Trade wars


Letter-writer Brian Goldenfeld says tariffs to punish China for trade imbalances and stealing intellectual property are “stoking fears of a trade war.” Ya think?

Goldenfeld then somehow concludes that “instead of working together to solve problems, the countries of the world seem content acting in ways that amplify the symptoms.”

Goldenfeld goes on to claim, in true Trumpian style, that “the nations of the world see prosperity as a zero sum game.”

The countries of the world were, in fact, working together and had an excellent plan to end Chinese copycat products, pirated software, counterfeit goods and theft of trade secrets. It was called the TPP, or Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Under the TPP, China would have been forced to crack down on imitations, as well as bring tariffs into line with those of other countries and strengthen its environmental regulations like those of developed nations, all measures that might have made the cost of manufacturing in the United States more competitive. But the complicated trade deal negotiated by President Barack Obama was over Trump’s head.

The TPP was intended to give countries a counterbalance to China’s growing dominance in world trade.

Under TPP, companies and countries could sue and have the cases heard by courts not controlled by the sovereign. In other words, if an American company sued China, it would not be heard in a Chinese court.

There would have been no need for a trade war but, instead, Trump has rolled out the red car- pet for China.

The Trump clown-car rolls on across the world stage with screams of “fake news” propelling a lynch mob, many of whom believe that school shooting survivors are actors, that a congressional intelligence committee that allowed the most important witnesses to refuse to answer questions exonerated him, and that four Republican-appointed FISA judges conspired with 18 traditionally conservative U.S. federal law enforcement agencies and Trump’s very own cherrypicked DOJ to persecute him.

With such a pathetic understanding of matters of state, maybe the other countries of the world are not the problem?

Larry Brown
Agoura Hills