I'm talking about where you really make product. If I build a building many of the materials and things I get are made in China. It is very, very sad.
VAN SUSTEREN: You talked about Mexico. There was a company in northwest Wisconsin where I'm from just moved its entire production to Mexico. I assume the labor is cheaper there and that's why the companies are doing it?
TRUMP: I think they get incentives from our government. NAFTA, whether people like it or don't, give me a break. You look at what's happened where New England in particular, they've been wiped out and the people have just gone to Mexico.
But not only that, it is not only Mexico, it is China. To me, it's so many products. I see it because I'm a big buyer of things, windows, pipes or lots of different things, because I build buildings. So much of the product -- glass, curtain walls -- so much of the product is made in China.
We are rebuilding China. Our economy is just getting killed. And you look at China it is going through the roof. A friend of mine went to a pretty much new city in China. They said unbelievable the airport and everything else. They come back to LaGuardia. They said it is like coming into a third world country. It is horrible what has happened.
So somebody is going to get smart. They talk about the economy, incentives. We are losing our jobs to other countries. You are not going to solve unemployment unless something very, very stringent is done with regard to China and other countries.
VAN SUSTEREN: So what do you do to turn that around so the jobs are staying here or coming here?
TRUMP: I would tax Chinese products. People say that's not free trade. What is free trade when they have billions and billions of dollars of surplus over us? So we don't want free trade with people that are ripping us.
One of the reasons -- first of all their product isn't as good as ours. If you look at windows, glass, curtain wall, it's not as good as ours. If you look at the sheetrock people are dying because of Chinese sheetrock. So their product is not as good as ours.
But they manipulated their currency so it is hard to compete with Chinese dollars, cost. What happens is the dollar versus Chinese currency is not competitive.
So when somebody comes in with a curtain wall for a big office building, and it they're buying from China, it is very hard to compete with that price. The quality, we have better. But you can't -- they just have manipulated their currency to such a point.
What I would do is I would tax like 25 percent tax. You want to buy from China, that's great. But you are paying 25 percent tax. If you buy it in this country you don't have that tax. By the way, you know what is going happen? People are going to start creating jobs in this country because they are not going to pay that tax.
VAN SUSTEREN: What is the resistance to a 25 percent tax? Just a commitment to free trade?
TRUMP: People tell me, Donald, that's not free trade. We don't have free trade right now. We have a country, China in particular, that is ripping us like nobody's ripped us before. And we are rebuilding China. Our country is so big in terms of what we buy that we are rebuilding China.
Of course, even with these kinds of statements, there is some debate as to whether "mercantilist" is an appropriate word. He seems convinced that China is engaging in its own mercantilism, so perhaps (but it's far from certain!) he would support free trade if he could be convinced that others were doing it.
