So how would you have handled this if you were POTUS? Status quo?
Tariffs SHOULD be the weapon of last resort, not the opening gambit in negotiations. Using a carrot and stick approach, tariffs are the stick.
Trump tries to bully people into accepting his terms. But then he boxes himself in with dumb moves like walking out of negotiations, which is a dangerous game which certainly backfired on him in the government shut down negotiations.
To be honest, I would worry about ANY treaty Trump negotiates because he so very, very bad at it. He got NOTHING for the USA in his NAFTA update. Everything that benefits the USA in Trump’s deal was previously agreed to in the TPP negotiations. Canada was the big winner, as evidenced by the fact that since Trump was elected, the manufacturing trade deficit with Canada has doubled.
You start negotiations with a plan: you learn everything you can about the other side and what they want or need. Then you decide what you want, what you’re prepared to give.
Trump doesn’t do the work. He prefers to size up the other side when he walks into the room and trust his “instincts”. These are the same “instincts” that lead to billions of dollars of business losses and 7 bankruptcies.