海角大神

Beginning with his campaign kickoff speech, President Trump has accused trading partners of not playing fair.

鈥淐hina comes over and they dump all their stuff,鈥� Mr. Trump announced in June 2015, referring to China exporting cheap subsidized goods, and 鈥渢hey devalue their currency so brilliantly,鈥� he added.

Those concerns appeared to surface again last week, when Trump . One order calls for a study of US trade deficits to identify potential trade abuses and cheating with some of the nation's largest trading partners. The second order seeks a more efficient enforcement of anti-dumping laws to keep foreign manufactures from聽undercutting US companies with cheaper goods.

"If anyone had any doubt about the president's resolve to fix the trade problems, these two executive orders should end that speculation now and for all time," said聽Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Friday. "This marks the beginning of the totally new chapter in the American trade relationship with our partners overseas."

But despite the president's tough talk on trade, the orders actually continue long-standing US trade policy, say some analysts.聽While none of former聽 had the exact same goals as those Trump signed on Friday, his administration against countries that skirted the rules of international commerce, bringing 25 trade enforcement actions at the World Trade Organization, more than any other country during his time in office.聽In addition, those efforts were informed, in part, by a report very similar to the one commissioned by Trump鈥檚 executive order. And stepping up the enforcement of anti-dumping laws, analysts say, is simply low hanging fruit.聽A聽聽called attention to the problem last summer, identifying $2.3 billion worth of uncollected fees. 聽

鈥淭he country-by-country trade deficit report will not add anything of value to the information in the which has been issued annually for nearly 30 years,鈥� says聽Matt Gold, an adjunct law professor at Fordham University.聽That report, put out annually by the Office of the United States Trade Representative, identifies barriers to trade put up by each of America鈥檚 trading partners. As for collecting fees on antidumping and countervailing duties violations,聽鈥淎ny president would have done exactly what President Trump is doing," he adds.

While the new report singles out those countries with which the United States is running a trade deficit, Professor Gold, who served as deputy assistant US trade representative for North America under Mr. Obama, says that this approach doesn鈥檛 tell the whole story.

鈥淚f you have a country with which we have a trade surplus, they could still be violating trade obligations to the United States, and their violations could be making that trade surplus lower than it should be.鈥�

, for instance, found that the US has a goods trading surplus of $12.7 billion with Australia, and a $15.3 billion services trading surplus. But even then, despite a free-trade agreement signed in 2005, Australian regulators require many radio and TV stations to broadcast minimum percentages of Australian-produced and -performed content, and prohibit importation of several US agricultural products.

Dany Bahar, a fellow in global economy and development at the Brookings Institution, said that more information can be helpful in removing barriers like these. Discussing the executive orders in Brookings's "5 on 45" podcast, 聽the Trump administration for showing a desire to "engage in evidence-based policymaking," and suggests that the White House "use the data聽[found in the studies] to focus on particular ongoing trade disputes."

"If these disputes are based on actually unfair trade practices by other governments, such as export subsidies or dumping ... then solving these disputes could help restore competitiveness for US goods and therefore, eventually, reduce the trade deficit."

But at the same time, Dr. Bahar, whose research focuses on international economics and development, downplays the impact that this reduction could have for industrial workers.聽

"Forcefully trying to reverse a deficit won鈥檛 result in more jobs for Americans," he predicts. "It is technology, not trade, that explains the vast majority of lost jobs in the manufacturing sector in the US since the mid-1990s.鈥�

海角大神's Simon Montlake noted in series on US trade and manufacturing聽that聽a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study聽points to automation as "an even bigger culprit [than trade] for the job loss" in US manufacturing from 1990 to 2007.

So why the tough talk on trade?聽

鈥淧olitics,鈥� Gold suggests.聽

Throughout the campaign, Trump鈥檚 attention on China's trade practices and condemnation of trade deals like NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership earned major support from blue-collar workers. But this focus on unfair trading practices 鈥� and their consequences for US workers 鈥� could also complicate Trump鈥檚 meeting with China President Xi Jinping scheduled for April 6 and 7.

鈥淭he meeting ... with China will be a very difficult one,鈥澛犅燭hursday, 鈥渋n that we can no longer have massive trade deficits and job losses.鈥�

Will such talk win the Trump administration points with voters?

If taking a harder line against trade violations 鈥� either through these executive orders or in meeting with foreign leaders 鈥� doesn鈥檛 soon create more manufacturing jobs, it鈥檚 unlikely to make a difference in the eyes of those voters, says Chad Broughton, a senior lecturer in public policy studies at the University of Chicago.

Having chronicled the decline of Galesburg, Ill., a former appliance manufacturing hub, in his 2015 book "," he tells the Monitor in an email that, 鈥渕y sense from talking to white working class voters in Galesburg is that their support for Trump is fairly cynical and thin.鈥�

鈥淪ome are lifelong Democrats that switched [parties] to punish Clinton, in part for her and her husband鈥檚 support for NAFTA. They voted for Trump despite serious reservations about Trump's character and competence, and will need to see results in their own lives, and not just symbolism, if they鈥檙e going to vote for him again.鈥�