2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Bernie/Trump/Hillary On Trade Policy - When You Say You Are Against Free Trade Agreements [View all]pampango
(24,692 posts)Of course German workers make more than American workers but our trade deficit is $913 per German. Chinese workers make much less than American workers but our trade deficit with China is equivalent to $265 per Chinese. Of course China's population is 15 times larger than Germany so their total numbers are much larger.
Vietnam is just a little bigger than Germany (91 million to 81 million) but their trade deficit with the US is much smaller - $31 billion in 2015 compared to Germany's $74 billion and per capita it is just $340 per Vietnamese.
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/index.html#V
And Germany has higher wages, stronger unions and tougher environmental laws than we have in the US, so 'fair trade' would have to account for that. I would define 'fair trade' as enforcing strong labor protections and effective environmental standards on countries with which we conclude trade negotiations.