In Trade Actions, Trump Embraces Unpredictability<br />In a speech delivered earlier this month in Washington, Robert E. Lighthizer, the United States trade<br />representative, called China “a threat to the world trading system that is unprecedented.”<br />Faced with such an enemy, one might imagine the United States would gather allies in a concerted effort to contain China’s mercantilist ambitions.<br />The decision on the Canadian airplane maker, Bombardier, may imperil a deal on which Mr. Trump has broadcast conflicting<br />intentions — the North American Free Trade Agreement, the landmark pact spanning Canada, the United States and Mexico.<br />If the decision is ultimately affirmed by the International Trade Commission — a quasi-independent judicial agency —<br />that would leave in place tariffs as much as 219 percent on sales of some Bombardier planes in the United States.<br />He accused China of pushing down the value of its money to make its goods unfairly cheap on world<br />markets — even as China was in fact doing the opposite, intervening to prop up its currency.
