Trump to push for trade tariffs, protectionist measures

Donald Trump was set to deliver a speech promoting trade protectionism following his recent setbacks in the polls, the Financial Times reported.

The Republican candidate to the US presidency was expected to make a push on the economic debate on Monday, one of the few areas in which polls showed him having a lead over his Democratic party rival Hillary Clinton, the Financial Times reported.

Real Clear Politics´s most recent average of polls showed Clinton now had a seven point lead.

Two of Trump´s advisers told the FT the backbone of his plans to reinvigorate the American economy was his “trade doctrine”, as well as forcing the People´s Republic of China and other trading partners into renegotiating their economic ties with the US via the application of defensive tariffs.

Trump reportedly would also make the argument for trade and tax incentives aimed at pushing American firms to repatriate jobs and profits held overseas.

In parallel, and in what the FT described as an ‘olive branch’ to the US Chambers of Commerce, who had openly challenged his protectionist views on trade, the Republican candidate was expected to detail proposals on tax reform and cuttting red-tape.

Since China joined the World Trade Organisation 15 years before, the economy had grown at an average rate of 1.8%, versus the 3.5% clip it registered between 1947 and 2001, according to Peter Navarro, one Trump´s advisers.