Trade certainty would boost economy

Clark Packard, a trade policy attorney at the R Street Institute, says Trump’s protectionist leanings are hurting farmers and ranchers most.

“Agricultural exports are rapidly declining as market access, particularly in China, dries up,” Packard writes at InsideSources.com. “In fiscal year 2017, America’s farmers and ranchers exported about $22 billion worth of agricultural products to China, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s most recent projections suggest that exports to China will fall to just $6.5 billion for fiscal year 2019.”

He also notes that the trade deficit, something Trump has railed against, has increased 25% since 2016 and that efforts to raise China’s commercial standards have “proven a total failure.”

“Trade watchers knew that tariffs alone would not force a course correction in Beijing,” Packard says. “Instead, the tariffs have ensnared unrelated industries in a massive game of tit-for-tat.”