The August 7 issue of the Sidney Daily News carried an article about an organization called “Operation Grant.” It is run by a group of disgruntled Republicans who are trying to mislead Americans about President Trump’s policy on trade. One issue they are focusing on is that farmers are having a difficult time making a profit because of President Trump’s trade war with China, and China is not buying soybeans and other agricultural products from the United States, hurting agricultural prices and thus farmers’ profits.
In 1972 President Nixon visited China to form a relationship with them that might weaken their ties to Russia. Our relationship with China has been mostly disastrous ever since. Our trade with this communist nation has enabled them to become an economic and political power that now threatens our security. The United States claimed that undeveloped China would become a huge market for our products. What happened was that China built factories to produce goods with their cheap labor, flooding our country with products made in China, causing the loss of millions of Americans’ jobs. We lost the ability to produce products necessary for our security. Steel and rubber imports, among other products coming from China caused American plants to lose money and some went out of business. These products are necessary for our security. President Trump was the first president to see how harmful these trade agreements were and began taxing imports to protect our vital industries.
During the Obama administration years the US bought products amounting to nearly three trillion dollars more from China than what we sold them. This has caused the US to lose millions of jobs and put thousands of US employees out of work. Operation Grant must feel that it is more important to sell agricultural products to China than to protect our national security. The United States buys 90% of our antibiotics from China. The United States bought drywall from China that contained enough sulfur that it made the inhabitants of these homes sick and many of these houses had to be torn down. We bought dog food from China that made dogs sick and some died. Some toys contained lead, causing brain damage in children. Substandard steel bolts caused machinery to fail.
China consistently steals technology from our industry through cyber theft. Some of their engineers and other workers in American industries send US companies’ trade secrets to China.
Smithfield Foods, the largest producer and processor of hogs in the US, was sold to China during the Obama administration. We should not sell a part of our food industry to China.
During the 1992 presidential debates, Ross Perot, an independent candidate, commented that the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement would cause a “giant sucking sound”, meaning Mexico sucking jobs out of the US. President Clinton signed the agreement and the jobs left. President ump renegotiated that agreement and made trade with Mexico and Canada more nearly fair to the US. President Trump is not responsible for the mistakes of past presidents that have caused tremendous damage to the US and the world.
