President-elect Donald Trump made a multitude of “day one” promises throughout the campaign to begin work on an array of issues, setting himself up for an extremely busy first day back in office.
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Elections have consequences, and those consequences are dire for free market dogmatists in the Republican Party.
The tariff debate is over. President Donald Trump won, and it is not even close. Americans overwhelmingly support efforts to punish countries like China for their unfair trade practices. Even President Joe Biden, who ran blatantly misrepresenting the Trump economic record, has kept the Trump tariffs on steel and aluminum in place.
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Todd Bensman, senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, said he believes former and president-elect Donald Trump’s threat to impose hefty tariffs on Mexico if the country does not work to curb the flow of immigration into the U.S. will pressure the country to break up existing caravans with a goal of reaching the border.
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Republican California Rep. John Duarte unveiled his plan to save American farmers from possible financial ruin due to long-standing Chinese tariffs in an exclusive interview Wednesday with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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President Joe Biden held a press conference Tuesday extolling the tariffs on Chinese products — including steel, aluminum, electric vehicles, solar panels and semiconductors — he is rolling out. The president argued that China aggressively subsidizes the products America imports, which makes it difficult for U.S. businesses to compete.
“Back in 2000, when cheap steel from China began to flood the market, U.S. steel towns across Pennsylvania and Ohio were hit hard,” Biden said.
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President Joe Biden suggested Tuesday it is false that his administration is restricting consumer choice in the automobile market, but his administration recently finalized a rule that will force electric vehicles (EVs) to make up a much larger share of overall auto sales over the next decade.
Biden made the remark during a Tuesday speech about his administration’s decision to significantly bolster tariffs against Chinese products including steel, semiconductor chips and EV batteries. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule in March that requires manufacturers to make EVs constitute between 35 percent and 56 percent of new cars sold in 2032, according to CNN.
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The Biden administration on Tuesday formally announced significant increases in tariffs targeting imports of electric vehicles (EVs) and other green energy technology from China.
The strengthened tariffs are designed to make it harder for cheaper Chinese green products, like electric vehicles, to flood the U.S. market and displace American companies, the White House said in its official announcement. Beyond EVs and critical minerals, the administration is also increasing tariffs on Chinese steel, computer chips, EV batteries and certain solar components.
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An Alliance for American Manufacturing report called for tariffs to protect the U.S. electric vehicle market from an “extinction-level event” caused by Chinese competitors.
The report follows Chinese EV maker BYD, the world’s largest EV maker, releasing a $14,000 EV in February that could “demolish” domestic EVs, often $40,000 more expensive.
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Detroit placed the U.S. on wheels but if Motor City wants to go electric it faces fierce global competition.
Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD outsold Tesla in the fourth quarter of 2023. The foreign automaker said it produced more than 3 million new energy vehicles in 2023 compared to Tesla’s 1.8 million.
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The Biden administration is considering increasing tariffs on some Chinese products related to his green agenda, like electric vehicles (EV), in an effort to boost poor market demand and protect domestic industries, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Officials are considering setting higher rates on the already existing tariffs originally placed under the Trump administration, covering around $300 billion in Chinese goods, with Chinese EVs already having a 25% import tax, according to the WSJ. New tariffs could help domestic EV manufacturing, which has struggled with stagnant market demand, only rising from 3% in January to 4% in September of total vehicles sold in the U.S., while the share of EVs produced out of all vehicles has risen from 3% to 6% in that same time frame.
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American grocery shelves are rapidly filling up with cheap canned food imported from China, displacing American producers’ goods and raising concerns about food safety and food security, U.S. trade associations and experts are saying.
According to the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI), a trade association supporting manufacturers of cans for both food and non-food items and their suppliers, American producers are at a disadvantage because they have to pay U.S. steel tariffs, which do not extend to finished Chinese-produced canned foods.
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Ohio Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance released a new television advertisement this weekend contrasting his Democratic opponent Tim Ryan’s hard-left record with his moderate rhetoric.
In his ad monologue, Vance tore into the 13th-District congressman’s voting history.
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As GOP senators seek to roll back former President Donald Trump’s tariffs on China now that he’s out of office, polling indicates Americans want to keep the harsh policies in place.
“For decades, Congress cut tariffs without much thought. But we cannot continue to do that when it comes to products made in China,” Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “We should do everything possible to move supply chains out of China, but this so-called ‘China bill’ is actually subsidizing manufacturing in Communist China. It’s ridiculous.”
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President Joe Biden loosened tariffs placed on solar panel imports by the Trump administration Friday, paving the way for Chinese companies to produce more panels for American consumers.
Biden issued a proclamation Friday morning, increasing the tariff-rate quota on solar equipment, or the amount of solar panel components Chinese manufacturers can send to the U.S. before receiving a penalty. The action means Chinese solar cell makers may send up to 5 gigawatts (GW) of capacity, double the previous amount of 2.5 GW, to the U.S. before being hit with a levy.
The White House action also exempts bifacial solar panels, or panels that absorb sunlight from both sides. Such panels, which are increasingly common, are often used in industry-scale projects and are believed to be the “future of the industry.”
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U.S. Representative Austin Scott (R-GA-08) and 22 other members of the House want U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to help reduce India’s tariffs on American pecans.
India currently has a 36 percent tariff on American pecans, far higher than the 10 percent tariff on other American tree nuts, like pistachios and almonds.
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Michael Bloomberg’s presidential campaign announced Tuesday that the Democratic billionaire will make a campaign stop in Minnesota to discuss policies for people “shortchanged by Donald Trump.”
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U.S. and China trade negotiators once again have a deal in principle on a first stage trade agreement, just days before a Dec. 15 deadline when President Donald Trump had threatened to further increase tariffs on Chinese goods.
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BEIJING – China will waive import tariffs for some soybeans and pork shipments from the United States, China’s finance ministry said Friday, citing a decision by the country’s cabinet.
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The U.S. trade in goods deficit with China is down 12.8 percent in the first nine months of 2019, or $38.5 billion, compared to 2018, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
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The U.S. and China mutually agreed to lift some tariffs in what appears to be the beginning of a potential trade deal, China’s commerce ministry announced Thursday.
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For the past two years, President Donald Trump has argued that China was paying the cost of the trade war. Following a delay in some of the tariffs from the latest round in the dispute with China, however, the president has acknowledged for the first time that tariffs have an impact on American families.
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Ask yourself if you were President, what would you do if you discovered that a foreign country has been waging an underground war against the nation you are sworn to protect surreptitiously killing tens of thousands of your people every year by pouring a drug so deadly that merely accidentally touching a small amount could kill you?
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President Donald Trump retaliated against China’s Friday announcement that it is increasing tariffs on U.S. goods by increasing tariffs to as much as 30% on $250 billion of Chinese goods.
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President Donald Trump said Sunday that Apple CEO Tim Cook told him paying economic tariffs would make it difficult for his company to compete with the likes of Samsung.
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The U.S. trade in goods deficit with China is down 10 percent in the first six months of 2019, or $18.8 billion, compared to 2018, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
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China has proven itself to be an unreliable trade partner in its negotiations, says President Donald Trump, and now he is levying another 10 percent tariff on $300 billion of Chinese goods that were untaxed.
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President Donald Trump said Friday on Twitter that Apple will “not be given Tariff wavers” for product parts made in China.
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President Donald Trump’s replacement for NAFTA continues to draw opposition from Democrats, something that Star News Political Editor Steve Gill discussed Friday on Fox News. Video of the interview is available here. Trump headed to Milwaukee to push for the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Trump made his appeal for the USMCA to a friendly crowd in at Derco Aerospace, a Lockheed Martin-owned company, in Milwaukee, CBS News reported. The company provides logistics and technical support for fixed-wing aircraft. Gill spoke to Fox News about the president’s Wisconsin visit and the opposition he is facing from Democrats, which includes a claim by the president of the Wisconsin Fair Trade Coalition that Trump’s plan fails to prevent the outsourcing of jobs. However, Gill said, “This was one of President Trump’s key promises on the campaign trail that they would fix NAFTA, and that’s what this NAFTA 2.0, this new and improved NAFTA will do.” The new plan will benefit the agricultural and automotive industries, Gill said. Mexico has approved it and Canada is ready to approve it. “The only thing holding it up right now is the House Democrats, and frankly,…
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Phantom Fireworks, an Ohio-based company, is facing scrutiny from so-called “non-partisan watchdog” groups after the company donated $750,000 worth of fireworks to President Donald Trump’s “Salute to America.” The company’s CEO, Bruce Zoldan, was invited to an Oval Office meeting in May to discuss the impact of tariffs with fellow business leaders. Zoldan and his colleagues have been clear that a 25 percent import tax on Chinese goods would be “devastating” for the fireworks industry. “It would be pretty devastating,” Phantom Fireworks Vice President Bill Weimer recently told ABC News. “The problem is there’s no alternative source for us to get the fireworks. We have to stay with China.” So some were turning their heads when Trump announced on July 2 that Phantom Fireworks and Fireworks by Grucci were donating supplies for the Independence Day celebration. “Thanks to Phantom Fireworks and Fireworks by Grucci for their generosity in donating the biggest fireworks show Washington D.C. has ever seen. CEOs Bruce Zoldan and Phil Grucci are helping to make this the greatest 4th of July celebration in our nation’s history,” Trump wrote on Twitter. Thanks to “Phantom Fireworks” and “Fireworks by Grucci" for their generosity in donating the biggest fireworks…
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by Robert Romano A long-standing bit of conventional wisdom holds that the Great Depression, which began in 1929, was worsened and made global by tariffs in the Smoot-Hawley tariff act of 1930, and that it was not until the 1934 Reciprocal Trade Act that recovery was possible. But this is a caricature, for it leaves out a critical element of the Great Depression that separates it from normal recessions: Deflation. An example of this myopic caricature can be found at History.com’s article, “The Great Depression Lesson About ‘Trade Wars’,” which follows this narrative but does not mention deflation. It does not even mention unemployment, which should tell you a thing or two. It solely examines the implementation of tariffs, and their impacts, which grossly simplifies the matter and ignores why tariffs were resorted to. Deflation in the U.S. began after the great inflation of World War I and the ensuing credit expansion had a brief respite in the 1920s before beginning again in 1927. It then slowed in 1929, and then went crazy starting in 1930 as banks began failing en masse. Inflation was marked at -2.7 percent in 1930, -8.9 percent in 1931, -10.3 percent in 1932 and…
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U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Monday to impose tariffs on another $325 billion worth of imported goods from China if Chinese President Xi Jinping does not engage in new trade talks with him later this month. Trump told CNBC he expects to meet with Xi in Osaka, Japan at the G-20 meeting of the leaders of the world’s largest economies on June 28-29, but Beijing has not publicly confirmed the meeting. Trump said he would impose the new tariffs, on top of tariffs he already has levied on $200 billion worth of Chinese exports, if Xi skips the meeting. “I think he’ll go,” Trump said. “We’re expected to meet.” The U.S. leader said, “China very much wants to make a deal, more than I do.” But months of trade talks between the world’s two largest economies have stopped, at least for the moment. Washington has accused Beijing of reneging on various terms the United States thought they had agreed on, although China has rejected the claim. China’s Foreign Ministry said, “We do not want a trade war, but we are not afraid of fighting one. If the U.S. is ready to have equal consultations, our door is wide open.…
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by Robert Romano President Donald Trump and the State Department hammered out a deal with Mexico on June 7 that Mexico would do much more to prevent illegal immigrants from crossing the country into the U.S. on the southern border. The last-minute agreement avoided a 5 percent tariff by Trump on goods from Mexico that was set to go into effect on June 10 — and proves that the credible threat of tariffs worked in spite of naysayers who predicted there could be no resolution. The Wall Street Journal editorial board on May 31 confidently predicted, “The first problem here is that Mr. Trump is blaming Mexico for a mess it can’t solve… Perhaps it could better control its border with Guatemala, but the caravans north are often led by gangs that know how to bribe or avoid police.” The Council on Foreign Relations on June 5 complained, “President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of Mexico can’t staunch the flow of people from his neighbors to the south.” This is merely a lack of vision. Automatically, Trump’s critics assumed that nothing could be accomplished and therefore nothing should be tried. Also, note all the groveling. They do not put America…
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by Shelby Talcott Some Chinese exporters are putting fake “Made in Vietnam” stickers to try to avoid U.S. tariffs, Vietnam alleged Sunday. Vietnam said in a government statement that it found dozens of cases where Chinese exports, including textiles, iron, steel, and aluminum, are being illegally transferred to Vietnam where fake stickers are then placed on them so China can skirt the recent tariffs imposed by the U.S. The Vietnamese government also stated it is planning to increase the penalties on trade fraud and is developing an inspection process for goods that are particularly at risk. U.S. customs officials have uncovered Chinese plywood shipped to America through a Vietnamese company with “Made in Vietnam” stickers, according to the statement. These shipments are “relatively small” when compared to China’s overall exports, Bloomberg reported. “A cottage industry for circumventing U.S. tariffs will likely bloom, given the high tariff rates and huge potential profit,” said Chua Hak Bin, a senior economist at Maybank Kim Eng Research Pte. in Singapore, according to Bloomberg. Goods on China now have a 25% tariff. The U.S. raised the tariffs from 10% to 25% in May, increasing tariffs on about $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. Beijing then increased tariffs on…
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The Mexican government recently claimed that some funding for the “illicit support of migrant caravans” came from individuals within the United States. In a June 6 press release, Mexico’s Finance and Tax Secretariat announced that it has “blocked the bank accounts of various individuals and corporations that allegedly participated in the trafficking of migrants and the illegal organization of migrant caravans.” As Breitbart first reported, the Mexican government identified 26 individuals who made “several questionable financial transactions from the cities of Chiapas and Queretaro during the times that the migrant caravans were moving through those places.” The press release states that “illegal payment for migrant smuggling” came from individuals in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Cameroon, the United States, and England. Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit froze the accounts of 26 unnamed people for their “probable link with migrant smuggling and illicit support of migrant caravans.” The press release states that complaints have been presented to Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office for prosecution. Breitbart points out that the action came at “a time when Mexican officials are meeting with their U.S. counterparts in an attempt to keep the Trump administration from levying tariffs on international commerce as a punitive measure over the…
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One down, still others to go. President Donald Trump claimed a victory after Washington and Mexico agreed on measures to stem the flow of Central American migrants into the United States. Trump called off plans to impose a 5% tax on Mexican exports, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, speaking to reporters Saturday in Fukuoka on the sidelines of a meeting of financial leaders of the Group of 20 major economies, urged China to follow suit and return to stalled negotiations. Mnuchin said he planned to have a private conversation with the head of China’s central bank, Yi Gang. In a G-20 group meeting later in the day, the two were seen exchanging friendly remarks, but there were no fresh signs Beijing is ready to compromise in the dispute over trade and technology. “From our perspective of where we are now, it is a result of them backtracking on significant commitments,” Mnuchin said. “I don’t think it’s a breakdown in trust or good or bad faith. … If they want to come back and complete the deal on the terms we were negotiating, that would be great.” Mnuchin said he had no direct message to give to Yi, who has…
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The United States and Mexico have reached a deal on migration to avert tariffs, but U.S. officials say President Trump retains the authority to impose tariffs if Mexico fails to live up to it. “I am pleased to inform you that The United States of America has reached a signed agreement with Mexico. The Tariffs scheduled to be implemented by the U.S. on Monday, against Mexico, are hereby indefinitely suspended,” President Donald Trump said Friday on Twitter. “Mexico, in turn, has agreed to take strong measures to stem the tide of Migration through Mexico, and to our Southern Border. This is being done to greatly reduce, or eliminate, Illegal Immigration coming from Mexico and into the United States,” Trump said. Speaking on the sidelines of the G20 finance ministers meeting in Japan, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told the Reuters news agency Saturday the U.S.-Mexico immigration deal met President Donald Trump’s objectives of fixing immigration problems on the southern U.S. border, but that tariffs could be imposed if Mexico does not meet U.S. expectations. “Our expectation is that Mexico will do what they’ve committed to do and our expectation is that we won’t need to put tariffs in place,…
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by Christopher Roach The great American foreign policy debate began with the two parties’ divide over Vietnam. Until the Vietnam War, Republicans and Democrats more or less held to a consensus on the value of containment. After the war, Republicans favored unilateralism, a strong military, and clear-sighted pursuit of national interests that included the use of force against foreign threats. George W. Bush exemplified this thinking, and his early, bold action in Afghanistan after Sept. 11, 2001, found success in spite of knee-jerk criticism from the Left. On the other side, the Democrats favored multilateralism, negotiations and diplomacy, and a preference for domestic wealth redistribution over military investment. A persistent Democratic criticism of the Iraq campaign was not that it tried to introduce democracy into a broken part of the world, but rather that Bush failed to obtain the blessing of France. Democrats, particularly John Kerry in the 2004 presidential campaign and Barack Obama in 2008, treated diplomacy like magic, where consensus was an end in itself. Mere talking would align other nations more closely to our preferred path. The main foreign policy debate of the 2004 and 2008 elections was the Iraq war. In 2004, Bush remained firm…
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by Jason Hopkins Republicans in the House and Senate appear divided in their reaction to President Donald Trump’s threats to slap Mexico with incremental tariffs. “There is not much support in my conference for tariffs, that’s for sure,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday after a closed-door lunch between administration staffers and GOP senators, where White House deputy counsel Pat Philbin and Assistant Attorney General Steve Engel took heavy criticism from Republican lawmakers. “We are hoping that doesn’t happen.” Other Republican senators publicly voiced their concerns about taxing Mexican imports — a move the president is threatening to execute unless their government does more to stem the illegal immigration crisis. “When it comes to applying a tariff to Mexico, I for one would not support that. I do not favor tariffs being applied to friends like Mexico,” GOP Utah Sen. Mitt Romney said, according to Politico. “If there’s a vote I think it’s a very difficult vote for those of us who oppose tariffs. I would not be inclined to vote [for] a tariff against a friend.” Discussing the closed-door talks in a harsher tone, Republican Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford reportedly said the White House “is trying to…
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Top U.S. and Mexican officials are meeting Wednesday in Washington about President Donald Trump’s threatened 5% tariff on imported products from Mexico if it does not curb the surge of Central American migrants heading north toward the United States. With Trump in Europe for 75th-anniversary commemorations of D-Day, Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are meeting at the White House with Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard and other officials. In Ireland, Trump said, “I think Mexico has to step up and if they don’t, tariffs will go on and if they go high, companies are going to move back into the United States.” Trump said Mexico “wants to make a deal,” but that if it cannot stop the migration, “we just won’t be able to do business. It’s a very simple thing. And I think they will stop it… They’ve sent their top people to try and do it. We’ll see what happens today. We should know something.” National security concerns In advance of the talks, a White House official said on condition of anonymity, “Trade and all other aspects of our relationship are critically important, but national security comes first and the White House…
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by Jason Hopkins The former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) voiced unwavering support for President Donald Trump’s plan to tariff all Mexican goods if they don’t better enforce illegal immigration. “I agree with the president 100 percent and I agree with the tariffs,” Tom Homan, who served as acting ICE director from January 2017 to June 2018, said Tuesday while appearing on Fox News. The former immigration chief was reacting to President Donald Trump’s press conference alongside British Prime Minister Theresa May, where he spoke more about tariff threat against Mexico. “I understand that the tariffs may have a short-term effect on the economy, but it’s money, money, money, money. My concern is, what price is it going to put on our national security?” Homan said. “If you’re a terrorist in the world that wants to come to this country to do us harm, you’re not going to buy a plane ticket, you’re not going to try to get a visa — because of all the checks being done now after 9/11. You’ll enter the country the same way as 12 or 20 million other people entered.” The former ICE chief noted how around 40% of…
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U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that it is “more likely” than not that next week he will impose a new 5% tariff on imported products from Mexico. Trump offered his assessment at a London news conference alongside British Prime Minister Theresa May, even as U.S. and Mexican officials continued talks in Washington about the tariffs and the surge of Central American migrants traveling through Mexico to reach the United States that Trump wants to block. “Mexico should step up and stop this invasion into our country,” Trump said, contending that “millions and millions” of undocumented migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are entering the U.S. to escape poverty and violence in their homelands. “I think Mexico will step up and do what they need to,” Trump said. “I want to see security at our border and great trade.” He said, “We are going to see if we can do something, but I think it’s more likely the tariffs go on [next Monday], and we will probably be talking during the time that the tariffs are on.” Trump has threatened to increase the tariffs monthly in 5% increments if the migration is not curbed. In the U.S., some…
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by Jason Hopkins Republicans uncomfortable with the idea of a tariff war are reportedly mulling whether to vote against the president’s proposed tariff hikes against Mexico. A number of congressional Republicans could join their Democratic counterparts in a vote to block President Donald Trump if he moves forward with threats to slap tariffs on all Mexican goods, according to a report from the Washington Post. Such a move would serve as a sharper GOP rebuke to the president than the failed attempt earlier this year to revoke his emergency border declaration. Similar to the resolution condemning the emergency declaration, a vote to block Trump’s tariffs would likely begin in the Democratic-controlled House and then move to the Senate, where enough Republicans could defect. “I know he’s, sometimes in his frustration, expressed his intention to do certain things but after calm reflection and consultation with the members of the Congress has decided maybe to pursue a different course, so that’s what I hope would happen here,” Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn said to reporters on Monday. Other Republican senators have also publicly expressed their disapproval of the plan. “He’s a tariff guy,” Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst stated Monday after…
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On Friday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Michael Patrick Leahy spoke with special guest and his former Breitbart colleague, Iraq war veteran and current Army Reserve Sergeant Neil McCabe of One America News Network. Back from the border, Washington-based reporter for One America News Network, McCabe spoke to the team about the We Build the Wall team in Sunland Park New Mexico, Brian Kolfage’s plan to install his purple heart into the wall which was just completed, and how to get Mexico to stop letting people through to the United States by upping the Trump trade game and stop pretending the Mexican government has anything to do with running Mexico. Leahy: Speaking of Mexico, we are joined on the line here now by our good friend Neil McCabe with OANN. And Neil was on the ground in Sunland Park, New Mexico where the We Build the Wall team was building that wall. Neil welcome! McCabe: Hey guys. Good to be with you. Leahy: So, bring us up to speed on the latest of that wall. I…
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by Rick Manning Stock markets go up and down based upon the latest trade rumors. Predictions of price hikes make headlines, yet the inflation rate remains at the levels, 2.0 percent at last count, desired by the Federal Reserve. What is going on? And is this even really a trade war with China at all, or is it part of something much bigger? These are questions that should be asked but are often lost to click-bait headlines. So, here are a few thumbnail answers that will hopefully help you understand what is going on. Question: Are President Trump’s use of tariffs against China part of a trade war? Those who try to put tariffs on goods made in China into this context are deliberately narrowing the real challenge in the economic relations between the U.S. and China. The tariffs are designed to restructure America’s trade relations with China, but when you examine the key demands from the recent attempts to create a new economic partnership with China, they are mostly focused upon protecting patents, ending forced technology transfers to the Chinese government and stopping Chinese currency manipulation which always puts U.S. goods at a competitive disadvantage with Chinese goods. Traditional trade deals…
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WASHINGTON — Mexico’s foreign minister says he has started negotiating with U.S. officials after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Mexican products related to the migrant surge at the border. Marcelo Ebrard said on Twitter Friday that he had spoken to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by phone and said face-to-face talks between the two would take place Wednesday in Washington. “The summit to resolve the U.S. dispute with our country will be on Wednesday in Washington,” Ebrard said. “We will be firm and defend the dignity of Mexico.” Earlier Friday, Mexico’s president responded to the U.S. tariff threats with caution urging “dialogue” over “coercive measures.” “I want to reiterate that we are not going to fall into any provocation, but we are going to be prudent, and we are going to respect the authorities of the United States and President Donald Trump,” said Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. His statement Friday morning followed a two-page letter to Trump made public late Thursday, similar in tone, responding to Trump’s announcement on Twitter earlier in the day that the United States would begin imposing an escalating tax on imports from Mexico. “On June 10th, the…
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Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN-2) sent a tweetstorm Friday night talking about President Trump’s new threatened tariffs on Mexico. “Where is the adult in the room who knows what the hell they’re doing on trade?” Craig continued by saying small businesses and farmers will be the ones affected by the “President’s reckless trade wars.” Where is the adult in the room who knows what the hell they're doing on trade? https://t.co/aHTkWG3YVi — Angie Craig (@AngieCraigMN) May 31, 2019 “Our small businesses and farmers pay the price for this President’s reckless trade wars – not China, not Mexico – our communities pay,” Craig tweeted. In her next two tweets, she talked about her personal experience with farmers. “I watched my grandfather lose his way of life in the 1980’s farm crisis. I’ve sat with dairy farmers who wonder how their going to make it another year. This isn’t a game – this is people’s livelihoods.” “Farmers are the fabric of greater MN and deserve better than the President’s twitter trade war.” Farmers are the fabric of greater MN and deserve better than the President’s twitter trade war. — Angie Craig (@AngieCraigMN) May 31, 2019 Trump threatened on Twitter Thursday to put…
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by Robert Romano In 2016, when President Donald Trump ran on his America first trade agenda, much of the conventional wisdom was that, if implemented, his tariffs would wreck the U.S. economy. It would have the same impact as the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Act, and so the prediction goes, lead to another Great Depression. “Trump trade plans could cause global recession: Experts,” read one confident headline on CNBC in May 2016. “If you take (Trump’s) position as real, that we would do this, then it would take the world down the road that we saw in the 1930s that we saw with the Smoot–Hawley Tariff,” Caroline Freund of the Peterson Institute for International Economics said. “The world would definitely fall into a recession.” The Washington Post’s Robert Samuelson wrote in June 2018, “The ghost of Smoot-Hawley seems to haunt Trump,” after Trump levied tariffs on steel and aluminum. Samuelson suggested, “What’s eerie is that Trump’s embrace of protectionism is now assuming the same role as Smoot-Hawley in the 1930s. By slowing economic growth, it darkens the outlook and reduces the ability of debtors to repay their lenders. So much for the lessons of history.” Other predictions have suggested, besides slowing economic growth or perhaps…
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MSNBC went to Ohio over the weekend to examine the impact of tariffs (separate from the Chinese tariffs) on businesses and retailers in the area. Glen Fish, CEO of Revere Plastic Systems, said that “since the tariff activities have kicked in, it has been a benefit for us.” “We’ve seen investments from our customers. We’ve also, in terms of capacity enhancements and additional volume, which has helped stabilize and strengthen our workforce. And we’ve seen opportunities arise with other companies moving to the U.S. as a result of some of this,” he continued. Fish said that the tariffs have provided “stability and predictability in terms of volumes and continued investment and growth” for his company. Fish’s business is based out of Clyde, Ohio and provides plastic parts to Whirlpool, which has a factory in the town. The tariffs have brought roughly 1,800 new jobs to America, but have also resulted in an increase to the cost of washers and dryers. Tom Phillips, an appliance retailer from Tiffin, Ohio, said the tariffs “have hurt us because of the price increase.” “You know, for 38 years or whatever I’ve never had this much of a price increase over two or three…
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by Robert Romano Just when it appeared that a new trade agreement with China was being finalized last week, Beijing abruptly attempted to change all the terms of the deal and walk back prior concessions that had been made to head off President Donald Trump’s threat to increase tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent on $200 billion of goods. The changes had arrived on May 3 late in the evening and blew up months’ worth of negotiations. According to Reuters’ David Lawder, Jeff Mason and Michael Martina, “In each of the seven chapters of the draft trade deal, China had deleted its commitments to change laws to resolve core complaints that caused the United States to launch a trade war: Theft of U.S. intellectual property and trade secrets; forced technology transfers; competition policy; access to financial services; and currency manipulation.” It was an unacceptable situation. China was reneging on the deal. Trump had already delayed the 25 percent tariffs in January to give negotiations a chance to make a breakthrough. Then, on the eve of concluding the agreement, Beijing wanted to do a complete 180 on everything that had already been discussed. Instantaneously, and in response, on May…
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The United States has increased tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. China on Friday said it “deeply regrets” the increased tariffs and will take the “necessary countermeasures” without giving any details. The increases are going into effect amid talks between Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. On Thursday the U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators ended the first of two days of talks aimed at saving a trade deal even as President Donald Trump said the new “very heavy tariffs” on Chinese products would go ahead. The White House said Thursday evening that “Ambassador Lightizer and Secretary Mnuchin met with President Trump to discuss the ongoing trade negotiations with China. The ambassador and secretary then had a working dinner with Vice Premier Liu He and agreed to continue discussions tomorrow morning at USTR.” Talks on Friday Liu He is leading the Chinese negotiating team for the talks, which threatened to collapse after the Trump administration accused Beijing of backtracking. “We were getting very close to a deal, then they started to renegotiate the deal,” said Trump Thursday in the Roosevelt Room of…
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