‘World Upside Down’: As Trump Pushes Tariffs, Latin America Links Up

This is another Trump Effect. While America is mired in the shenanigans of Donald Trump, the rest of the world is moving onwards, bypassing the US of A. In China, they have been holding the 13th National People's Congress sessions over the past few days--thousands of people seriously and earnestly talking about growth and long-term plans--a shocking contrast to what is going on here in the USA--oy vey! This fake MAGA Man and fake patriot is destroying America by the day. When will the American people arise and get rid of this flimflam man and take back the country? Enough is enough already.

If only it was possible to see this coming... Oh wait. The tsunami of mendacity, ethnocentrism, and profound ignorance that is Trumpism (or perhaps "Fox News-ism") is handing the world to China on a silver platter. While he's busy pounding his chest with his tiny hands and bloviating about how these tariffs will "punish" China, his half-baked policies have instead served as rocket fuel for China's goal to surpass the U.S. as the global economic leader and hegemonic superpower. As Trump struggles to play checkers, the rest of the world is playing chess. Putin and Xi's 'useful idiot' indeed.

Trump unites the world! No cloud without a silver lining.

Accident is a euphemism. Trump’s policies are badly thought out and lack foresight. That isn’t an accident. That’s stupid with butter and maple syrup on it.

The lede reads "Trump accidentally helps free trade in Latin America". It should read "Trump predictably helps free trade in Latin America". Anyone with half a brain would know that this would be the result of his actions.

Trump has literally thrown away America's lead around the World. Centuries of hard work thrown out the window. Sad times for America. I apologize to the rest of the World. Ray Sipe

A few things left out of this discussion: into the open jaws of trade we have thrown environmentalists and human rights activists -who are being assassinated at an appalling rate in developing countries and Latin America -in the interest of "progress" and the flow of money (mostly to the rich) and the extraction of raw materials. What is the end of all this "free trade"? So eventually we fill up the whole world with new cars, "fast fashion" (a la Zara), strip malls, flat screen tvs, devices and devices for the devices, the fanciest sneakers ever, disposable razors, plastic straws, hamburgers (see NYT op-ed re carbon foot print of cattle) and lawn mowers. Then what? We all choke on the detritus of our consumer feeding frenzy and the world gets crumpled up like an old styrofoam cup. What a nice place to live. Believe me, I appreciate my refrigerator, dishwasher and flush toilet as much as the next guy, but perhaps we should take Trump's narcissistic ineptitude on free trade as an invitation to wean our economy and our lifestyles from an unsustainable, murderous and utterly destructive consumer culture. Scratch the chic veneer of buy, buy, buy and it is easy to see that the real cost of goods is much too high.

“The president of the United States was defending protectionism, and the president of China was defending free trade,” Mr. Piñera said. “It felt a little like the world upside down.” In a true democracy Trump lost the 2016 election (by 3 million+ votes) and if the election were run today it would be 10+ million votes. Yet there you are America with a mentally ill conman in the WH. Why isn`t there a million person march in DC every weekend shaking the gates of the WH off their hinges & visiting the GOP offices with virtual barrels of tar & feathers ? Why ? Why ? Where are the patriots ?

Wonderful! We can look forward to a couple decades of ra-ra Tom Friedman “the world is even more flatterer now!” Conclusions, celebration of the wonders of free trade, and then the inevitable hollowing out will begin and the same commenters will express only shock that China played the same games with Brazil they do with the US.

Here comes the pain Europe! get your seatbelt on

This is so predictable and I'm no economics wizard.I'm already "sick of winning" and want desperately to return to normal.Enough of our idiot president.It's time to remove this clown for being unfit.What say you,mute GOP??.It's only a matter of a little more time that trump supporters realize they've been had.Wait til they hear all of the GOP congress is on the take from either billionaires,NRA, or russia.

It will take an entire generation to clean up Trump’s mess.

If I was running the show in Mexico, I would use the Trump agenda to squeeze every possible drop of economic and military aid from China. I might also enlist Chinese help to end the narco civil war. Consider the spectacle of joint Chinese and Mexican military exercises on the southern side of that big, beautiful wall.

Maybe the wall will be built and Mexico will pay for it. Unfortunately, the beautiful side will be facing Mexico and it will be built to keep American migrants out.

Add to this the March 8 signing of a revised TTP sans U.S. All we need is actions by Europe and Africa. Trump is odd man out the world around. Ugh.

NYTimes, could you please do a good article on trade and trade imbalance?

Trump has already dismissed Africa, a huge and growing economy that China rightly sees as the future, not some s---hole we need to avoid. Ironic that Tillerson was on his way home from Africa when he was tweetfired. No wonder Latin American countries plan to forge connections and carry on without the US. If they can't work with their big, powerful neighbor to the north, they may as well go it alone. When you take your toys and go home, the kids just make their own toys.

As a Canadian, obviously disappointed that trade relations with the US are going south. Sadly, as go trade relations, so do social and political relations over time. Canadian politicians and industry reps are doing the goodwill tour in the US because they know how dependent our industrial sector is on US trade - its just a stark reality that its a bigger loss to Canada than the US. While the US is absolutely entitled to an America First policy, this administration's "blame Canada" approach is just going to slowly poison an long close friendship, perhaps irreparably. Other countries will look at how things go with this trade relationship as a barometer for them. That said, this is an untimely but possibly good wake up call for Canadians and Canadian industry, who have been lulled into easy dependence on the US as our primary (and often only) market. We are a much smaller country and economy, but if this forces us to innovate and forge new ties and markets with other countries further out, it can only make things better over time. Its going to hurt and it will take a decade or more to adjust, but regardless of how relations go with the US going forward, I think more Canadians are starting to see more reality and value in putting a bit more economic space between us and our American neighbors, and stepping further into the global village. It won't be easy, but ultimately, Canada should come out better for it in the long run. America will be fine regardless.

The rest of the world has discovered an alternate universe which does not include the United States of America. This is a sad and tragic day for the USA.

When a president conducts affairs by being threatening, what effect would we imagine?

Europe has long protected some of their 'cultural' industries. Cheese, chocolate, etc. are highly regulated by name and content. I cannot say I agree with Trump's announcements (tweets) regarding trade. Not positive, but I suspect he doesn't know what he tweets about. Saying that, we live in a global economy, right? Don't we need 'far trade' agreements enforced? China ships goods to the US constantly, most are deliberately under priced to ensure they are favored by consumers over home-grown products. The imbalance is astounding. Yet, the US cannot sell much in China due to price and tariffs. Lastly, isn't it a good thing that countries trade with each other vs. just trading with the US?

What is the real size of the US market? Tricky question. It depends on the type of goods and services one sells. But when you remove the very poor and the economically challenged and the 1%er you are left with a middle class of a descent size but certainly not the largest in the world. Also, the US middle class has reached a certain economic « maturity » and is rather well established. On the other hand, middle classes in large emerging trading bloc such as TPP, MERCOSUR, and other countries like China and India are just starting to envoy economic power and are ripe to embark on a shopping spree like the US middle class enjoyed in the 50s,60 and 70. The point: the US market is no longer the engine of growth, it’s nice to maintain a certain level of business but not where growth will be. Countries and businesses understand that and have started to focus where the future is happening. Trump just didn’t get the memo. Worst, he is tarnishing the US and US companies reputation. Ask a Mexican if he would feel better buying a Cadillac or a Mercedes nowadays.

As a Canadian, I’m truly sorry to see our historic good ties with the US being ravaged by Trump. I still think the majority of Americans don’t harbour the hatred of my country that Trump shows, in word and deed. However, the election of this President shows clearly that Canada must not assume the goodwill of our biggest trading partner (80%), and must look to other markets to shield us from the mood swings of the American electorate. I doubt we will make up the loss from the end of NAFTA, and the tariffs that will be coming, but at least the damage can be mitigated.

Trump has transformed the GOP into the party of Trump. Concerned Republicans are quitting leaving the compliant. The only way this can end is that American democracy becomes history and Trump achieves his goal of one man rule in an autocracy, or Trump is driven from office and the GOP becomes history. Either way, we are in for rough times ahead.

President Piñera of Chile is right as he said: “It felt a little like the world upside down.” America is losing confidence in itself and wanting to be inward-looking while China is gaining confidence and wanting to be outward looking. It was not like that when I came to America from Hong Kong in 1971. The opposite was true at that time.

Trump has no idea what he's doing. He thinks that the United States holds some special, privileged place in international trade because we have had a robust economy for half a century. He thinks pulling out of agreements is some sort of leverage. The truth is, the rest of the world will just say ok, you do you and we'll just move on without ya'.

trump has proven to be a blessing to the Brazilian farmers. He’s such a business genius, after all.

These effects of Trump's moves are so obviously predictable it makes it very hard to believe that his decisions are not conscious economic treason against our country by Don the Con.

What happened to Trump's fantastic deal making and negotiating skills?

Good. We haven't been a good friend to Latin America. Maybe now they can be free of our "help" and "aid" and "intervention" and finally be the great region they were meant to be.

This should be a lesson to America. Leadership requires intelligence.

But he's gonna get Mexico to pay for a stupid wall. That I can tell you.

"President Michel Temer’s government issued a blueprint for economic growth that made the case that sustained growth would require lowering tariffs and retraining workers to steer them away from occupations that have become obsolete or less competitive." Our guy instead is trying to promote the jobs of the past - coal, mining, heavy manufacturing. The tariffs seem more inspired by the goal of hurting the clean energy industry than anything else - solar panels are a small part of solar energy puzzle, and the US does far more valuable work WITH steel than with making the steel used. We're the second biggest manufacturing economy in the world, but our strengths should be keeping us in the forefront of the newer advances - automation, small-scale, often cleaner or less wasteful processes. But we also have to remember that a President Hillary would have had a promise to keep against the TPP, too. So whichever party controls things after the next election or two should work on healing the wounds of global trade while also going for the substantial benefits.

Isn't this an utterly predictable reaction? If it becomes less advantageous to do business with your neighbor to the North because of its unilateral actions against you, you look elsewhere for trading partners. And the "elsewheres", in the form of China, Europe, and other neighbors, are certainly looking to get their foot in your door, whether or not they succeed all the time. US pulling back? Someone else moves into the breach. 35% US tariff on Mexican goods to build the "beautiful Wall" begets less trade with Mexico (thus reducing revenue from the tariff on top of everything else) and a Mexican government seeking other partners who won't slap such an onerous tariff on. Even assuming American jobs are created, it will take major capital investment by American companies to build new factories + major increases in labor costs to revitalize virtually dead industries. As a result how much will the gains for the middle class and working poor be when the price of everything goes up significantly? Won't the average person end up being able to buy even less than today as the price of everything spirals up? Does Pres. Trump think that the American people can provide all the necessary supply and demand for everything needed for modern life all by their lonesomes? Pres. Trump's calamitous mistake in this area is to think the whole rest of the world desperately needs the USA as a trading partner, while the USA needs only Pres. Putin to allow a Trump Tower to be built in Moscow.

Make America A Failure: TRUMP 2018

From the 2016 election on, Trump has become the poster child for Unintended Consequences.

Trumps world view conjures up a vision of a medieval castle, troops on the battlements, drawbridge raised, settling in for a siege of its own making. Meanwhile, the rest of the world continues on.

This article succinctly lays out the faulty thinking behind Trump economics. In an ever increasing interconnected global economy the premise you can unilaterally dictate the terms of global trade is disingenuous at best and flat out dishonest at worst. Given Trump's mendacity I tend to believe the latter. The longer term implication is that the United States will be viewed with a jaundiced eye. Speaking as a Canadian we know you cannot be relied upon to honour trade agreements entered into in good faith, you can no longer be relied upon to honour your word, and you certainly can no longer be considered a trustworthy ally and partner. The US president openly boasts he not only lied to our Prime Minister, he is proud of it. He openly acknowledges his ignorance about the trade figures. Given our geographical proximity, and long standing mutually beneficial trade relationship Canada will always have close ties with our Southern neighbour. However that doesn't mean we cannot expand our horizons, diversify our trading partners, and move as much trade away from the United States as we can. The United States was entrusted with the mantle of global leadership. Under Trump that role has been abrogated. It is naive to believe others will not step in to fill the void. While Trump blusters and has daily twitter meltdowns the world moves forward.

Markets, like nature, abhor a vacuum. As the US withdraws from world leadership, others individually or collectively will step in to fill the void. In the end, the US loses.

It seems a bit disingenuous to suggest that these policies are merely those of a somewhat ignorant POTUS. Our leader represents the policies of the GOP. Sure, an occasional member voices concern, but immediately votes to implement and further the goals of their leader. They may wish he had more class, but he's their man.

This disrespectful man is hardly a person I'd deal with under any circumstances. At least our allies know he is not to be trusted under any circumstances. He's proven that he loves world despots -- not our country's former friends and business partners. He's destroyed out standing in the world, our reputation, and our sense of fairness on the world stage. Who would ever want to deal with this despicable, self-interested chaos-monger?

Trump has accomplished what no world power could. They have driven our trading partners away and into the hands of the Chinese and other Asian markets. The president thumbed his nose at Central and South America based on his racist beliefs without thinking about the consequences. He clearly only sees Latinos as yard or construction workers and forgets they are nation states that deserve respect. His state department is of no use right now because he refuses to utilize their expertise. He consistently argues that he along knows what is best for America. Yet, his behavior has created a world where we no longer matter. Our power to help has been curtailed by a man who believes if you are brown, black, yellow or red you are ignorant, a criminal and don’t deserve the our help or allegiance as a trading partner or ally. Where is congress in all of this, now is the time to step in before its too late.

Trump is making America Great Again....only its Latin America...

...and Putin said to Donald, "You don't have to do anything overt. Just be yourself."

As nations find other markets for their goods, less will be available for the USA consumers. The delta will have to be produced in the USA at higher costs or the USA demand will increase competition for those goods and raise prices. Either way the US consumers will see higher prices. If those countries also place retaliatory tariffs than less goods and services will be exported with the obvious impact on jobs.

Thanks to Trump, US workers will likely be left holding the bag. His tariffs are destined to shut doors on our exports and raise costs on goods. More worrisome is the long term potential for actual loss of jobs. The world according to Trump is not going to prove a good thing for the average working man or woman.

The US ranks on the bottom of the list in regards to the importance of World Trade to their economy. In 2016, as a % of GDP, international trade was 11.89%. From 2011 through 2105 it represented approx. 13.5%. Not certain why the slowdown occurred, though I'd attribute it the recession, but it would seem that a country who wishes to export a higher percentage of its manufactured products would be trying to negotiate new, mutually beneficial trade agreements rather than restricting trade through the implementation of tariffs. In order to clarify the trade situation, those who claim that foreign countries are keeping US goods from entering their countries by imposing high tariffs will find that exports from those countries quite often, though not always, face high tariffs, too.