When Donald Trump Heads East
In 1991, President George H.W. Bush was about to embark on a trip to Asia that was advertised as a pitch for American jobs. Japan, the dominant Asian power at the time, enjoyed a $41 billion trade surplus with the U.S. (the figure is now $54.9 billion); American businesses and politicians railed against what they saw as unfair Japanese trade practices; and, as the The New York Times reported at the time, Japanese “opinion polls suggest that the United States increasingly is seen as a declining economic power demanding handouts from its more robust Japanese competitors.” Sound familiar?
More than 25 years later, another American president is making his way to Asia at a time when obituaries are for U.S. dominance. President Trump’s nine-day, five-nation trip (to he was confident of “significant outcomes on the economic and trade fronts” during Trump’s visit. He said China wanted more balanced trade relations with other countries because a trade surplus “in the long run, will not help China’s economy.” (Economists are split on whether trade deficits are or , but the Trump administration believes they hurt U.S. workers in the long run.)
