US-China summit highlights the ‘hypocrisy’ of American trade policy

Peter Armstrong, writing in CBC News:

“If China wanted to come in and open a plant to build their cars here, I’d be OK with that,” he said on the Fox News program The Ingraham Angle. Trump also reportedly got that extension with China late on Wednesday.

And yet, Trump and many in his administration have repeatedly scolded Prime Minister Mark Carney for reaching a vastly smaller trade deal — agreeing in January to let in 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles with a tariff rate of 6.1 per cent (down from 100 per cent), while China lowered tariffs on Canadian products including canola, peas, lobsters and crabs.

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Jia Wang, senior fellow with the China Institute at the University of Alberta, says this highlights the way the U.S. demands one thing of its trading partners, while doing another itself.

“The hypocrisy in the way the U.S. treats i”The hypocrisy in the way the U.S. treats its trading partners is palpable,” she said.ts trading partners is palpable,” she said.