Trump Must Deliver on Tough Trade Talk
President Trump rode into office promising big things for America’s factory workers. But I’m sad to report that he hasn’t delivered — and in fact, many of our trade issues are getting worse.
Now the president is heading to Asia for a big diplomatic trip, where he needs to finally get tough on China and keep his promises to American workers.
Join me in demanding that Trump deliver on his tough trade talk and stand up for American jobs.
One-sided trade relationships with many Asian countries have led to factory closures and job losses. Since China’s entry into the WTO in 2001, 54,000 U.S. factories have closed and 3.4 million manufacturing workers have lost their jobs.
Trump pledged to take this problem on, but the trade deficit with China is up in 2017, rising to nearly $240 billion compared to $225 billion in 2016. It’s the same story with our trade deficit with Japan, which has caused 900,000 lost American jobs.
Meanwhile, Trump hasn’t done anything about steel and aluminum imports, despite promising to act by the end of June. Tens of thousands of American workers have faced layoffs and dozens of factories have closed because of unfairly dumped imports — including just a few weeks ago, when two new closures were announced in Pennsylvania.
In fact, steel imports have soared more than 21 percent in 2017. Trump’s continued inaction is making things worse.
All the while, China continues to strengthen its state-owned enterprises, which provide an unfair advantage compared to independent American companies that play by the rules. Now a re-energized Chinese government wants to be named a market economy, which would undermine America’s trade remedy laws and expose American workers to more dumped imports.
Enough is enough.
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