Our imports from Mexico far exceed our exports.
So what? The pie grows. Trade surpluses do not equate to higher standards of living. And the dollars sent overseas to purchase foreign goods gets reinvested in the US in the form of stock purchases or start-up capital.
Secondly, and perhaps most importantly consideration is jobs lost due to NAFTA.
Jobs gained from NAFTA have far outweighed jobs lost from NAFTA.
I'm not sure I'm understanding your assessment of Trump embracing DEM policy on this.
Protectionist trade policy is Democrat policy. In the long run, it hurts America.
Take steel for example. Asian steel producers kick our asses on a level playing field. They offer more flexibility, more variety, at a lower cost than heavily unionized, inflexible US steel producers. And American manufacturers who purchase steel can offer their products at a lower more competitive price by utilizing Korean or Japanese steel than they can dealing with US steel producers.
And then there is specialized steel. American steel consumers can purchase practically any quantity of special order steel from foreign producers while their US counterparts balk at filling small specialized orders.
The bottom line here is that foreign producers are competitively kicking our asses when it comes to steel production. And instead of beating them at their own game, we instead propose punishing them by making their steel unaffordable while at the same time rewarding US steel manufacturers for being lousy competitors.
Democrat policy? You betcha.
