Trump trade speech draws swift rebuttals

“This wave of globalization has wiped out totally, totally our middle class,” Donald Trump said Tuesday at a recycling plant in Monessen, Pa.
“This wave of globalization has wiped out totally, totally our middle class,” Donald Trump said Tuesday at a recycling plant in Monessen, Pa.

MONESSEN, Pa. -- Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called Tuesday for a new era of economic "Americanism," promising to restore millions of lost factory jobs by backing away from decades of U.S. policy that encouraged trade with other nations.


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Hillary Clinton showcased her economic plans Tuesday at a high-tech training center in Denver, tying business startups by young people to student-loan forgiveness.

The speech marked a break from years of Republican Party advocacy for unencumbered trade among nations, and it quickly drew condemnation from GOP business leaders.

In a 35-minute speech, Trump blamed former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, for the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs.

He threatened to leave the North American Free Trade Agreement and vowed to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an agreement among 12 Pacific Rim nations that has yet to take effect.

He pointed to China as a source of many of the U.S.' economic woes, promising to label that country a currency manipulator and slap new tariffs on America's leading source of imports.

"This wave of globalization has wiped out totally, totally our middle class," Trump said, standing in front of pallets of recycled aluminum cans on a factory floor. "It doesn't have to be this way. We can turn it around, and we can turn it around fast."

Delivered in a Pennsylvania steel town, the speech underscored the central message of Trump's campaign: that policies aimed at boosting international trade -- and America's intervention in wars and disputes abroad -- have weakened the country.

"I promise you, if I become president, we're going to be working again. We're going to have great jobs again," he said. "You're going to be so happy."

But his comments drew criticism from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a traditional Republican ally.

"Under Trump's trade plans, we would see higher prices, fewer jobs, a weaker economy," the organization said on Twitter, directing readers to a blog post that said Trump's policies would lead to millions of job losses and a recession. "Even under best case scenario, Trump's tariffs would strip us of at least 3.5 million jobs," the group wrote in one Twitter message.

Many economists have dismissed Trump's promise to immediately restore manufacturing jobs as dubious at best, given the effect of automation and the many years it typically takes to negotiate trade agreements.

Trump also worked Tuesday to counter criticism from economists and business groups that have argued his policy proposals would lead to a damaging trade war with China and perhaps other countries.

"We already have a trade war," he told the crowd. "And we're losing badly."

While renegotiating tougher deals with America's foreign trading partners might help some businesses, manufacturing as a share of total U.S. jobs has been slipping for several decades. The number of such jobs has risen slightly since the end of the recession, but the introduction of robotics and access to cheaper foreign markets has reduced U.S. factory employment to a total last seen around 1941.

The National Association of Manufacturers slammed Trump on Tuesday, with the organization's president, Jay Timmons, writing on Twitter: "@realDonaldTrump you have it backward. Trade is GOOD for #mfg workers & #jobs. Let's #MakeAmericaTradeAgain."

In making his case for a new approach to trade, Trump recounted economic policies in place at the founding of the country. The businessman then skipped ahead to the 1990s, blaming the Clinton administration for the negative effects of globalization. He cited Bill Clinton's support of NAFTA -- which aimed to reduce barriers to trade between the U.S., Canada and Mexico -- and China's entry into the World Trade Organization.

Trump challenged reporters to ask Hillary Clinton whether she would be willing to denounce the Trans-Pacific Partnership on her first day in office and unconditionally rule out its passage in any form.

Clinton's position on trade has been a frequent attack line for Trump. She has supported some agreements, opposed others and flipped on both NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which she promoted dozens of times as secretary of state.

She now says she would back trade deals only if they fulfilled a three-pronged test of creating "good jobs," raising wages and improving national security.

Clinton supporters struck back at Trump, attacking his credibility as a critic of free trade and outsourcing. On a conference call Tuesday afternoon, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, accused Trump of hypocrisy for taking a hard line on trade while doing business.

"I'll give Donald Trump this. On trade, with all of his personal experience profiting from making products overseas, he's the perfect expert to talk about outsourcing," Brown said. "Trump doesn't make things in America."

Clinton also showcased her economic plans Tuesday, proposing to create jobs and stimulate growth by allowing entrepreneurs to defer student loan payments.

"We need more job creators, and we need more young people starting businesses," the presumptive Democratic nominee told a crowd of coders inside a Denver tech-training facility.

She proposed permitting startup founders and employees to forgo payments on their federal student loans for up to three years. Those who launch businesses that provide social benefits would also be permitted to apply for forgiveness of up to $17,500 of their debt after five years.

Clinton also called for connecting every household to high-speed Internet by 2020 and training 50,000 new computer science teachers.

She also took a swipe at Trump by quoting his slogan, "Make American Great Again." She called it "code for saying you want to go back to what it used to be. ... That is not who we are as Americans. We don't want to go back -- we go forward."

Information for this article was contributed by Jill Colvin, Lisa Lerer, Ken Thomas, Josh Boak and Nicholas Riccardi of The Associated Press; and by Nick Corasaniti and Alexander Burns of The New York Times.

A Section on 06/29/2016

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