In Defense of President Trump's Trade Policy.

"Three points must be made in response to Phil Gramm and Donald Boudreaux's op-ed "Trump's Trade War Was a Loser" (Sept. 12). First, in concluding the policy failed, the authors ignore that the Section 301 tariffs on China reduced our dependency on a global adversary. For the first time, a president challenged China's unfair practices. This alone makes the policy a success.

Second, manufacturing output and employment were both up in the first Trump year, 2017, and again in 2018. In 2019 employment in manufacturing was up; output was up in nominal dollars but down slightly in inflation-adjusted dollars. This was a global phenomenon in 2019. Still, the U.S. saw less of a decline than most other advanced countries. The Trump trade policy worked.

Third, the authors claim that countries are better off running trade deficits -- consuming more imports and producing fewer exports, a policy that would lead you to bankruptcy in your personal life. They argue, "From the settlement of Jamestown in 1607 until World War I, the U.S. ran chronic trade deficits." Not so. While we ran deficits when we were a colony (and made Britain rich with its surpluses), and in the first years of the republic, over time tariffs were used to build up our manufacturing.

From 1870 to 1970, the U.S. ran surpluses almost every year, many quite large. It is in part because of these surpluses that the U.S. economy became the world's biggest by 1890. We created good jobs and they created strong families and vibrant communities.

The trend began to change in the 1970s, but the crisis really started when, in the Clinton administration, Congress passed Nafta and the Uruguay Round trade deal and gave China permanent most-favored-nation low tariffs -- the trifecta of bad policy. Since then, we have run up over $12 trillion in deficits, more to China than anywhere else. We consequently lost tens of thousands of factories, a disaster for our working people. This self-destructive policy was finally reversed in the Trump administration.

In 2019, the last pre-Covid year, median family income rose by 6.8%, the highest since data has been kept. That is why the Trump trade policies are so popular with working people.

Robert E. Lighthizer

Palm Beach, Fla.

Mr. Lighthizer was U.S. Trade Representative, 2017-21." [1]

1. In Defense of President Trump's Trade Policy. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 21 Sep 2023: A.16.