TAMPA – Wednesday before a enthusiastic crowd at the Florida State Fairgrounds, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump put a focus on the economy by laying out what he described to be “seven steps” that he said would “bring back our jobs and create millions of new jobs.”
First Trump focused on trade, pointing to withdrawing from Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and putting in place new trade negotiators to make “great” trade deals versus what he declared currently to be “incompetent and bad” trade deals.
“Number one: I’m going to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks which have yet to be ratified,” Trump said that earned him a roaring reaction from the crowd. “So important. Number two: I’m going to appoint the toughest and smartest trade negotiators to fight on behalf of American workers so that we make great trade deals with other countries instead of incompetent and bad trade deals.”
He then outlined what he would instruct members of his administration to do as it pertains to foreign nations that are acting to “harm American workers.”
“I’m going to direct the secretary of commerce to identify every violation of trade agreements that a foreign country is currently using to harm American workers, of which there are many,” he said. “Because they rightfully think we’re run by incompetent people. So I don’t blame China, I don’t blame Japan and Mexico and these other countries. They’re getting away with murder, but if I were them, I’d be trying to do the same thing. I blame our leaders. I want us to be on the winning side. We will be on the winning side if you elect me on November 8. I promise. I will then direct all appropriate agencies to use every tool under American and international law to end these abuses. We’re being abused.
The North American Free Trade Agreement, which was agreed to under his opponent Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s husband former President Bill Clinton, would also be a target of a Trump administration, he said.
“Number four: I’m going to tell our NAFTA partners that I intend to immediately renegotiate the terms of that horrible agreement signed by Bill Clinton to get a better deal for our workers. And if we don’t get the deal that we want, which has to be good and has to make up for all of these years of abuse and lost time, then we will walk away, which is fine.
Other actions he included would be a focus China as a currency manipulator and as a country that engages in the practice of unfairly subsidizing certain companies.
“I’m going to instruct my treasury secretary to label China a currency manipulator, the greatest in the world. Any country that devalues their currency in order to take unfair advantage of the United States and all of its companies who can’t compete will face tariffs and taxes to stop the cheating. And when they see that, they will stop the cheating. I don’t think our politicians even know what’s going on. And they will stop or we’re going to take in one hell of a lot of money, I’ll tell you that.”
“I’m going to instruct the United States trade representative to bring trade cases against China, both in this country and at the WTO, World Trade Organization,” he continued. “China’s unfair subsidy and its behavior is prohibited by the terms of its entrance into the WTO, and I intend to enforce our rules. That’s all. Very simple. And they know it’s coming. They’ve called a lot of friends of mine. They know it’s coming. They say, ‘What do we do? What do we do?'”
Those acts Trump said would reduce $505 billion trade deficit the United States has with the Chinese.
Lastly, he included ending government corruption and took aim squarely at Hillary Clinton.
“Let me tell you a few more things that we’re going to do. We’re going to end government corruption,” Trump said. “Hillary Clinton ran the State Department like a failed leader in a third-world country. That’s what it’s run — it’s run like a third- world country. She sold favors and access in exchange for cash. She sold it. She sold favors, she sold access, and wait until you see when it’s revealed all of those people. Now, it looks like it’s 50 percent of the people that saw her had to make contributions to the Clinton Foundation. Wait until you see ultimately what she did for all of those people. Wait until you see. These are not people that go in, as I said, and talk about, how are you feeling.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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