President Donald Trump should focus on tackling unfair trade with China rather than Mexico, Newsmax Finance Insider and economist Stephen Moore told Newsmax TV.
“We don't need to tariff Mexican goods and services,” he told "America Talks Live!" with Steve Malzberg on Friday.
“The import tariff is just a tax on consuming anything that comes in from Mexico, so it's a tax on American consumers. But more importantly, it'll hurt the Mexican economy and we don't want to do that,” said Moore, who regularly blogs as a Newsmax Finance Insider.
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Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto talked by phone for an hour Friday, a day after relations between the U.S. and Mexico ruptured over the Trump's plan for a border wall, an administration official told the Associated Press.
Peña Nieto canceled next week’s plans to visit the White House after Trump on Thursday sent a Twitter message demanding that Mexico pay for a barrier along the U.S. southern border to curb illegal immigration.
Moore, an adviser to the Trump campaign, told NewsmaxTV that he doesn’t want to see Mexico’s economy fall apart in a trade war.
“Mexico's already struggling right now,” he said. “They had some growth in the last few years, but this last year it's been really a slowdown. We need Mexico to be strong and stable.”
Moore recommends that Trump focus on trade relations between the U.S. and China, the world’s two biggest economies.
“China's a different story,” he said. "They've been cheating and stealing our technologies and getting tough with China makes sense, but I don't get the bullying of Mexico. I don't think it's such a good idea.”
Free Trade Isn't Free?
Trump’s campaign vow to renegotiate trade deals that he blamed for gutting U.S. factories and shipping good-paying jobs overseas has reopened debate about who benefits from global commerce.
Free trade isn’t free because of other kinds of bureaucratic hurdles that add costs and hinder trade, according to Ethan Harris, head global economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
“Truly free and fair trade also requires regulating more subtle, behind-the-scenes policies that discourage imports and encourage exports,” he said in a January 27 report obtained by Newsmax Finance.
One of Trump’s first executive orders was to withdraw from the Trans Pacific Partnership that the Obama administration had negotiated with a dozen Asian countries except China. Trump criticized the trade agreement during the presidential campaign.
Trump also is a staunch critic of the North American Free Trade Agreement approved by the Clinton administration. A White House spokesperson this week said the U.S. may impose a 20 percent tax on Mexican imports to pay for a border wall between the countries.
As his first week in office proves, Trump will be a demanding leader who applies the best of his negotiating skills to push for U.S. growth, as bestselling author David Horowitz recently predicted to TheStreet.com.
Trump won’t be an ideological purist like Republicans who support free trade but don't fight for fair trade, Horowitz said.
“We've had an anti-business president now for eight years who doesn't take a hard-nosed attitude towards these deals. Trump is going to get better deals for us, which is still free trade.”
Horowitz's new book, "The Big Agenda: President Trump's Plan to Save America," reveals Trump's "first 100 days strategy" to roll back Obama's legislative and executive record.
Horowitz's book is the first book about the Trump presidency and has soared to the top of the Amazon bestseller charts, becoming the No.1-selling book on the web.
Trump will also lead the way in making infrastructure spending to boost the U.S. economy, Horowitz said.
"Big Agenda: President Trump's Plan to Save America" is available at bookstores everywhere – or get your copy on Amazon – Click Here Now
“If the economy grows as it will under Trump, there's going to be a lot more money to spend,” he said.
Stephen Moore is a distinguished visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation, economics contributor to FreedomWorks and author of "Who's the Fairest of Them All?" To find out more about Stephen Moore and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page atwww.creators.com.
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