UK media: Trump wants to "reposition the U.S. economy"

This may have something to do with the core circle around Trump.

Carla Saunders was the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark during Trump's first term and an advisor during his first presidential campaign. She is very familiar with Trump's inner circle.

"He has economic advisors like Kevin Hassett and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin around him. These two are important figures who understand and advocate for Trump's proposals, and they have completely different styles. He also has other real China hawks around him," Saunders said.

These aides told Trump that he needed to reposition the U.S. economy - they believed that the deindustrialization of manufacturing in the United States over the past few decades had put the country in a dangerous situation.

"We have been deindustrialized for a long time due to bad energy policies. We encouraged businesses to move their operations and manufacturing overseas. The Western countries said: 'Our carbon dioxide emissions are low.' But in reality, we just shifted production to countries where we don't care about their carbon emissions."

Saunders believes that a country must produce things itself and cannot rely solely on tourism or knowledge-based societies while expecting to remain safe and secure.

In her view, there are two goals of tariffs. First, to help the U.S. transition from a service-based economy back to industrialization. Second, to counter China.

Currently, Trump has imposed tariffs exceeding 100% on China. This game of tug-of-war could lead to a complete halt in U.S.-China trade, leaving other countries in a dilemma: which side should they take? But at the same time, countries exporting to the U.S. also received a strong message: Washington's tolerance for trade imbalances has reached its limit.

"In the past, we were everyone's 'dad,' letting others take advantage of us, but we didn't care. Almost every country has a trade surplus with the U.S., almost every country imposes higher tariffs on our products, and there are non-tariff barriers. But Trump's message is that it's time to create a fair competitive environment for the American people, and reciprocity should be emphasized."

This move aims to bring jobs back to the U.S. - Saunders said unemployment is the root cause of many social problems in the U.S.

"We have millions of men who have lost enthusiasm for life and production. They just sit on the couch at home, take drugs, play video games, and enjoy welfare. Trump wants to bring them back into the labor market and regain self-respect," Saunders believes this move is "very visionary."

Source: BBC

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1830798217286852/

Disclaimer: This article only represents the views of the author.