Dan Drezner critiques Donald Trump's views on trade policy and Iraq:
From the Wall Street Journal:
As for foreign policy, Mr. Trump said he is "only interested in Libya if we take the oil," and that if he were President, "I would not leave Iraq and let Iran take over the oil." He remains sharply critical of the Chinese, asserting that as President, "I would tell China that you're either going to shape up, or I'm going to tax you at 25% for all the products you send into this country."
"I'm all for free trade, but it's got to be fair trade," he said. "China has taken advantage of this country for a long time." Regarding the $300 billion he said China stands to make from trade with the U.S. this year, Mr. Trump said, "What's protectionism? ...I want to be protected if that's the case." As for pending trade deals with Colombia, Korea and other countries, he said he would only sign them if they were the right deals for the U.S. "If it's a bad deal, I wouldn't sign it," he said.
Here's a fun little project for the commenters: predict what would happen to the global political economy if, in fact, President Trump seized all of Iraq's oil reserves and slapped a 25% tariff on Chinese exports. Hint: I don't think it ends well.
As for the trade deals, given that almost all of Panamanian and Colimbian exports come into the United States duty-free, I'm dying to hear how the Donald is going to improve upon them.
Trump has been even more over the top than usual lately, which has been somewhat amusing. For the trade world, what would be even more fun is if Trump himself were to serve as the U.S. Trade Representative. Here he is from 1999 suggesting just that:
Denouncing United States trade policy, Mr. Trump promised to appoint himself as the nation's trade representative, saying he would have no trouble serving both in that post and as president. He then attacked the current holder of the job, Charlene Barshefky. ''Who is she?'' demanded Mr. Trump. ''I never heard of her!''
