Donald Trump's views on trade have taken a battering in a newly released report that was not only published by his own White House, but presented under his own signature...
The president regularly bemoans a trade deficit with the northern neighbour. Once again Monday, he was complaining about Canadian trade...
A far more positive story about trade appears in the newly released 2018 White House "Economic Report of the President" — it's an annual document prepared by the president's team, with Trump himself signing the introductory foreword.
The document smashes at a few of the president's favoured themes.
One involves the supposed trade deficit with Canada. While Trump keeps talking about it, and insisting it exists, the document he signed states the opposite — that Canada is among the few countries in the world with whom the U.S. runs a surplus...
The report also contradicts the president by stating that trade has helped the U.S. economy grow; that economies are shifting away from manufacturing; that foreign trade is increasingly important to the modern economy; that America has a good record of success in international dispute panels at the WTO; and that you can't rework trade agreements to fix an import-export deficit...
This is excerpeted from 26 February 2018 edition of the CBC News.