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WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Trade has been at the forefront of 2016 U.S. presidential election. But it's still unclear what President-elect Donald Trump's trade policy will be as his small coterie of economic advisers has two opposing views on trade, according to local media.
One camp of Trump's advisers "largely rejects mainstream economic thinking on trade" and believes eliminating trade deficits should be an overarching goal of U.S. policy, while the other camp is "closer to the traditional GOP center of gravity on taxes and regulation," the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
The former views tariffs on U.S. trading partners and taxes on companies that move jobs abroad as critical tools to reverse a 15-year slide in incomes for middle-class Americans, while the latter rejects the hard-line position on trade and prefers slashing red tape and taxes to make the U.S. the top destination for businesses, the report said.
"It is the supply-siders versus the zero-sum crowd," Andy Laperriere, political strategist at research firm Cornerstone Macro LP, was quoted as saying.
As Trump is forming his economic team at the White House, key appointments for the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments, the National Economic Council and the Council of Economic Advisers over coming weeks will reveal which side prevails.
"Those picks could shape the extent to which Mr. Trump governs as a more traditional Republican focused on cutting taxes and regulation or as an antiestablishment populist who pushes ahead with more tariffs and border controls," the report said.
During the presidential campaign, Trump had broken from the longstanding Republican orthodoxy in favor of free trade and embraced a protectionist trade stance, trying to appeal to angry and frustrated blue-collar voters who have seen manufacturing jobs lose in an increasing global economy.
He had also vowed to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and pull the United States out of the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal.
Experts said markets weren't taking seriously enough Trump's tough stance on trade as he had wide authority to carry out much of his campaign promise.
