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Trade Deficit

Jeffrey Sachs: Trump’s Impoverishing Tariffs

April 3, 2025 Jeffrey D. Sachs, Consortium News. , , ,
U.S. President Donald Trump is trashing the world trade system over a basic economic fallacy. He wrongly claims that America’s trade deficit is caused by the rest of the world ripping off the U.S., repeatedly stating things such as, “Over the decades, they ripped us off like no country has ever been ripped off in history…” Trump aims to close the trade deficit by imposing tariffs, thereby impeding imports and restoring trade balance (or inducing other countries to end their rip-offs of America). Yet Trump’s tariffs will not close the trade deficit but will instead impoverish Americans and harm the rest of the world.

Politically Inspired Tariffs Will Not Solve US Economic Problems

March 18, 2018 Daniel Cooper, Trade for People and Planet , ,
In the context of the tariffs on steel and aluminum that the Trump administration announced in the past weeks, a lot has happened. Exemptions were given to Canada and Mexico, the former which is the top importer of steel to the United States. Gary Cohn, Trump’s top economic advisor and one of Wall Street’s favorite free trade advocates, resigned. Paul Ryan and the most ardent free trade advocates in both the corporate and political worlds freaked out at the new measures. Here are some of the main takeaways we have gathered from the slew of coverage and analysis that has come out since the tariffs were announced.

TPP & SOTU: The Facts vs. Obama

January 12, 2016 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.FlushTheTPP.org , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Flush The TPP. President Obama will make his push for the ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) a major part of the State of the Union as this is a major goal of his final year in office. This is an opportunity for a widespread discussion of the TPP and what impacts it will have on the economy, workers, the environment and more. Just yesterday the World Bank published a comprehensive analysis of the TPP and concluded that by 2030 the TPP will have a miniscule 0.4% impact on US trade. The economic impact for the United States is minimal but the impact on workers, the environment, food safety, traditional energy and the overall balance between corporate power and government is dramatic. The president’s claims about the TPP should be examined closely and measured against the facts of what the TPP will actually do and the impact similar trade agreements have had. We know from past comments by the president and the US Trade Representative that their sales pitch for the TPP is not always consistent with the facts.