No you really have the causality backwards here.

doesnt mean we wont still do other things with other countries

you are being foolish

the truth is weve been bending over backwards for the rest of the world for a long time

especially one particular country

America spends 648 billion dollars alone on importing consumer goods @Machinimal

in the middle east

you act as if just naming a figure means you are right

most consumer goods we can produce ourselves

SO I mean if Merkle makes an angry face it doesn't matter. What is best for other places is that we remain strong and financially stable. Because you lesser nations do not have any replacement for us.

At a higher cost.

you have no evidence to suggest what percentage of that will go away

only because of labor standards

Because you do not have the manufacturing capabilities of say for example, China.

you are just speculating and being fearful

we do, but china has no labor standards

So you want to drop your standards down to China-tier? @Machinimal

To compete?

we need to get rid of minimum wage at the very least

Is that the "America first!" you're championing?

648B is such a small number on this scale. And again 2/3rds of our trade is *on the same continent* as us.

we dont need free trade. or to bend to the will of china

648B is a huge number, considering you import 3.1 Trillion per year...

Are you deliberately being obtuse?

we need to reinvest the money we spend on chinese goods on ourselves, incentivize new businesses in the us

besides its all shit anyways

fuck china

you got it all wrong dude

other than china is there even a nation that exports more than it imports

china imports almost all of their food

btw

Key American exports are commercial aircraft and parts. You need the external markets so that you can keep those businesses afloat.

you are acting as if us being tough on our allies/rivals means a large chunk of trade will disappear

when thats not the case

Else, Europe will take the market share.

It's already the case in Europe @UnScottable

lel

europe

Hostile American policy has pushed Europe towards China.

we definitely dont need them

they're not going to stop doing trade with us because trade makes them money