U.S. Mends Ties With Allies, Prepares for Trade Battle With China

Gathering strength for a brutal trade war with China, the United States appears to be trying to patch things up with its friends.U.S. and Mexican negotiators are meeting in Washington Thursday and Friday to work on a rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement — an effort that looked virtually dead a few months ago. And last week President Donald Trump announced a cease-fire in a potentially destructive dispute with the European Union over trade in cars, trucks and auto parts.


Meanwhile, the Trump administration ratcheted up the pressure on China this week by proposing a doubling in tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports. Beijing has vowed to counterpunch with trade sanctions of its own.

“If you’re going to take China on, you’d better make sure you’ve shored up your base with your allies and made sure you kept other markets open,” said Michael Camunez, president of Monarch Global Strategies consultancy and a former U.S. Commerce Department official.

Trump campaigned on a vow to overhaul the 24-year-old NAFTA with Canada and Mexico, a pact he called a job-killing disaster.