China's Strategic Moves in Latin America and U.S. Trade Implications

Well, China has, as you know, the so-called Belt and Road Initiative, and they have targeted Latin America, Central and South America. And they are trying to get around a round of the United States symmetrical tariffs. So the United States will be telling them, you are going to pay penny for penny, dollar for dollar what you charge us. If we have a Chevy truck going in there, the same price is going to be. And if you look at all of the tariffs down the line, they're all asymmetrical. They're all ossified from a period in which the Bush administration, the first Bush administration said, we have to give them leeway, and then Bill Clinton did, and so did George W. Because they're going to be prosperous and capitalist, then they'll turn into be a democracy. It didn't quite work out. So Trump comes along and said that didn't work, and it's not fair. And what they're doing to get around these, they're going to Latin America and Mexico, and they're giving them their raw product or their not-quite product. And then they're assembling it in those countries and sending it in, in the case of Mexico, under NAFTA or under less tariffs. And second of all, nothing comes free from the Chinese. So they have a strong presence in an area where under the, what you could call it, the Monroe Doctrine, the Good Neighbor Policy, whatever you want to call it, we have interest there. Because if we get in an existential crisis and we want six frigates from Virginia to get to San Diego, that's the quickest way. So we need to go. If we have a big problem on the horizon, we need to get over to Japan. And we send them there and they say, well, wait a minute. You've got to wait, wait, wait. You've got to get in line and you've got to pay. And we say, no, no, no. We cut in the head. That's what we did when we signed the treaty. So that's what he's trying to do. Be honest. When's the last time you had a

242 - Victor Davis Hanson: President Donald J. Trump and the Fate of the United States

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