Trade

Donald Trump

Trump's Trade (section page)

US-China

• Officially declare China as a currency manipulator (DTW)
  • "Economists estimate the Chinese yuan is undervalued by anywhere from 15% to 40%" (DTW)
• Force China to uphold IP laws. (DTW)
  • "This theft costs the U.S. over $300 billion and millions of jobs each year. " (DTW)
  • US companies will no longer be forced by China to share proprietory technology with Chinese firms (DTW)
• End China’s illegal export subsidies and lax labor and environmental standards (DTW)
• Lower corporate tax rate (to 15%, listed in Tax section) (DTW)
• Bolstering U.S. military presence in East and South China Seas (DTW)
• "But the worst of China's sins...is the wanton manipulation of China's currency, robbing Americans of billions of dollars of capital and millions of jobs." (The International Economy)
• "Economists estimate that the yuan is undervalued anywhere from 15 percent to 40 percent. Through manipulation of the yuan, the Chinese government has been able to tip the trade balance in their direction by imposing a de facto tariff on all imported goods." (The International Economy)
• "On day one of a Trump administration, the U.S. Treasury Department will designate China a currency manipulator." (The International Economy)

"Why are we striking trade agreements with countries we already have agreements with? Why is there no effort to make sure we have fair trade instead of ‘free’ trade that isn’t free to Americans?" (BB)

Bernie Sanders

Bernie's Trade (section page)

• "Middle class in this country is collapsing. We have 27 million people living in poverty. We have massive wealth and income inequality. Our trade policies have cost us millions of decent jobs." (DD1)

• "...for forty years, the great middle class of this country has been disappearing. And in my view, what we need to create millions of jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure; raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour; [enact] pay equity for women workers; [rethink] our disastrous trade policies, which have cost us millions of jobs; and make every public college and university in this country tuition-free." (DD1)

• "I voted against NAFTA, CAFTA, PNTR with China. I think they have been a disaster for the American worker. A lot of corporations that shut down here move abroad. Working people understand that after NAFTA, CAFTA, PNTR with China we have lost millions of decent paying jobs. Since 2001, 60,000 factories in America have been shut down. We're in a race to the bottom, where our wages are going down. Is all of that attributable to trade? No. Is a lot of it? Yes. TPP was written by corporate America and the pharmaceutical industry and Wall Street. That's what this trade agreement is about. I do not want American workers to competing against people in Vietnam who make 56 cents an hour for a minimum wage." (OTIBST)

• "In the House and Senate, I voted against all of these terrible trade agreements, NAFTA, CAFTA, permanent normal trades relations with China. Republicans and Democrats, they say, "oh, we'll create all these jobs by having a trade agreement with China." Well, the answer is, they were wrong, wrong, wrong. Over the years, we have lost millions of decent paying jobs. These trade agreements have forced wages down in America so the average worker in America today is working longer hours for lower wages." (OTIBST)

Reverse trade policies like NAFTA, CAFTA, and PNTR that have driven down wages and caused the loss of millions of jobs. (BSWII)

Trade policy would focus on restoring jobs for Americans. Stop exports of oil abroad to focus on clean energy solutions at home. Against all Free-Trade agreements on the grounds that it hurts the American people and represents only the interests of corporate America.

Chris Christie

Christie | Trade | (section page)

Free Trade Agreements

Christie supports new free-trade agreements like the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership(TTIP) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), at least in theory. The main caveat is that he doesn’t trust President Obama to deliver a good deal:

“I’m generally in favor of trade and free trade. Of course the devil is always in the details. I’m not a huge truster in this president’s ability to negotiate on behalf of American interests. I’m someone who believes in trade promotion authority. But I don’t know that I would give this president trade promotion authority. This is the same guy who’s negotiating such a great deal that Iran is going to be a nuclear power. And so trade deals I think are important to expand American markets to bring our products to other people and theirs to us and to allow America competition to be able to continue to be what drives us to be the number one economy in the world.” (Newsweek)

North American Trade

Last September, Christie traveled to Mexico to help boost its trade with New Jersey. He followed up with a trip to Canada in December. He explained his reasoning for the two trips:

“When we decided to do foreign travel in 2014, I intentionally selected Mexico and Canada…we need to make these neighbors of ours a first thought, not an afterthought, and the fact is that the best way to do that is to meet people, to let them know by your physical presence and your interest in what’s going on in their countries that they’re important partners of ours.… I believe we need to spend much more time on our own hemisphere and on our continent, but also because I wanted to acknowledge and have the opportunity to expand our business and trade relationships with Canada and Mexico.” (Newsweek)

Energy Cooperation and NAFTA

Christie emphasizes the importance of energy cooperation and trade among North American countries. On that score, he thinks the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) needs revision:

“I do think that we need to take another look at NAFTA.…It’s been 20 years now since NAFTA was put into effect and what’s the next chapter going to look like? We know what’s happened over the last 20 years with NAFTA, but I think we need to be talking to our neighbors about what the next generation of NAFTA will look like.” (Newsweek)

Rand Paul

Paul's Trade (section page)

Opponent of Obama's Trade Promotion Authority, or TPA

"My consistent opposition to the Trade Promotion Authority, or TPA, stems from my belief that Congress has already given too much power to the Presidency." (RPW - T)

"With TPA, Congress gives up the power to amend or filibuster trade legislation. While I think trade is a net positive, I don’t believe Congress should cede more power to this or any other President." (RPW - T)

"I oppose TPA because I oppose secrecy. There is no sane reason for making the trade treaty classified." (RPW - T)

"As a strong supporter of free trade who has voted for three free trade agreements, I am willing to work with the administration on a compromise that ensures more transparency, but unless Congress and the American people can play a role in negotiating these agreements, I will not support them." (RPW - T)

Proponent of trade with China

"When I was about ten years old, like many conservative middle-class families, our inclination was to resist anything to do with Red China. In that black and white world, you were either for us or against us. Trade with China was thought to be trade with the enemy. A funny thing happened, though, along the way. Many conservatives came to understand a larger truth. As trade began to blossom with China, many conservatives, myself included, came to admit that trade improves our economic well-being AND makes us less likely to fight. The success of trade with China made many conservatives rethink their view of the world." (NI - T)

Encourages free trade through export inducers, such as investment - not devaluation of the dollar

"In November 2011, my office was happy to participate with the Raw Milk Freedom Riders, who set out to acquire raw milk in protest of raids on small farmers. Over the past several years, the President has taken the laudable step of urging Congress to pass free trade laws in order to elevate exports. However, apart from the effort to encourage free trade, the President's efforts to create an environment conducive to competing in a global economy have been largely misguided. The President and the central bank have attempted to increase exports by destroying the value of the dollar here at home." (OTI - T)

"The President's agenda of increasing taxes on top of a weak dollar policy is inhibiting the country's ability of to compete overseas. One of the fundamental keys to export growth is investment. The correlation between tax rates, investment and export is demonstrated by the tremendous export opportunities and growth of East Asia." (OTI - T)

"Tax rates affect the investment decisions of firms and individuals by altering the cash flow of investment opportunities, and decrease the return on investment, resulting in overall reduced investment." (OTI - T)

Active Opponent of Government Regulation of Industry

"In November 2011, my office was happy to participate with the Raw Milk Freedom Riders, who set out to acquire raw milk in protest of raids on small farmers. The Raw Milk Freedom Riders intentionally purchased and transported raw milk across state lines in violation of federal law. Civil disobedience. Hunger strikes. Persecuted activists. The food freedom movement has all the hallmarks of the great struggles of the past, and that's because it shares a common enemy with those movements--aggressive and arrogant government." (OTI - T)

Ted Cruz

Cruz's Trade (section page)

• "[Instead] of adjusting monetary policy according to whims and getting it wrong over and over again and causing booms and busts, what the Fed should be doing is, number one, keeping our money tied to a stable level of gold, and, number two, serving as a lender of last resort." (RD4)
• Cruz has been rated as a "Free Trade Supporter" by the Cato Institute and Wall Street Journal (CI) (WSJ)
• supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement until the eve of the vote to “fast-track” the measure when he voted against it (WSJ)
  • said he changed his mind becayse he found “new troubling information” in details of the emerging trade deal that suggests that the fast track bill could make it easier for Obama to change federal immigration law and also complained that House Speaker John Boehner punished Republicans who opposed the bill in the House. (WSJ)
• Cruz strongly disapproves of the Export-Import Bank (USA)
  • “The Export-Import Bank is big businesses’ big-government bank backed by U.S. taxpayers" (USA)

Ben Carson

Carson's Trade (section page)

Trans-Pacific Partnership

• "I support reducing global market barriers and promoting economic growth and jobs through free and fair trade. We create more jobs and economic growth when we increase exports of American-made goods and services around the world. I am inclined to support TPP, but the American people and their representatives in Congress need to carefully review this large trade agreement in order to fully understand all of its benefits and compromises." (BCWTPP)
• "Ben Carson has said that Americans should have a say in trade deals through their representatives, but he’s not exactly running on economics." (Newsweek)

In favor of stopping trade imbalance

• "[A friend of mine, a self-made multimillionaire who owns many businesses,] has proposed that we place a stiff tariff on products that are manufactured in other countries and are shipped here fully assembled, while reducing tariffs on products that will require assembly once they reach our shores. Given the severe trade imbalance, such a policy would have a dramatic impact on the American job market." (Ben Carson, America the Beautiful, 79)

Debt

• "Now the only reason that we can sustain that kind of debt is because of our artificial ability to print money, to create what we think is wealth, but it is not wealth, because it's based upon our faith and credit. You know, we decoupled it from the domestic gold standard in 1933, and from the international gold standard in 1971, and since that time, it's not based on anything. Why would we be continuing to do that?" (The International Economy)

Carly Fiorina

Fiorina's Trade (section page)

Against TPP

• Carly Fiorina said she supports free trade, but didn't want President Barack Obama to have the congressional green light to finalize a massive Pacific Rim deal. (MLN)
• Said of the TPP: "There’s a whole bunch of stuff in there that can only be described as crony capitalism, special giveaways to certain industries,” adding the agreement is “a mess.”" (MLN)

Favors bilateral agreements

Fiorina favors bilateral trade agreements over trade pacts because “bilateral agreements are always more effective. We have more leverage.” (MLN)