Comment by arrosenberg
15 days ago
We negotiated those deals, we aren’t the victims. Now we don’t like how a deal turned out so instead of renegotiating we are throwing a temper tantrum like we weren’t the ones who suggested it in the first place. It’s embarrassing to be represented like that, and it won’t work! We will wind up weaker than we started, I hope they prove me wrong.
The u.S. didn't negotiate protectionist policies against their own exports. Can you cite a single example of this?
A more charitable explanation is that the U.S. has been all in on globalization and free trade since the 1970s and the rest of the world took a protectionist stance in response. I'm sure the rest of the world had their reasons. But the U.S. does now, too. Globalization and free trade that only substantially flows in one direction simply is not sustainable.
> The u.S. didn't negotiate protectionist policies against their own exports. Can you cite a single example of this?
Oh yes the hell we did. I was running an ecommerce store when this happened, it's been a disaster for US entrepreneurs who have any model other than dropship from China - https://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2011/pr11_037....
> A more charitable explanation is that the U.S. has been all in on globalization and free trade since the 1970s and the rest of the world took a protectionist stance in response. I'm sure the rest of the world had their reasons. But the U.S. does now, too. Globalization and free trade that only substantially flows in one direction simply is not sustainable.
We negotiated those free trade agreements. Stop acting like we were being taken advantage of. Now, if you want to argue that American labor has been hosed, then I agree with that too, but China didn't do that - Nike did. None of these idiotic tariffs are going to help the American worker either - what remains of accessible opportunity for the masses has already become more like sharecropping with huge corporations owning the plantation, and it's only going to get worse under these policies.