More Winning! Additional Benefits From Mexico Deal?

As noted here by my colleague Elizabeth Vaughn and your humble scribe here, Donald Trump has secured a signed agreement with Mexico, securing their assistance in stemming the tide of illegal aliens swarming across our Southern border. Yesterday on Breitbart News Saturday, host Matt Boyle interviewed Stephen Moore, onetime Trump Fed nominee, forced to withdraw due to establishment resistance.

Moore had this to say about President Trump’s deal with Mexico. Note: I transcribed this from a recorded broadcast. Any errors are of course, mine. The entire segment can be found on Sirius XM.

You know, I have to confess, I was against the tariffs strategy. I didn’t think Mexico would come to the table. I’ll admit I was wrong, because; Boy has this worked; Now Mexico has sent thousands of their National Guard to the border. So, this is a big, big victory for Donald Trump.

Moore went on to describe his assessment as it relates to the much larger trade dispute—with China. Here’s the money quote.

I do think this will have a positive implication for the China negotiations because China is going to look at this thing and go, “Ha, this guy really knows how to negotiate, he’s going to win,” If Trump can get that same kind of concession from China, and I think he will, like he got from Mexico, the economy is just going to soar.

The part about China all of the sudden having some great epiphany regarding President Trump’s negotiating skills is pretty good public relations, but not much else. I do agree that the President is very likely to come to an agreement with China; an agreement as good or better than with Mexico. Here’s why.

What has happened over the past 6 months is that the net trade relationship between Mexico (and Canada) has strengthened. If this newly-signed agreement proves out, that relationship will get even better. With escalating tariffs on Chinese goods increasing costs, the environment is now set for U.S. trade merchants to seek other suppliers, perhaps in Mexico and/or Canada. These suppliers could also be other partners in the Pacific Rim.

In any case, no matter which country(s) step up as replacement partners, there will be additional pressure on China. As an added benefit to that, China will have far less U.S. consumer-provided revenue to fund its military expansion in the South China Sea.

Winning!

Mike Ford is a retired Infantry Officer who writes on Military, Foreign Affairs and occasionally dabbles in Political and Economic matters.

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