When Clinton granted China MFN status and then was allowed into WTO there were some (perhaps naive) assumptions of working in good faith and that while it was expected China would be granted some breaks as it caught up, eventually it would play nice abide by the rules everyone else respects. Well, it’s been 30 years and China is still not playing fair in trade (ownership requirements, IP transfer, IP theft, market access, etc.)

The admin is doing something the Busch admin should have done, or at least the first Obama, but neither did because it would be too upsetting to multinationals and would also “upset” China.

Now we have someone who says times up, do what you signed up for or deal with the consequences of ignoring the rule set out.

And, to a great degree, I agree with this. Blue collar labor was thrown under the bus. That little Texan was right. A giant sucking sound did take the jobs, but not Mexico but rather China chiefly, among other labor outsourcing, to our detriment (their own too) and environmental degradation.

Now, I’m glad and it’s great China took this opportunity to lift its people from abject poverty but we took too much of a hit. It should have been more measured and more fair.