I would certainly not agree with Trump unilaterally placing tariffs on imports to the United States for as already stated, that would undoubtedly draw reciprocal action from Countries affected. However, I believe that the prospect of a trade war does shine a light on Globalization and the power huge companies have over governments and populations throughout the world.
Those who support globalization argue that the development has lifted many in poor nations out of absolute poverty as manufacturers have moved production to those countries. The foregoing is a true statement, but in doing that, those manufacturers have all too often taken away safe, secure, and well paid employment in developed economies and traded them for unsafe, poorly paid employment in developing nations.
In the above those often huge manufacturers create great power and wealth for those in top positions in those companies while creating inequality even within those organisations themselves. They also hold ransom power over the governments of the country's they produce in by way of threatening to move production away from those countries should worker protection rights or workplace safety legislation be improved.
In the way these global corporations operate, anyone can find the reasons for Donald Trump's election victory. In that you need only look to the "rust belt states" where many in the electorate feel they have been "sold out" by the companies that once gave them well paid employment.
Donald Trump is right to bring to the attention of these global companies that if their main market is in the United States then the employment benefits of production should also be centred there. The alternative the foregoing would be to insist through trade agreements that employees of these manufacturers employed outside the United States have similar wages, safety and workplace rights as those that would be applied if production was based in the United States.
In short, let us see a push to the top rather than a race to the bottom.
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