Thursday, March 8, 2018

THE ART OF EXTORTION- AKA "THE DEAL"

Trump announced stiff tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. Aside from the fact that this is a terrible idea economically (but sounds good to the ignorant rubes who voted for him) it turns out that one of Trump's intentions is to use it to twist the arms of Canada and Mexico to stop being "so unfair" to the U.S. and knuckle under to a renegotiation of NAFTA on terms onerous to them. Trump announced his extortion demand via tweet and speaking to reporters.

“NAFTA, which is under renegotiation right now, has been a bad deal for U.S.A. Massive relocation of companies & jobs,” Trump proclaimed in a tweet March 5th. “Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum will only come off if new & fair NAFTA agreement is signed.”

Later, Trump, told reporters that he had spoken by phone with U.S. negotiators at the NAFTA "renegotiation" talks in Mexico City with Canada and Mexico. “But if they are not going to make a NAFTA deal, we’re just going to leave it this way,” Trump said at a news conference in Washington, holding the tariffs over the heads of those two nations as a club to bludgeon them into submission.

[NAFTA stands for North American Free Trade Agreement. "Free trade" is euphemism for big corporate economic hegemony. The horrible president Bill Clinton created NAFTA with Canada and Mexico, two weak nations to the north and south of the U.S. that are under heavy U.S. domination.]



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