Farcical

Trump investigating imported cars is ‘farcical,’ Obama trade chief says

By BEN WHITE

Former U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, who served during President Barack Obama's first term, thinks the Trump administration's investigation of imported automobiles as a potential national security threat is "farcical."

“If there is a national security threat, then you’d have to think on the other end of it there was some nefarious purpose to invade America to carry out some undefined purpose,” Kirk said on the latest edition of the POLITICO Money podcast. “If it is, then I would say BMW and Mercedes have done it brilliantly because they’ve been here for 50 years so they’ve already invaded. It is part of the random, arbitrary mess that comes out of this president’s Twitter rage."

Kirk also described what it's like to be in high-stakes trade negotiations including ones he led that resulted in a deal with South Korea.

“At one point the Koreans packed up and said they were going to leave," Kirk said. "We literally went to the trouble to call our offices and find out every flight that was going out so we could try and leverage that."

And he said trade opponents abroad often used jet lag and fatigue as weapons against American negotiators.

“There were no words I came to loathe more than a 'Cultural Exposition,'" he said. "Because the first night we would have this grand dinner, which was very laudatory, but it was also an excuse to keep us awake.”