LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

China is causing this trade war

Tue, Aug 21, 2018 (2 a.m.)

China’s trade war against the world started the day it began to manipulate its currency to gain a trade advantage.

Trade wars are nothing new. That last major one was in the 1980s, when Japan and Germany had large surpluses and the United States had a large trade deficit. It was easily resolved. The parties met in 1986, and the Japanese yen and German mark were revalued up and the U.S. dollar down. Problem solved.

This trade war is different. China has the largest trade surplus in history, yet, the Chinese yuan recently dropped in value.

Unlike Japan and Germany, China refuses to play by the rules. How do you get a poker cheat to stop cheating? How do you get a drug dealer to stop dealing drugs? Since China won’t stop its currency manipulation, the only sensible alternative is tariffs. Stop cheating and the tariffs will come down.

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