There is a geopolitical strategy happening this week that is essentially under the radar.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, USTR Robert Lighthizer, Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow, and the U.S. trade team are heading to China.
The outcome of their discussions connects the initiatives behind North Korea, China and NAFTA. The steel and aluminum tariffs are part of the toolbox. Only one media personality, our favorite suspicious cat, appears to understand the larger economic play and how it is being deployed.
From the U.S. perspective, NAFTA has a fatal flaw. Mexico and Canada admitted the flawfor the first time a few weeks ago. The flaw is Mexico and Canada’s exploitation of NAFTA as a backdoor into the U.S. market for Asian, mostly Chinese, manufactured products. Multinational corporations who have invested Canada and Mexico are determined to retain the flaw.
President Trump understands that as long as Canada and Mexico can unilaterally make trade agreements with the EU and ASEAN nations, any NAFTA agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico is moot. The NAFTA talks are paused.
If Trump pulls off this trade deal, it'll be the second giant win after the Nork capitulation. Pass the popcorn.
I think that there are a lot of people who understand how NAFTA has been exploited (including Americans who got filthy rich) by importing goods dumped by Asia in the Mexican and Canadian markets, re-branded and shipped into the US.
ReplyDeleteThe Doors had this covered long ago.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/uxX18WZ6Glw