Candidates for the Democratic party nomination for president attacked President Donald Trump’s trade policies on Thursday night while offering no specific alternatives.
“I agree with those who have said that this erratic, haphazard trade war is hurting American families,” Julian Castro said. “When I become president I would immediately begin to negotiate with China to ratchet down that trade war. We have leverage there.”
He offered no specifics, however, about what that leverage would be apart from the Trump administration’s policies of applying tariffs.
“The president clearly has no strategy,” South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg said. In comments that followed, however, he offered no strategy of his own.
Buttigieg instead attacked the president for not quickly reaching a deal with China.
“Is it just me, or was that supposed to happen in April?” he asked.
Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota alluded to a study by Moody’s that claimed the trade war with China had cost the U.S. 300,000 jobs. That would amount to about 2 months of jobs created on average so far this year. In reality, unemployment is at record lows and many employers complain they cannot find enough workers to fill open spots. For several months, the U.S. has had more open positions than it has workers to fill them.
Klobuchar also offered no new strategy for dealing with China.