For years Trump has said free trade has been a disaster for American workers; a sentiment shared by many in his inner circle. In his book No Trade is Free, Trump's former trade representative Robert Lighthizer says what was once a nearly unanimous Washington consensus on free trade is now dead. Trump, from an American point of view, has been proven right, said trade lawyer Mark Warner, a principal at MAAW Law in Toronto. But he spends multiple chapters on China and what he sees as the lunacy of entering free trade deals with an adversary. Trade experts say upending decades of international trade deals comes with no small amount of risk.
