Here’s what Donald Trump is really trying to do by attacking Canada and Mexico’s economies | Alexander Downer
None of us like all of his polices but you can’t deny the new US president has made an energetic start to his second term, writes Alexander Downer.
Opinion
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President Trump has certainly shown himself to be energetic and decisive. For a 78-year-old he has an extraordinary capacity for hard work and decision-making.
Some of those decisions will be good for America and may turn out to be good for the world. He’s right to start looking for ways of reducing the huge cost of America’s bureaucracy and to try to improve productivity – that is value for money – in the public sector.
If only Australian governments would have that same mindset.
In South Australia, the state government has just announced a return to the policies of the 1940s by renationalising the railways.
Imagine politicians and public servants running the railways! And raising the capital to pay for them. Good luck with that.
Trump has made it clear he’s going to embark on a dramatic policy to reduce US energy prices.
He’ll do that by scrapping subsidies for inefficient and intermittent power generation sources such as wind power and encourage greater use of gas and nuclear power sources.
They should have a substantial impact on energy prices in America and by reducing energy prices Trump will increase the competitiveness of his country’s industries as well as boost the living standards of the American people.
Trump’s approach to climate change is different from the UN-driven consensus.
The UN wants the world substantially to reduce its living standards, increase the incidence of global poverty and regress into an earlier era of economic hardship. That’s their solution to global warming.
Trump‘s approach is to spend money on adaptation to global warming and invest heavily in research and development to develop new technologies which will efficiently produce energy with a low-carbon footprint.
In the meantime, the economy can keep growing, industries create jobs and people’s living standards flourish.
TELL US WHY IN THE COMMENTS
So I’m not as upset as many over his decision to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement.
It’s not that I am a climate change sceptic but it is clear that addressing climate change by undermining the capital system and smashing people’s living standards is never going to be a sustainable or successful policy.
Mind you, I know I’m in a tiny minority thinking this but it’s hardly surprising people of the far left are by far the most enthusiastic supporters of aggressive and expensive climate change policies.
They see them as an excellent way to deconstruct the capitalist economy!
In foreign policy, there’s good and bad about the Trump administration.
It was impressive to see the way President Trump dealt with the Colombian president’s refusal to accept back his own citizens who have entered the United States illegally and been convicted of crimes.
When President Petro of Columbia refused to allow US aircraft to land in Columbia with the illegal deportees, President Trump threatened to impose a 25 per cent tariff on Columbia’s exports to the US Within a couple of hours, the Colombian president caved in and the deportees were returned to their homeland!
I also have optimism that President Trump will deal decisively with his international adversaries – Russia, Iran and China.
He needs to make it crystal clear to President Putin that Russia has no chance of taking over Ukraine and the US will make sure they never can.
Once President Putin accepts that there will be a path towards a ceasefire
As for the Iranians, they are already on notice that further bellicose activity from their surrogates – Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis- will be brutally punished.
And what is more, Iran will be held responsible. And if Iran proceeds with its ambition to build a nuclear weapon, expect a joint American/Israeli operation to destroy Iran‘s nuclear facilities.
As for China, they too are on notice from the Trump administration: one false step to blockade or even invade Taiwan will be met with a massive American military response. It will also shatter China’s economy, which is substantially dependent on economic engagement with the United States.
But not all is quite so rosy with the Trump administration.
President Trump‘s decision to impose 25 per tariffs on Canada and Mexico and increase tariffs on China is very bad policy. For a start, has ignited a trade war from which no one will win. Canada, Mexico, China and the United States will all be poorer for this policy.
It’s fair enough for President Trump to want to stop illegal migrants coming into the US from Canada and Mexico and to stop fentanyl being sent from China through Mexico and Canada to the United States.
Sure, those countries should do more to stop this.
And it’s true in recent years they haven’t made a great effort. It seems, though, that this damaging policy of punishing them with tariffs is a temporary expedient to encourage them to address the issue of illegal migrants and drug trafficking.
So overall, President Trump has made a dramatic start.
And he has more courage and a stronger sense of direction than almost all other Western politicians.
That is admirable even if none of us like all of his policies.
Alexander Downer was foreign affairs minister from 1996-2007, and high commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2014-18.
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