How Trump ‘Wins’ on Trade

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/16/opinion/letters/trump-trade.html

Version 0 of 1.

To the Editor:

Re “At the Mercy of the Mind of Tariff Man,” by Paul Krugman (column, Dec. 7):

President Trump’s trade war is typical in showing his zeal to “win.”

First, he creates a crisis, as when he decries the North American Free Trade Agreement as being unfair. Then, he, and he alone, is the great savior and a “winner” with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, essentially a Nafta with different I’s dotted and T’s crossed.

Mr. Trump imposes tariffs on importation of steel and aluminum, but “wins” by granting tariff exemptions to favored companies.

Nobody is saying that Mr. Trump is not right in calling out China for its unfair trade practices. His trade war with China is doomed to failure with his go-it-alone approach, rather than beginning an effort coordinated with onetime staunch American allies.

There is a risk here that, in the end, Mr. Trump will do significant damage to the American economy, the world economy and all of us with his impetuous, antagonistic and singular efforts. An economic downturn could happen as a direct result of a babe-in-the-woods trying to do the heavy lifting of world trade.

Ben MyersHarvard, Mass.