Thread: Trump: Obama Has Turned US Into Global Trade Laughingstock

Trump: US Is a Global Trade 'Laughingstock'

Monday, 24 Oct 2011 02:51 PM
By Forrest Jones

Washington's trade agreements give other countries so much of an advantage over its own that the United States has become the laughingstock of the global economy where trade is concerned, says real-estate mogul and reality-TV star Donald Trump.

The United States must toughen its stance in the global economy if it's serious about economic recovery, especially when dealing with China, which keeps its currency cheap to give it an arguably unfair advantage.

"It used to be years ago we'd only make good deals. We were the rulers. We were the kings," Trump tells CNBC.

"Now we're the laughingstock. We're the big bully that gets beat up by everybody," he told CNBC.

Trump said President Barack Obama "should be fired, if we must be honest about it," dismissing the president's recent foreign-policy success stemming with the toppling and death of former Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

"We don't get any oil from Libya," Trump says. "China gets its oil from Libya. What are we doing?"

China has become an economic force in part by growing into an exporting powerhouse, which has been made possible by keeping its currency cheap.

The United States has insisted China strengthen its currency, referred to as the yuan as well as the renminbi, and level the playing field.

Despite some movements out of Beijing in that direction, more meaningful currency reform in China is a long way away, experts say.

"If the renminbi is to be anything but a fringe player globally, it will have to be convertible with very few, and ideally, no restrictions," says Mark Williams, an analyst at London-based research house Capital Economics, according to the AFP newswire.

"My suspicion is that full convertibility is unlikely in the next 15 years."

http://www.moneynews.com/Headline/Trump ... /id/415546

BTT from October 2011. Moved from Other Topics to General Discussion.

Wow. Trump was right, again! Everything he's been saying he's been saying for 35 years.