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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 29, 2018)
6A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2018 editor@dailyastorian.com KARI BORGEN Publisher JIM VAN NOSTRAND Editor Founded in 1873 JEREMY FELDMAN Circulation Manager DEBRA BLOOM Business Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN Production Manager CARL EARL Systems Manager OUR VIEW Trump has torn down trade deals, but hasn’t rebuilt P resident Trump has been busy in recent months fulfilling campaign promises on trade, with mixed results for farmers, ranchers, loggers and others, including the newspaper business. One of Trump’s favorite campaign riffs was on trade, or more specifi- cally how the United States in general and American workers and businesses in particular were being beat up by our trading partners. “We don’t make good deals anymore. I say it all the time in speeches. We don’t make good deals anymore; we make bad deals. Our trade deals are a disaster.” As a candidate, Trump said Mexico and Canada were getting much more from the U.S. under the North American Free Trade Agreement than they were giving. He promised to reopen negotia- tions and make a better deal. He reopened talks on NAFTA. So far there’s no new deal, better or worse. Canada and Mexico are, respectively, the second- and third-largest importers of U.S. agricultural goods. They account for about $41 billion in ag exports. In the meantime, new Trump tar- iffs on softwood lumber and the North American paper supply are playing out with consequences for U.S. indus- tries that depend in part on Canadian suppliers. U.S. industries are understandably nervous. Do they want a better deal? Yeah. Can they afford to have no deal? No. As a candidate, Trump liked to talk about how foreign steel and alumi- num makers were unfairly dumping under-priced goods in the U.S., hurt- ing American steelworkers. Earlier this month he threatened to increase tar- iffs on foreign steel and aluminum. That made steelworkers happy, but farmers are left worried that their products will bear the brunt of any retaliatory mea- sures steel-exporting countries place on the U.S. Then there’s the Trans-Pacific Partnership. U.S. farmers had a big stake in the multilateral trade pact with Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. But it wasn’t very popular during the campaign. Bernie Sanders said TPP was a “global race to the bottom” to boost corporate profits. As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton called TPP the “gold standard” of trade pacts, but candidate Clinton said that when she read the final text she couldn’t support it. Trump said the deal undercut American workers and companies. All three said they’d walk away from the deal. Trump won, walked away from the deal and said he’d negotiate better bilateral treaties with our biggest trading partners. Last week the remaining 11 part- ners signed the TPP, sans many of the provisions insisted upon by U.S. nego- tiators and the U.S. itself. Trump just announced a new trade pact with South AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein A woman wearing a uniform with the logo of an American produce company helps a customer shop for apples at a supermarket in Beijing. China announced a $3 billion list of U.S. goods including pork, apples and steel pipe that it said may be hit with higher tariffs in a spiraling trade dispute with President Donald Trump. Korea, but there still are no new bilat- eral agreements with the countries that buy the bulk of farm exports from the Pacific Northwest. U.S. farmers export $135 billion in products each year. They have a lot riding on trade. So do struggling newspaper pub- lishers. On March 13 the Department of Commerce ordered new duties up to 22.16 percent on Canadian news- print production, adding to January assessments of 4.4 to 9 percent. Some newspapers — especially those that don’t buy their newsprint here in the Pacific Northwest — won’t survive this price hike on our essential phys- ical ingredient. There’s no indication Trump officials understand the broader consequences of this and other tariff decisions. Having walked away from “bad” trade deals, it’s time for Trump to ful- fill the other half of his promises and replace them with treaties that serve the interests of a broad cross-section of U.S. industries, not just a chosen few. school bond issues presently being proposed by local agencies. JOHN DUNZER Seaside LETTERS WELCOME LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Scorecard helps voters decide umerous candidates are vying for votes in the May 15 primary election. Fortunately, voters will have newspaper articles, websites, and the official voters’ pamphlet to help us decide which candidates to vote for. This year, there’s an additional resource: a Candidates Scorecard developed by Indivisi- ble North Coast Oregon (INCO). Our purpose is to inform voters of candidates’ positions on issues that affect our state and region. INCO is not fielding or endorsing candidates in the May election. INCO’s Candidates Scorecard features responses from candidates to policy statements written by our members. All candidates run- ning for the Oregon House District 32, Senate District 16, and Clatsop County Commissioner, Districts 1, 3, and 5, were invited to participate. INCO members will be distributing the Candidates Scorecard to homes and busi- nesses starting in April. The scorecards, with the additional comments submitted by some candidates, will be posted at incovotethefuture. org, starting Tuesday. We hope it will help you identify which candidates you want to vote for. INCO is one of more than 5,000 grass- roots Indivisible groups around the country. Our mission is to defend democracy by oppos- ing authoritarianism, bigotry, and corruption. INCO encourages civic engagement by all its members, including running for office and cam- paigning for candidates of their choice. Contact incoregon@gmail.com for more information. DEB VANASSE LAURIE CAPLAN Co-chairwomen, Indivisible North Coast Oregon N Vote Orr for state representative ho will represent us in Salem, now that Deborah Boone is retiring after 16 years? There are three candidates, but only one who is independent and environmentally proven. John Orr was among the first businessmen to publicly declare his opposition to Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and proudly display the red NO LNG sign in his Astoria law office win- dow. John testified for healthy rivers and safe communities, and against LNG, in many state and local hearings. For six years, Orr served as president of North Coast Land Conservancy. John Orr is the only independent candidate for Oregon House District 32. The first oppo- nent is a longtime politician financed by the timber industry, who never met a clear-cut he didn’t like. The other opponent filed at the last hour and has a paid, professional campaign manager provided by Portland-based unions and organizations. Orr’s campaign consists of local volunteers like me, and small financial contributions. I invite you to meet John Orr on Wednes- day, April 4, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Warrenton Community Center, 170 S.W. Third St. John Orr is the only candidate with a smart, sustain- able vision for Oregon, and the experience and W maturity to serve North Coast residents in the legislature. I will vote for John Orr in the May primary. I hope you do, too. CHERYL JOHNSON Astoria Special Easter blessings to you his Easter could be entitled “the rest of the story.” Would the creator of the universe, the cre- ator of cattle on a thousand hills, the creator of all the fish in the sea, and yes, the creator of you and me, the one that wrote the very story of life, leave us guessing about how the story ends? I think not! The message of Easter is a message of love and forgiveness, a message of victory over all our human errors — yes, even a message of victory over death! It is a message of hope, which includes you and me and the opportu- nity for a new beginning, a new direction for our lives. Folks, this is not fiction, but a true story with a very exciting and happy ending. Special Easter blessings to you. JIM BERNARD Warrenton T Jail bond wouldn’t be guaranteed es, Clatsop County needs better jail facil- ities. The county plans to seek voter approval to issue bonds for new jail facilities that will be repaid by future property tax reve- nues. It all sounds pretty normal, right? Nestled behind their podium up in Astoria, our county’s elected leaders and paid staff are hoping that this time jail improvements will be successful. They really don’t want to acknowl- edge that the investment community rates bonds for buyers by the risk that they will not be repaid. Property taxes are based on property val- uation, and Clatsop County has just over $6 billion of property that is taxed. The narrow Pacific coastal strip of the county from Arch Cape to the mouth of the Columbia River con- tains 70 percent of this property valuation. Using state-issued tsunami inundation maps, about 80 percent of the value of these properties will be destroyed by a mid-size Cas- cadia event. Even Astoria, with about 13 per- cent of the county’s assessed valuation, will be hard hit by the earthquake portion of a Cas- cadia event because of the age of its down- town structures. The state puts the probabil- ity of such a Cascadia event as 1 in 3 over the next 50 years. As an investor, would you want to fund your children’s education and your retirement on a “junk bond” like this? But wait, didn’t Seaside School District just successfully issue $100 million in school bonds? Yes, but under duress from Sen. Betsy Johnson, the state treasurer guaranteed these bonds. There is no one to guarantee these jail bonds, nor many of these other proposed non- Y Don’t miss ‘Noises Off’ at Coaster Theatre ecently I attended a performance of “Noises Off” at the Coaster Theatre in Cannon Beach. “A grand time was had by all” is a severe understatement. The superior cast provided us a raucous eve- ning of surprises, laughter and guffaws. Their timing was spot on — not one hint of arti- fice. The actors are obviously enjoying them- selves and enjoying entertaining those attend- ing. And, the set is fabulous. By the end of the evening, I knew I had to spread the mirth. The play runs through April 21; if you want rollicking laughter, along with top notch acting, don’t miss seeing “Noises Off.” Don’t forget the sardines. TITA MONTERO Seaside R Applaud effort for change he young adults participating in the recent marches and protests are learning great political science lessons and procedures in their efforts to curb the trend of tragedies we have experienced in our schools, theaters, malls and concert venues. They will need to make this a movement and not just a moment. I think they are more than beginning to see how our democracy works by realizing that their vote does count, and the power of numbers those votes can cre- ate. It reminds me of some past generations attempting to change the direction of a country. This will be an uphill battle, obviously, as all the past revolutions have been, and I urge them to persevere because it can slip away quickly. The great thing is a worldwide belief that is growing for their cause. Used to be you could walk through a high T Letters should be exclusive to The Daily Astorian. Letters should be fewer than 250 words and must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. You will be contacted to confirm authorship. All letters are subject to editing for space, grammar, and, on occa- sion, factual accuracy. Only two letters per writer are allowed each month. Letters written in response to other letter writers should address the issue at hand and, rather than mentioning the writer by name, should refer to the headline and date the letter was published. Dis- course should be civil and people should be referred to in a respectful manner. Letters in poor taste will not be printed. Send via email to editor@dai- lyastorian.com, online at dailyasto- rian.com/submit_letters, in person at 949 Exchange St. in Astoria or 1555 North Roosevelt in Seaside, or mail to Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103. school parking lot in small towns across Amer- ica, and see numerous vehicles with a gun rack in the window holding more than one weapon for hunting. I don’t think these are the types of guns these youth are focused on, but I may be wrong on that. The frustration of not being heard may make that a false thought. Their voices are gaining volume for the cause they deeply believe in. Applaud their effort for change. PAT WILSON Astoria