'Diplomatic fumble' is Crippling Trump's Best Chance at Trade Deal

Most trade deals are floundering because the president wants everything and is unwilling to give up anything in return.

Not only has Donald Trump been unable to deliver “90 deals in 90 days,” as his trade adviser Peter Navarro promised in April, but the president has very little to show for months of negotiations. According to a report from Politico, one major trade agreement that the president has been touting still hasn't crossed the finish line in large part because of non-trade comments made by Trump.

The report notes that most trade deals are floundering because the president wants everything and is unwilling to give up anything in return, which Politico's Daniel Desrochers and Megan Messerly described as Trump's “all-sticks-and-no-carrot approach to trade talks.”

That position has made trade talks with India problematic, with the president making it worse with what is being described as Trump's “diplomatic fumble.”

According to the report, Trump crippled negotiations “by repeatedly taking credit for brokering peace between India and Pakistan this spring—even though India has long insisted it won’t accept any mediation when it comes to Pakistan.

“The diplomatic fumble, which the president repeated multiple times this week, including at the NATO summit in the Netherlands, coupled with Trump’s recent decision to host Pakistan’s army chief at the White House, could make it harder for the Indian government to sell a trade deal to its people,” Politico is reporting with Syed Akbaruddin, India’s former ambassador to the United Nations, stating the U.S. president is making a deal difficult.

“Trump’s comments have injected mistrust and public skepticism of U.S. support to India. The more he repeats his claim, the more a prospective U.S.-India trade agreement smells like coercion, not cooperation,” Akbaruddin bluntly stated.

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