Last year, the U.S. recorded a $1.2 trillion deficit, its largest ever, despite historic tariffs on China. That’s because importers sourced from Mexico and Southeast Asia. Vietnam has become an outpost for Chinese multinationals and contract manufacturers who could manufacture there and ship to the U.S. at WTO-member tariff rates of 3.4%, the lowest of all nations. Until now.

“These are all serious indications of an economic emergency and we cannot ignore it,” Greer said, adding that non-tariff barriers promote other countries’ exports and disfavor U.S. imports.

“The EU can sell us all the shellfish it wants, but they ban 48 U.S. states from selling to them. We have a deficit in seafood,” he said. Actually, we have a $39 billion deficit in agriculture.

Read the article.