Peter Navarro is a brilliant Harvard-educated Democratic economist that has been picked by President Trump to direct the newly-created National Trade Council.  After running for office three times without success, he made the prudent move into appointee politics.  He is also the author of Death By China, which warned of war with the Asian giant, both militarily and economically.

Most economists support the notion of “free trade” and globalization, and so does Navarro, but he sees it as something that works in theory but not in practice, because it is so badly administered.  While nobody will argue there is no room for improvement, the current approach looks like a heavy-handed approach to brain-surgery.

Press reports that Mexico and Canada are open to “updating” NAFTA offer a definite WIN for the President and Navarro, but the devilish details won’t be known for a long time.  He also feels multi-lateral deals are less effective than bi-lateral deals.  In other words, it would be better to negotiate new trade deals with each nation individually than to negotiate one deal with a group of nations, such as Europe. Bi-lateral deals allow nations to “arbitrage” trade differences between trading parties.

He is certainly impressive and qualified, but I am concerned he may know more about economics than he does negotiation, and that he may be “obsessed” with China.  Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and wish him well.