Trump's Central Plan: Make China Buy What It Doesn't Need

There is one big problem at the core of President Trump's trade demands on China: Even if China agreed to them, the United States doesn't have the production capacity to sell China the goods it would seek. By and large, what China wants, the United States can't provide; what the United States can provide, China doesn't want.

The fundamental element that underlies capitalism is the simple fact that no one is forced to buy anything they don't want. If they cannot efficiently produce something they need, they buy it from someone who can. That's the principle underlying Adam Smith's “division of labor” and David Ricardo's “Theory of Comparative Advantage.”