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What happened to Donald Trump the "America First" trade warrior?
This week, Trump abandoned a campaign vow to label China a currency manipulator. Two weeks ago, his administration proposed a mild rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he'd previously branded a job-killing "disaster." And his threat to slap harsh tariffs on Chinese goods has given way to a bid to mend fences with Beijing.
This hardly resembles the candidate Trump who sold himself as a pugnacious outsider, hell-bent on upending decades of U.S. support for ever-freer trade to safeguard American jobs from nations that play unfairly.
The recent climb-downs suggest a new president learning that go-it-alone trade policies don't easily work.
"The president is beginning to adjust his policies to economic reality," says Joshua Meltzer, a specialist in international trade and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
His spokesman, Sean Spicer, has defended Trump's shift on trade issues, explaining that his major promise was to deliver results - not cling to any one policy stance.
"The president's tough talk on a variety of subjects was to get results for the American people," Spicer said.
Nowhere has Trump's shifting trade policy been clearer - or more jarring - than his rever
Apr 14, 2017 @ 07:26:46
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