'Trade wars are good, and easy to win,' Trump tweets

[robkelk]

Analysis/Opinion: First casualty of Trump's trade war is his country's reputation

Don Pittis is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's business unit's senior producer, and was the principal business reporter for Radio Television Hong Kong before the handover to China. He has decades of experience covering international trade.

I'm inclined to trust what he has to say.

What you might call trade sabre-rattling is not uncommon as countries threatened with tariffs draw up lists of the imports they will tax in response.

Europe has already included Kentucky bourbon, Levi's jeans and Harley Davidson motorcycles — goods they expect will have a concentrated impact on jobs in areas that vote Republican.

"The Trump trade team continues to focus on the trade balance, but that focus is misplaced," economist Christine McDaniel of George Mason University's Mercatus Center said in an email.

She says the trade deficit is often larger when the economy is growing, and that in the past, trade surpluses have not correlated with job creation. She also points out the U.S. economy has created tens of millions of jobs since NAFTA came into force.

The head of the United Steelworkers, Leo Gerard, who happens to be Canadian, reminded Trump that Canadian aluminum is a strategic good for U.S. military procurement.

"The president, I don't think, was made aware of that," Gerard told CBC.

It used to be that the U.S. set a standard.