There is a geopolitical strategy
happening this week that is essentially under the radar.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin,
USTR Robert Lighthizer, Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow, and the U.S.
trade team are heading to China.
The outcome of their discussions connects the initiatives behind
North Korea, China and NAFTA. The steel and aluminum tariffs are part of
the toolbox. Only one media personality, our favorite suspicious cat,
appears to understand the larger economic play and how it is being deployed.
From the U.S. perspective, NAFTA has a fatal flaw. Mexico and Canada admitted the flawfor the first time a few weeks ago. The
flaw is Mexico and Canada’s exploitation of NAFTA as a backdoor into the U.S.
market for Asian, mostly Chinese, manufactured products. Multinational
corporations who have invested in Canada and Mexico are determined to
retain the flaw.
President Trump understands that as long
as Canada and Mexico can unilaterally make trade agreements with the EU and
ASEAN nations, any NAFTA agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico is moot.
The NAFTA talks are paused.
The U.S. Team now heads to China.
There’s no doubt part of the objective is to begin a structural discussion that
must happen for the U.S. trade team to approach closing the fatal NAFTA flaw from the source of origin. [*note*
on the EU side of this issue, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is leading a
similar discussion. Mnuchin and Lighthizer are focused on Asia, Ross has responsibility for
Europe]
The Trump doctrine: A geopolitical
strategy based on accurately assigned ownership, economics, lveverage and
self-interest.
The North Korean nuclear
denuclearization agreement, and substantive peace treaty between North and
South Korea, is part of the geopolitical trade negotiation with the U.S.
(President Trump) and Beijing (Chairman Xi).
All three issues: •NAFTA, •China Trade
Deal, and •North Korea all become part of the larger dynamic. These economic
initiatives and Korean strategic peace initiatives are connected by President
Trump’s unique use of economic leverage.
I have no idea how Team U.S.A. plans to
frame a deal with China that simultaneously solves NAFTA (fatal flaw) and North
Korea; however, there’s no doubt -due to the sequencing and timing- that this
objective is well underway.
China controls the DPRK and when Trump
defeats China on economic issues, China will save face by giving up DPRK’s
nukes. In order to get a better trade/economic outcome.
The defeat of North Korea’s nukes
doesn’t come by confronting North Korean nukes’ it comes from China giving them
up, because their economic survival depends on it.
China saves face in defeat by
positioning the actual defeat at the feet of Kim Jong-un. Everything else is
chaff and countermeasures.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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