By Peter Nicholas and Jacob M. Schlesinger 

President Donald Trump plans to sign a pair of executive orders Friday aimed at curbing what he sees as unfair trade practices that have damaged the U.S. economy and wiped out jobs while adding to the nation's trade deficit, administration officials said.

The orders are modest compared with the dramatic changes in trade policy that Mr. Trump promised on the campaign trail. But administration officials said they underscore the president's determination to reset trade relations so that American employers can compete on more equitable terms.

One of the orders calls for a study that will examine past trade agreements and measure whether they delivered the promised benefits. The report, due in 90 days, will also attempt to tally various trade abuses country-by-country so that the White House has an accurate picture of trade practices that Trump officials conclude are putting the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage, officials said in a briefing at the White House.

Peter Navarro, who heads the White House's National Trade Council, said that "for the first time we're looking comprehensively at the source of what has been a large and persistent trade deficit that has contributed to job losses, a loss of our manufacturing base and other things."

The second order aims to improve collection of financial penalties against countries that dump products into the U.S. below production costs or illegally subsidize companies exporting products to the U.S. At present, about $2.8 billion in such duties have gone uncollected, administration officials said. The order seeks to improve collections through "every tool" under U.S. and international law.

Most importers in the U.S. are required to post a security -- usually in the form of a customs bond --as a kind of insurance against default on any obligations in the U.S. The order would toughen the requirements on those bonds to make it easier to collect duties imposed on importers accused of dumping.

"We will deter the cheaters," Mr. Navarro said.

The relatively small actions were striking because they were announced by two men seen as trade hard-liners in the administration: Mr. Navarro and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross . Both have advocated more aggressive trade actions than some of Mr. Trump's other advisers, like National Economic Council director Gary Cohn, who was formerly president of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Officials suggested the orders could lead to bigger actions down the line -- especially after the study is completed in 90 days.

Administration officials played down the notion that China is a special target of the orders. But in describing the measures, they made clear that the U.S. trade deficit with China is the largest, at $347 billion in 2016.

Mr. Trump is to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping next week at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Fla. The meeting figures to be tense, with trade an issue that divides the world's two largest economies.

In a pair of tweets Thursday, Mr. Trump wrote: "The meeting next week with China will be a very difficult one in that we can no longer have massive trade deficits and job losses. American companies must be prepared to look at other alternatives."

Write to Peter Nicholas at peter.nicholas@wsj.com and Jacob M. Schlesinger at jacob.schlesinger@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 30, 2017 23:14 ET (03:14 GMT)

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