By Dr. Rebecca Ray, Boston University — The Conversation US — 26 October 2020
Research shows that trade agreements have indeed hurt US workers, but Trump’s trade wars have not solved the offshoring problem they were designed to fix. Rather than protecting US workers, the wars wound up doing a lot of self-inflicted damage — retaliatory tariffs from China hit $185 billion in US exports, most notably agricultural products, forcing the Trump administration to spend $23 billion to offset some farmers’ losses. The “Phase 1” deal with China will actually make offshoring easier by making it more advantageous for American companies to transfer operations to China. The evidence suggests the best way to limit offshoring is through negotiation and cooperation — trade agreements that set higher labour and environmental standards for all signatories — not trade war.