Countries eager to make a trade deal with Trump

 Daily Torch:

President Donald Trump says the phone is ringing off the hook with trade partners anxious to make reciprocal trade deals after the President raised tariffs across the board among trade partners on April 2, before April 9 when the tariffs are due to take effect.

For example, on April 4 Trump strongly signaled that trade negotiations could be about to with Vietnam after the President levied a 46 percent tariff on that country, writing on Truth Social, “Just had a very productive call with To Lam, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, who told me that Vietnam wants to cut their Tariffs down to ZERO if they are able to make an agreement with the U.S. I thanked him on behalf of our Country, and said I look forward to a meeting in the near future.”

In the least, this should show that President Trump is open to negotiation, but trade partners should also pay very close attention that the retaliatory tariffs Trump is levying are not just in response to their tariffs, White House trade advisor Peter Navarro warned on CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning on April 7, “Let’s take Vietnam. When they come to us and say ‘we’ll go to zero tariffs,’ that means nothing to us because it’s the nontariff cheating that matters.”

The non-tariff barriers include things like subsidies, import bans and perhaps most critically competitive currency devaluations, wherein trade partners devalue their own currencies in order to make the dollar stronger and cheapen the price of exports to the U.S.

There, the value of the Vietnamese dong to the U.S. dollar has dropped from 0.00005 in 2011 down to 0.000039 today, a 22 percent decrease. In that time, the trade in goods deficit with Vietnam went from $13 billion in 2011 to $123 billion in 2024, and 846 percent increase, according to data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Obviously, it’s not just Vietnam that is doing this.

The South Korean kwon has depreciated against the dollar since 2011 from 0.00095 to 0.00068 today, a 28.4 percent drop. In that time, the trade deficit with South Korea increased from $13.1 billion in 2011 to $66 billion in 2024, a 404 percent increase.

Or take China, where the yuan has gone from 0.16 of the dollar in 2015 down to its current level 0.1369, a 14.4 percent depreciation. In that time, the trade in goods deficit with China totaled $3.46 trillion, all told. Suffice to say, it has averaged $346 billion a year — a massive subsidy that is enabling China to build a first-rate military — with some years measuring more than others, a massive imbalance that China can maintain indefinitely by continuing to peg the yuan to the dollar.

It’s not just Asia. The Mexican peso has devalued from 0.083 to the dollar in 2011 down to 0.048, a whopping 42 percent decrease. In that time, the trade in goods deficit with Mexico has increased from $64 billion to $171 billion, a 167 percent increase.

Even Canada plays this game. In 2011, the Canadian dollar was $1.04 with the dollar, but now it is down to $0.70, a 32.6 percent decrease. In that time, the trade in goods deficit with Canada has increased from $34 billion to $63 billion, an 85 percent increase.

This is happening everywhere, resulting in 2024 being the greatest trade in goods deficit in American history at $1.2 trillion, which the world then largely reinvests in U.S.-dollar-denominated bonds including treasuries, further strengthening the dollar and continuing the global subsidies into perpetuity.
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But nothing lasts forever. On April 2, President Trump said no more. And now suddenly trade partners want to talk in the hopes of getting a better deal with Trump. The real question though is whether they want to give the U.S. a better deal than they have in the past. Time will tell.

Except now certain members of Congress want to take away the President’s ability to increase and decrease tariffs, locking in the current trade imbalances forever.
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 When I was in the Marine Corps stationed in Vietnam I remember there were several bargains to be had in the local markets as well as in the government stores.  I recall buying china for my wife at a real bargain and having it shipped to her.  Because my parents lived in the Rio Grande Valley, I also took advantage of buying things in the Mexican markets across the border.  While I occasionally had business trips to Canada, I don't recall many bargains there.

See also:

More than 50 Countries Have Contacted White House to Start Trade Talks, Trump Adviser Says