This is the Kader Daily Podcast for Wednesday, October 24, 2018.

I'm Caleb Brown.

After rejecting the Trans-Pacific Partnership and reshaping but not abandoning NAFTA the US is moving toward

trade agreements with various countries but what's the underlying motivation it

doesn't appear to be free trade is there any strategy at all in US trade negotiations?

You know, trade policy analyst Simon Lester comments.

Yeah, the theory of some people in the Trump administration is that nobody has challenged China before and if we impose tariffs on

them that will get them to to liberalize to you know finally follow the rules of the

world trading system. Most trade policy experts says that's unlikely and so far what we've seen

is the evidence, you know, hasn't worked out that way. In response to the Trump administration's

tariff, China has responded with its own tariffs. to the Trump administration's tariff.

China has responded with his own tariffs.

So what we've just seen is a proliferation of tariffs on both sides.

And there doesn't seem to be any sign at this point of that letting up.

I think the Trump administration is pretty confident in its approach. They think this is going to work. They see the U.S. economy doing well, so they see no harm from the tariffs. I think that until we see some blip in the U.S. economy,

which you know, as we know historically, I mean the U.S. economy won't boom forever.

Until we see some downturn, I don't think the Trump administration is going to back off. I think China has too

much pride to sort of back down in the face of US bullying. So I think we're just stuck with these

tariffs for the next, you know, in the short term, the next few months, until there's some

major shake up in the election, the midterm elections or some economic downturn in the United

States, this is what we have and people will have to deal with it.

You know, we're going to pay, consumers will pay higher prices, some U.S. businesses will be hurt,

...