Bottom line is Trump is right. Countries have been taking advantage for the last three decades, destroyed our manufacturing and jobs. .
How have they been taking advantage?
Its cheaper to make product in countries with lower wages and other lower costs. That is the essence of capitalism.
It's a long list but start with countries making goods under conditions that would be considered criminal here in the US, and then exporting them to the US with no questions asked. Countries that have child labor, no minimum wage, and no environmental laws, no restrictions. Also, we allow countries that make it almost impossible for US to sell products to (through tariffs or protectionism laws), to openly import goods into the US. Then we have countries who's govt. is openly sponsoring and financing certain industries, in order to compete and destroy certain American industries, and then allowing these same countries to import and conquer American companies and industries who have little or non of the same govt. protection.
Like I said, the list is long but this insanity has to stop.
Well lets talk about that.
Countries that have child labor- certainly something I object to. What is 'child labor'? And I say this as a serious question- because in places like Bangladesh and India you have kids 12 years old working on farms. And also here in the United States. Is it child labor if you have your own kids working on your farm?
Meanwhile- we have countries that have child labor laws that are more restrictive than the United States- should those countries prohibit imports of all American product? These are serious questions when it comes to setting trade policy.
"no minimum wage" Almost every country has a minimum wage- the problem is that just like here the minimum wage is rarely a livable wage, and in many places it is not enforced well. That is not the case in China anymore- China has minimum wage laws and from what I have seen workers get paid more than minimum wage.
"no environmental laws'- and this is a biggie. Lots of countries- from Russia to China to Vietnam have less restrictive environmental laws than the United States- where do we set the line? And once again there are countries with more restrictive environmental laws than the United States- what if they enforce the same kinds of rules to prohibit American imports?
Countries tend to be protective of their industries- and tend to 'bend' the rules to protect industries. We do in the United States. Other countries do it even more successfully- the WTO is the mechanism to fight those protections.