Is Free Trade with China anti-Populist?

Vincent J. Curtis

6 Dec 2017

It is sometimes hard to tell if Prime Minister Trudeau is as confused as he sounds, or if he is merely playing to the cognitive dissonance of his progressive audience.  His comments concerning trade with China provide several examples.

Progressivism stands for rule by experts, in accordance with the most advanced ideas of the elites.  While the agreement of the unwashed with the progressive program is welcomed, objection from the unwashed is a sign of the deplorable in the unwashed.  And Mr. Trudeau proudly flaunts his progressivism.

When Mr. Trudeau speaks of pursuing free trade with China as a means of combatting the rising tide of populism, he engages in progressive cognitive dissonance.  No, I don’t mean the contradiction between his boasts about seeking free trade with China and his inability to announce the start of talks.  More on that in a moment.  I mean his concern that labor or working people should benefit from such a deal.  What is populism except the rejection of the rule of experts – any kind of expert, by the unwashed, by working people, by labor?  What is populism except giving the people what they think want, regardless of its wisdom or unwisdom?  And the unwashed are leery of a free trade deal with countries like China.

The problem with some free trade agreements is that highly paid western labor gets squeezed out by the poor labor in third world countries.  The migration of the textile industry around the world seeking the lowest cost labor market is a case in point.

China would like a free trade agreement with Canada.  But Trudeau’s progressive trade deal concerns itself with stopping the burning of coal and transgender bathrooms - matters irrelevant, even silly, to the Chinese, who want to talk about the free movement of goods and money.  The Chinese aren’t about to give up their advantages if it means accepting a lower balance of trade with Canada, and what is this except the position of Donald Trump with a Chinese face?

For all the association and subtle putdown of “populism” as low brow, Donald Trump is not a populist.  As has been observed elsewhere, he is a centrist from the age of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, i.e. of the period between 1995 and 2005.  Trump’s position on illegal immigration is the same as that espoused by Bill Clinton when he was in office.  The Wall along the Mexican border was approved by legislation in 2006, and all Trump wants to do is build the thing.  The repeal of Obamacare, and the tax reform bill returns those matters to the status quo of 2003.  Trump’s position on Islam is nothing but the common sense of New Yorkers in the aftermath of 9/11.  Trump relishes the culture war – the subject of much of his tweets – and his position is that of the common sense of his construction laborers acquired over 40 years.

Mr. Trudeau drifts about on the world stage like the good-looking lightweight he is.  When he deplores populism and speaks of progressive trade deals as a kind of antidote, it is hard to tell if his analysis is as shallow as it comes across, or if he is just playing to the weaknesses of his audience.

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