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Can Trump ‘order’ companies to look ‘for an alternative to China’?
American Thinker ^ | 08/24/2019 | Thomas Lifson

Posted on 08/24/2019 5:22:19 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

When President Trump issued a series of four tweets in response to China’s tariff threats Friday morning, Wall Street took a dive. A Matt Phillips of the New York Times wrote:

Stocks fell sharply on Wall Street on Friday after President Trump responded to China’s threat of new tariffs on American imports with an angry volley of tweets, helping to push the market to its fourth-straight weekly loss.

The S&P 500 dropped 2.6 percent, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq index fell 3 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average declined 2.4 percent.

Investors were on edge before trading started after Beijing vowed to answer the Trump administration’s next round of tariffs on Chinese goods by increasing tariffs on American imports.

Stocks opened trading lower after the announcement, but found their footing and began to move higher. Then, around 11 a.m., Mr. Trump took to Twitter.

You can see the dramatic effect on this chart:

(source)

Here are the tweets:

Our Country has lost, stupidly, Trillions of Dollars with China over many years. They have stolen our Intellectual Property at a rate of Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year, & they want to continue. I won’t let that happen! We don’t need China and, frankly, would be far....— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019

 

....better off without them. The vast amounts of money made and stolen by China from the United States, year after year, for decades, will and must STOP. Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing..— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019


(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; tradewar
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1 posted on 08/24/2019 5:22:19 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
MORE TWEETS:

....better off without them. The vast amounts of money made and stolen by China from the United States, year after year, for decades, will and must STOP. Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing..— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019

 

....your companies HOME and making your products in the USA. I will be responding to China’s Tariffs this afternoon. This is a GREAT opportunity for the United States. Also, I am ordering all carriers, including Fed Ex, Amazon, UPS and the Post Office, to SEARCH FOR & REFUSE,....— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019

 

....all deliveries of Fentanyl from China (or anywhere else!). Fentanyl kills 100,000 Americans a year. President Xi said this would stop - it didn’t. Our Economy, because of our gains in the last 2 1/2 years, is MUCH larger than that of China. We will keep it that way!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019


2 posted on 08/24/2019 5:23:47 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (look at Michigan, it will)
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To: SeekAndFind
MORE TWEET:

For all of the Fake News Reporters that don’t have a clue as to what the law is relative to Presidential powers, China, etc., try looking at the Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. Case closed!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2019

The full text of the Act is provided by the US Treasury. The most relevant portions include:

United States Code Annotated

Title 50. War and National Defense

Chapter 35. International Emergency Economic Powers § 1701. Unusual and extraordinary threat; declaration of national emergency; exercise of Presidential authorities

(a) Any authority granted to the President by section 1702 of this title may be exercised to deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States, if the President declares a national emergency with respect to such threat.

(b) The authorities granted to the President by section 1702 of this title may only be exercised to deal with an unusual and extraordinary threat with respect to which a national emergency has been declared for purposes of this chapter and may not be exercised for any other purpose. Any exercise of such authorities to deal with any new threat shall be based on a new declaration of national emergency which must be with respect to such threat.


3 posted on 08/24/2019 5:25:00 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (look at Michigan, it will)
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To: SeekAndFind

Order?
No. Strongly suggest and call on their patriotism and self interest


4 posted on 08/24/2019 5:28:31 AM PDT by silverleaf (Age Takes a Toll: Please Have Exact Change.)
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To: silverleaf

We used to call it “jawboning”.


5 posted on 08/24/2019 5:30:18 AM PDT by Migraine
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To: SeekAndFind

Wall Street has the biggest advocate in the Oval Office in the history of the nation. Can you imagine how they could fly if they supported him. Just imagine how high and far! Wow!


6 posted on 08/24/2019 5:31:05 AM PDT by elpadre (AfganistaMr Obama said theoal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-hereQaeda" and its allies.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Well, he can’t legally get corporations to stop doing business in China. He knows he doesn’t run a dictatorship.. But, he knows that....

He can make it very tough and expensive for them to do business in China. So, it might as well be an ‘order’ to leave China.


7 posted on 08/24/2019 5:33:37 AM PDT by adorno
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To: SeekAndFind
Can Trump 'order' companies around?

Judges do it all the time, but those are mostly Deep State Leftists using the law to advance their agendas. Trump is letting them they'd be better off looking for alternatives to China...

8 posted on 08/24/2019 5:34:41 AM PDT by jeffc (The U.S. media are our enemy)
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To: SeekAndFind

He can order it and they can ignore it.


9 posted on 08/24/2019 5:37:35 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: adorno
Well, he can’t legally get corporations to stop doing business in China.

I wonder what authority the Executive Branch has in preventing companies that rely on Chinese manufacturing access to government contracts/bids?

The fed government is a huge customer, so the President might have some leverage there.

10 posted on 08/24/2019 5:40:16 AM PDT by Sirius Lee (“They are openly planning to murder you. Prep if you want to live.”)
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To: SeekAndFind

Rather than an order, the Trump statement should be taken as a warning.

There is immense change afoot. As corporations you should plan accordingly. The only certainty is change

Regrding the market, it is August. The principle players are all on vacation.


11 posted on 08/24/2019 5:40:42 AM PDT by bert ( (KE. NP. N.btyC. +12) Progressives are existential American enemies)
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To: SeekAndFind

I think one of his tweets is suggesting he will try to grind to a halt all of the goods coming from China by checking every box fox Fentanyl. It’ll have work to rule like effects. Ouch if he follows through


12 posted on 08/24/2019 5:42:22 AM PDT by wiseprince
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To: SeekAndFind

We are now locked into a battle to determine who has ultimate control of the U.S. economy - Trump or Xi Jinping.

The democrats and globalists and the MSM are rooting for Xi Jinping.


13 posted on 08/24/2019 5:43:38 AM PDT by odawg
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To: Brilliant

Companies cannot ignore the President if he declares a national emergency.


14 posted on 08/24/2019 5:45:06 AM PDT by Bookshelf
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To: bert

US corporations have had more than a year to anticipate what was coming. Any CEO who has ignored the threat and has not looked for alternatives outside of China should be fired.


15 posted on 08/24/2019 5:47:01 AM PDT by Bookshelf
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To: Migraine

His intended audience is the Chinese people.

The workers are used to being “hereby ordered”

Now they are all scared they are going to lose their jobs.

Trump is bypassing Xi and going straight to the Chinese people.


16 posted on 08/24/2019 5:48:46 AM PDT by zeebee
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To: SeekAndFind
(b) The authorities granted to the President by section 1702 of this title may only be exercised to deal with an unusual and extraordinary threat with respect to which a national emergency has been declared for purposes of this chapter and may not be exercised for any other purpose. Any exercise of such authorities to deal with any new threat shall be based on a new declaration of national emergency which must be with respect to such threat.

CDC: Roughly 28,400 people died from overdoses involving synthetic opioids other than methadone in 2017.

That's several times more deaths annually than all the US deaths in all wars (including all 9/11 civilians) that the US has been involved in since Vietnam. I'd think that qualifies as an emergency. Will the courts agree?

17 posted on 08/24/2019 5:55:57 AM PDT by Sooth2222 ("Every nation gets the government it deserves." -Joseph de Maistre)
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To: adorno

I think that most companies dealing with products made in China and sold in the US....are already looking at the alternate sources. It wouldn’t surprise me if half of shipping business between China and the west coast drops off by January.

Added to this....if there ever was an opportunity for Brazil and South Africa to finally pick up the pieces and compete....this is it.


18 posted on 08/24/2019 5:56:37 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: Bookshelf

You are of course very correct.

I would imagine that major corporations with presence in china have visited the President to develop an understnding for going forward.

The President will I believe receive them and listen. They afterall know more about dealing with China than he does. They do it everyday and they know about Chinese businessmen that are not communist to the bone.

The President is afterall, not anti business, he is in favor of altering trade that benefits America.


19 posted on 08/24/2019 5:57:32 AM PDT by bert ( (KE. NP. N.btyC. +12) Progressives are existential American enemies)
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To: zeebee

I think you’re onto something. That’s 4-dimensional stuff right there.


20 posted on 08/24/2019 5:59:31 AM PDT by Migraine
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