This is my letter to the two Republican (Fascist) Senators and Congressman Al Green.
I recommend that the Congress take away President Trump’s tariffs authorizations and restore this authority to Congress. I received a master’s degree in Latin American Studies from UT-Austin in December, 1971. My specialization was economics and international trade. In March, 1983, I became a certified public accountant. Our business establishment is intertwined with other countries and their well-being is intertwined with us. President Trump’s haphazard and half-baked approach will bring a world-wide recession.
I ask that your staffer who specializes in economics examine this long thoughtful commentary on international trade. When I copied the article for a comfortable font and style for a WORD document, it ran 13 pages.
The author points out that international trade now is short-sighted. There is little or no attention to working conditions or environmental impact.
Sincerely,
Ed
The excerpts:
For decades, “free trade” deals like NAFTA locked in rules written by and for multinational corporations: rules that made offshoring easier, gutted environmental protections, and prioritized investor rights over worker rights. Stagnant wages, emptied factory towns, and rising income inequality have caused widespread pain and frustration among working Americans — which Trump has weaponized again and again.
Tariffs can be part of the answer to these problems, but Trump’s ham-handed approach is not it. There’s no industrial strategy. No labor plan. No climate protections. Just a unilateral, top-down stunt that does nothing to dismantle the corporate architecture still rigging the global economy.
— the rules of the neoliberal trade system were rigged in favor of large corporate interests in the Global North. While workers in the U.S. and around the world were the losers, Wall Street, Big Tech, Big Ag, Big Pharma, and other U.S. corporate giants have always been the winners.
If Trump’s recent attacks on law firms, universities, and the press are any indication, he’s prepared to double down on using his second term to punish enemies and enrich himself and his friends. And his dismantling of watchdog agencies and boosting of big business ties set the stage for tariff exemptions to be even more corrupt and harmful to workers, consumers, and the U.S. and global economy.
Trade justice requires more than poorly designed tariffs. It demands systemic reform: binding labor rights, climate protections, resilient supply chains, and democratic accountability. Trump offers none of that.
There’s no industrial plan. No support for unions. No climate-resilience vision. Just a chaotic, performative tariff regime, which in practice will surely be wielded to reward loyalty and punish dissent.
Working people deserve a system with them at the center, not one that favors corporations.
This isn’t trade justice. It’s a con.
Trump’s Tariffs Are Extremely Dumb, Just Not For The Reasons You Might Think
This is a con on a global scale. Trump is not rejecting the corporate trade model. He’s weaponizing it.