Ryan and Trump Are Both Wrong About Trade Taxes

Paul Ryan and Donald Trump have, let’s say, a complicated relationship. Ryan has told the congressional Republicans he leads that he will no longer defend Trump -- not that he ever really did -- and told them to feel free to disavow him. Trump fired off an angry tweet in response, taking Ryan to task on immigration, jobs and the budget.

But even their policy disagreements are more complicated than you might think. Ryan would never say, as Trump repeatedly has, that the North American Free Trade Agreement has been a disaster. Yet they are not quite as far apart on trade as they appear to be. Both of them think that the way other countries tax imports and exports gives them a competitive advantage over the U.S., and that we can reduce the trade deficit by addressing the difference between our tax systems. Both of them are wrong.