LETTER: Trump has America’s best interests in mind on trade

Normally I am in agreement with the Review-Journal’s viewpoint. So when I read the editorial headlined “Trump tariffs continue to hurt American consumers” I was surprised.

The editorial never mentions the reasons President Donald Trump has to try to level the playing field. Everyone knows the United States has been at a disadvantage with its trading partners, but none more than China. In June 2018, the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy released a 36-page report titled “How China’s Economic Aggression Threatens the Technologies and Intellectual Property of the United States and the World.” I don’t have the space here to list all the ways China cheats. But, above all, China cheats by stealing key technologies and intellectual property from the United States and other countries. These activities range from cyberespionage and forced technology transfer down to massive open-source collection and physical theft.

In light of these egregious transgressions how can you accuse President Trump of economic nationalism? We are in a war for our economic survival, and China is an enemy in this war in every sense of the word.

For the first time in our country’s history, we have a president with the courage to stand up for America’s economic interests. There will be short-term pain, as there is in any war. But to acquiesce to our enemies and continue the appeasement policies of previous administrations is economic suicide. To quote the last sentence in your editorial, “That should be reason enough to favor a more balanced approach to trade.”