There was another Republican primary debate last night, and finally there was a discussion of trade policy, albeit briefly. The issue was raised by former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Here's what he said:
And I will say this about what I heard from Nikki [Haley] earlier. She said that Donald Trump was good on trade.
He wasn't. And the proof that he wasn't good on trade with China is that all he did was impose tariffs, which raise the prices for every American. You want to know what has contributed to inflation in this country? Yes, it's more government spending. Yes, it's the fact that we're printing too much money. Absolutely. But it is also the increase in prices that were driven by Donald Trump's tariffs.And one last thing. You can't say he was good on trade because he didn't ... change one Chinese policy in the process. He failed on it.
Did any Chinese trade policies change as a result of Trump's trade actions? (Putting aside China's retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products of course, which I assume is not the change anyone was looking for). The Phase One Deal does talk about some changes, but were these changes things China was planning to do anyway? Were Trump's actions the actual cause of any changes?
