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Fully KeptTrade & Tariffs

We need bilateral trade deals. We do not need to enter into another massive international agreement that ties us up and binds us down.

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Fully KeptFact-checker reviewConfidence: 90%

Independently verified. Both halves of this directional trade-policy promise were fulfilled by concrete presidential action, and all cited sources are real and supportive. (1) Avoiding another 'massive international agreement': On Jan 23, 2017 Trump signed a presidential memorandum directing the U.S. to 'withdraw the United States as a signatory to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), to permanently withdraw the United States from TPP negotiations' and to 'begin pursuing, wherever possible, bilateral trade negotiations.' USTR formally notified signatories that 'the United States has formally withdrawn from the agreement per guidance from the President.' No new multilateral mega-bloc was joined; USMCA was a renegotiation of the existing NAFTA, not entry into a new massive agreement. (2) Bilateral deals: the U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement and U.S.-Japan Digital Trade Agreement entered into force Jan 1, 2020, and the U.S.-China 'Phase One' agreement was signed Jan 15, 2020. Adversarial fairness check: the same decisive executive record would earn FULL for either party. Minor interpretive latitude (the bilateral deals were limited 'phase one/stage one' deals rather than comprehensive FTAs) does not undercut the promise's plain directional terms, which were executed. FULL, not CHAMPIONED/PARTIAL, because both stated conditions were met.

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