12/27/24 Who got Rich from the USMCA?

When elected to his first term DJT lambasted NAFTA and vowed to fix it. He put his toughest trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, on the job and negotiators went at it revamping the trade agreement which then came to be known as the USMCA. After a time period, where the USMCA was allowed to work, DJT is still not happy with it as he enters his next term. Granted, what president Trump is unhappy with is not all about trade. He is using the leverage of trade to motivate Canada and Mexico to do things on immigration and drug trafficking that he wants from them. Yet, he claims Canada and Mexico are taking advantage of us to the tune of $400 bln per year, equated to the trade deficit, which he inflates, charging that we are essentially subsidizing these trade partners for this amount. President Trump has always measured trade value by the deficit or surplus that we carry with a trading nation. Economist do not do that but he is eccentric that way. Trade deficits are not inherently a bad thing. The US has run one for decades and we are doing better than many other nations economically that run…