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Machiavellian on 20 January 2020
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LurkerJ said:
Machiavellian said:

What I am trying to figure out is what exactly did this actually solve.  Will this decrease the trade deficit which Trump touted as one of his main points. Does this solve China backing their companies and low balling products into the marketplace.  This trade deal actually solves none of the things we went into the war for and it smells exactly like the deal made with North Korea where Trump was touting that one but end up being garbage.  The only thing we really get out of this is that China will go back to buying soybeans another other commodities they already was buying from us.  The fact that this deal was put on the table a long time ago by China and Trump turned it down multiple times only means he accepted it now because it election time.  He needed a win which is basically nothing but he will sell it to you as if he climbed a mountain while he was just giving scraps from the table.  This deal changes nothing between China and the US and it definitely doesn't change anything in how Chian operate.

Are you actually trying to figure out what it solves or are you just here to bash Trump? Anyone can bash him, even his fan base. If you actually moved on from that you would find that this deal is trying to change how China is operating. The deal acknowledges that there is more work to be done, but it needs multilateral efforts, and guess what, other parties like Japan and the EU are happy to be involved because they also want to stop China from cheating the market. We should push for more of that. 

Trump thought he could bring back manufacturing jobs, it's not going to happen, the trade deficit is hardly an issue, it doesn't matter if Trump thinks otherwise. However, confronting China is a necessity. While I don't particularity like the world in which the USA is the ultimate superpower, it does seem like it's a better place to be live in that China would create. 

THis deal did not change anything.  Look, I have stated I had no problems with Trump trying to tackle China before, the problem was always his methods.  First and foremost he tried to showboat that he was going to force China to conform which is the dumbest political move period if anyone knows just a little bit about China.  You state other parties like Japan, EU etc but he never included them and he doesn't include them now going lone cowboy route.  Hell the TPP was one solution where everyone was trying to rein in China together but he pulled out.  There were already international plans to reign in China but since Trump never pay attention or read anything by time he infomed himself he already walked away.  Stop trying to give credit to something he was to simple minded to even understand was already in motion.  

The fact is that after turning down the same deal China offered many times he finally caved in.  He showed weakness as they now know he had to go with that deal because he had nothing to sell the American people because it's election time.  He gained nothing in getting China to change anything on how they do business and it really doesn't matter if you call it phase one or whatever because China has no need to ever do a phase 2. 

If Trump thought he could bring back manufacturing jobs back to American then he was a fool and did not listen to multiple experts on that manner or as any snake oil salesman you sell people on something you know will never happen.  

I agree that China definitely needs to be reign in but do I believe Trump and his administration is smart enough to make it happen, HELL NO.  If he really wanted to reign in China then he would have included the international countries who all deal with China to put real pressure on them no go it all alone believing that trade wars are easy and China will just cave in because we are the big US.  After this whole mess the trade deficit grew and only thing accomplished is that nothing.