Day 227: Trump: We May Cut Off Trade With Half The World

Anyone who trades with North Korea may not be trading with the U.S. for long, according to Trump.

In yet another reckless use of Twitter, today, Donald Trump threatened to cut off trade with any country doing business with North Korea.

Countries that currently make up the biggest trade partners with North Korea include:

• China
• Russia
• India
• Pakistan
• Thailand
• The Philippines
• Singapore

The population of those countries is approximately 3.2 billion people. Add on the other countries who do a smaller amount of trade with North Korea and Trump has threatened the bottom line of countries that make up over half of the worldwide population.

Even if most of the countries wouldn’t risk losing the U.S. as a trade partner and would drop North Korea if Trump followed through with his threat, China and Russia certainly would not. It would just push an isolationist country deeper into bed with the U.S.’s two biggest geopolitical rivals.

Of course China would suffer significantly if the U.S. cut off an import-export relationship. China currently enjoys a trade surplus in the hundreds of billions of dollars annually with the U.S. But the American consumer would see goods like electronics and clothing skyrocket in cost. A double whammy of competition being driven down and cheaper alternatives being banned could see things like televisions doubling in price overnight. Shirts that can be made for a fraction of what they’re produced for in the U.S. would disappear.

It seems Trump is unlikely to follow through with his threats because 1) it’s Donald Trump we’re talking about and 2) the man does a ton of business with both China and Russia. There’s no way he’s risking harming his personal fortune.

Still, perhaps threatening a broad trade policy with far-reaching consequences at noon on the Sunday of a holiday weekend is not the best use of Trump’s time.

227 days in, 1235 to go

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