Customs recognition … the main axis of Trump’s local and foreign agenda

Over the years, US President Donald Trump has been constantly moving between hot presidential issues from the Middle East to health care to address the issue of abortion, but his opinion has not changed regarding customs recognition that represents the main axis of his local and foreign agenda.

A close friend of Trump has been an administrative position in the steel industry, said customs recognition “is something stuck in Trump’s mind since the 1980s. It came from the product of his primary belief. ”

This friend added to the New York Times, preferring not to be named: “A few weeks before the 2024 elections, Trump said: For me, the most beautiful phrase in my dictionary is (customs tariff).”

During the first period of Trump’s state, his team began a series of major customs duties on Chinese imports, starting with solar panels and washing machines, quickly extended to steel and aluminum, then nearly half of all commodities from China, with a value of approximately $ 200 billion. By late 2019, the average customs recognition rate was 21%, as Trump was honest in his speech.

Rare

Economists criticized the customs recognition of Trump on imports, and they warned that it increases inflation and harms farmers and families of the middle class. But the Democrats were reluctant to retreat from it.

Not only did the administration of former President Joe Biden maintain Chinese customs duties, but also expanded them to target electric vehicles, silicone chips and “lithium” batteries.

Currently, the anti -China policies have become a rare point for partisan consensus. American public opinion has declined steadily since the first decade of the 21st century. Opinion polls conducted by the Pew Research Center showed that 81% of Americans view the country inadequate, which is the lowest historical level, and the joining rates of Chinese language courses in American universities, which rose steadily after 1978, have decreased since 2013.

When Trump announced his candidacy for the presidency in 2015, the priority in his nomination letter was to impose restrictions on Chinese trade.

He also warned of the flow of “drugs” and “crime” from Mexico, and it appears that the current brand of Trump’s racism revolves around these two countries, where he said: “There are no jobs, because China and Mexico are acquired by all our jobs.”

A third country

However, when reconsidering the 2015 speech, a third targeted country appeared by Trump, confined between China and Mexico, is Japan. “We did not overcome Japan in anything,” Trump said. They send millions of cars, and what do we do? When was the last time you saw a Chevrolet car in Tokyo? It is not present, comrades. They defeat us all the time. ”

At that time, commentators laughed at Trump’s obsession in Japan, describing him as “inconsistent”, “outdated” and “strange”. But Japan was the basis for Trump’s view of the world, as the historian Jennifer M. Miller, since his appearance as a national figure in the 1980s.

When Trump published his book “The Art of the Deal” in 1987, the tensions between the United States and Japan were at its height, the high imports of Japanese commodities, especially cars, coincided with manufacturing in the United States. In the seventies of the 20th century, the high global oil prices prompted American drivers to buy more efficient fuel cars such as some Japanese models.

Trump promoted his book on the American Media Program, Oprah Winfrey, by saying: “We are a city country. We will not be able to continue to lose 200 billion dollars. We allowed Japan to enter our country and throw everything in our markets. It is not a free trade. If you go to Japan now and try to sell something, forget the matter, Opera. Forget it completely. It is almost impossible. ”

He added, “They have no laws to deal with that. They make it impossible. They come here, sell their cars, their video recording devices, and destroy our companies completely. ”

Japanese exports

A few months later, the United States hosted a summit for European, Americans and Japanese financial officials at the famous “Plaza” hotel in New York (which Trump bought himself in 1988). The “Plaza” agreement, resulting from the summit, came amid a wave of bilateral deals aimed at reducing Japanese “voluntary” exports with the opening of the Japan market to the world’s commodities, and thus increasing local consumption, just like the American recipes of China today.

Under pressure from the other five -group countries (France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom), the Japanese Finance Ministry reduced interest rates, banks gave the green light for construction projects, and the easy funds paid alongside the decline in exports of Japanese companies to speculation in real estate.

bubble

At the height of the bubble that followed it, it was possible to sell a square foot in Tokyo to up to 350 times the price of a square foot in Manhattan.

The imperial palace was equal to the entire value of California.

From 1987 to 1994, he was the two richest people in the world, according to “Fortune” magazine, the Japanese real estate poles Tsutsomi Yoshiaki and Maurit Tikirtiro.

In 1989, Mitsubishi Estates bought the Rockefeller Center, and in the same year, when a reporter asked Trump about his net wealth, he answered: Who knows how much the Japanese will pay for his properties in Manhattan these days.

Since the eighties of the 20th century, Trump has not differently differentiated between his personal trade experience and political qualities. If Trump gets a bad deal, this falls on the entire nation. In a 2018 interview with the Wall Street Journal, he said: “I hate to see our country being exploited. I do not want to see cars flowing from Japan in millions. ”

Shift

As the Asian Economic Dynamics Center turned into China, the goal of Trump’s anger has turned. “It is extremely difficult to buy anything other than Chinese goods,” Trump said in a speech in Las Vegas, noting that when he tried to buy glass and furniture made in America for his property, he only found Chinese factories. Before 2016, Trump never visited China, but he sent his children there to secure licenses for his brand or to negotiate only real estate deals to be frustrated every time. In his second term, Trump expanded the customs recognition network to include his neighbors and allies, Canada and Mexico.

Meanwhile, during his first week, Trump threatened to impose customs customs acquaintances of 50% on Colombia after preventing two planes carrying Colombian immigrants returning from landing, and he also waved similar threats against Denmark in an attempt to buy Greenland.

Who knows how realistic these threats? In December, Republican Senator Tom Couton tried to reassure an audience of tense executives that these threats are just an “negotiating tactic”. On the other hand, he said about customs recognition against China: “This is a horse of a different color.” On the “Guardian”

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American security guarantees

In 1987, before appearing on the “Opera” program, US President Donald Trump wrote an article in the main newspapers criticizing American security guarantees and military aid of allies such as Japan. He said in his article: “Over the years, the Japanese have been able to build a strong and vibrant economy with unprecedented surpluses, taking advantage of the huge costs incurred by America to defend them. They brilliantly managed to maintain the weak (yen) against the strong dollar. This is in addition to our huge spending on their defense and the defense of others, which helped move Japan to the vanguard of global economies.

. During Trump’s first period, his team started a series of major customs duties on Chinese imports.