Trans-oceanic cargo ship near the mouth of the Columbia River. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Trump often makes allusions to card playing when discussing his negotiations on various issues, but in the case of trade, it seems he is the one missing cards. He has a much worse hand than he imagines as he attempts to extort our trading partners into make concessions on various issues.

Our trading partners benefit from selling us stuff, or they wouldn’t do it. Trump apparently thinks that gives us enormous leverage in negotiations. What he somehow seems unable to understand is that the United States benefits from buying things from our trading partners. We would pay more money for a wide range of products if we could not import them.

This doesn’t mean that everyone always benefits from our trade. Manufacturing workers were badly hurt as we had trade deals that exposed them to competition with low-wage workers in the developing world, even as we maintained or increased protection for highly educated workers like doctors.

This competition largely

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