Donald Trump expressed himself on a number of Asia-Pacific issues during his campaign. Whether on economic policy with China, the future of the American military in Japan and South Korea, or North Korea and its nuclear weapons program, he offered strong views. If he pursues them as president, some will have long-lasting implications for the region, the United States and the world.
On China, Trump apparently plans to label it a currency manipulator and bring a trade law case against it on the basis that its unfair subsidy behavior is prohibited by the terms of its accession to the World Trade Organization. if China does not cease this illegal practice, the United States will add a tariff on all its exports to America based on its best estimate as to the amount of the currency manipulation.
An estimated 54,000 manufacturing facilities and 20 million related jobs were lost across the U.S. during the past several decades, creating a merchandise trade deficit last year alone with China of a staggering $367 billion.
The Trump administration should listen to Dan DiMicco, who headed Nucor, the largest American steel company and steel recycler in North America. None of Nucor’s 22,000 employees was laid off in 40 years even when many other U.S. steel companies were under bankruptcy protection.
Like many Americans, DiMicco wants manufacturing restored to its former important role in the American economy. He stresses that the No.1 job killer in manufacturing is currency manipulation, providing massive cost advantages to unfair competitors like China.
James Mann, author of “China Fantasy” and former Beijing bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times, said, “The Chinese regime is not going to open up because of our trade with it…The next president will need to start out afresh.”
On the South China Sea imbroglio, Trump’s approach to Asia’s most expansive sovereignty disagreement is less clear.
Charles Burton of Brock University and formerly a counsellor at the Canadian embassy in Beijing, notes that under Chairman Xi Jinping, China “has assertively expanded its area of control by occupying disputed uninhabited islands strategically situated in surrounding seas...close to the borders of Japan and the Southeast Asian nations that have traditionally claimed them.”
These initiatives, he adds, fall just short of the threshold that would provoke the United States and its allies in the Asia-Pacific to engage in military action to stop it.
