Free Republic

<p>WASHINGTON – The president of Mexico says he wants to avoid a confrontation with the United States, but had harsh words about President Donald Trump's plan to impose tariffs on Mexican goods to pressure the nation to stem the flow of Central American migrants.</p>

Just hours after President Trump announced he will be imposing 5% tariffs on Mexican imports over illegal immigration, Mexico’s president Lopez Obrador sent Trump a letter begging for a meeting to work toward a solution. “Mexico’s President Lopez Obrador asks Trump to have U.S. officials meet with the Mexican foreign minister in Washington on Friday to seek a solution that benefits both nations,” Reuters reported.

US President Donald Trump said in a statement issued by the White House on Wednesday that the decision to recognize Brazil as a major non-NATO ally comes due to "Brazil's recent commitments to increase defense cooperation with the United States". "I am making this designation in recognition of the Government of Brazil's recent commitments to increase defense cooperation with the United States, and in recognition of our own national interest in deepening our defense coordination with Brazil", Trump said in his message to Congress. During a meeting with his Brazilian counterpart, Jair Bolsonaro, at the White House in March, Trump...

The United States has been plagued with uncertainty ever since President Donald Trump started his trade disputes with many of our trading partners. From steel and aluminum tariffs to renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and replacing it with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), trade rules have been in flux, with U.S. consumers caught in the crossfire -- and with no end in sight. This drama started in March 2018, when the Trump administration announced that it would impose 25% tariffs on steel and 10% tariffs on aluminum for imports from all countries that he deemed to be...

Mexico has now become the biggest U.S. trading partner, jumping ahead of Canada and China that have previously held the top spot, according to recent government data. Transactions with Mexico made up 15 percent of U.S. trade in February, according to federal data released last week, edging out Canada at 14.2 percent and China at 13.9 percent. Mexico's emergence as the largest U.S. trading partner highlights the stakes of President Trump's push to win congressional approval for a new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto agreed in...

The Next George Bush Bet Everything on Trump In a time of outsider politics, can the ultimate insider resurrect his family’s brand? -------------------------------- But how does one sell the party of Trump to communities he’s repeatedly disparaged? On immigration, Bush claims that the challenge isn’t one of substance. “It’s the tone that is not working,” he said, adding that “Texas wants the national government to come forward with solutions,” such as “supporting Border Patrol,” “strategically located physical structures,” and a plan to deal with people who have overstayed their visas, which Bush feels is “the most overlooked issue.” But however...

Trade agreements have been greatly successful at lowering trade barriers around the world. But they're not without their flaws. Each agreement, in practice, tends to retain some counterproductive protectionist policies and may even export some bad policies. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), or "new NAFTA," is no different. As soon as President Donald Trump got into office, he threatened to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement. He imposed metal tariffs on steel and aluminum for the stated purpose of forcing Canada and Mexico to renegotiate the 25-year-old trade agreement. The result was the USMCA. Assessing the impact of...

There’s been no end to the complaints on the left (and portions of the right as well) about President Trump’s use of tariffs to attempt to craft better trade deals for the United States. The results have been a mixed bag thus far, with some efforts delivering results (see: Mexico and Canada) and others seeming to fall short (the auto industry is a good example there). But some of the greatest consternation on display around punditry panels has been caused by the President’s aggressive stance toward China, arguably our largest trading partner. Trump’s complaints about their habitual theft of...

Stefan Molyneux, Host of Freedomain Radio - the largest and most popular philosophy show in the world - takes you on a deep journey to the dark and shocking center of the Justin Trudeau scandal that may well bring down Canada's Prime Minister. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b03LHkj0wXs

Refiners in the United States are stocking up on heavy crude, pushing prices higher, as the Trump administration prepares to slam more punitive measures on Caracas after the inauguration of Nicolas Maduro as president of Venezuela for a second term after elections considered illegitimate by Washington. Reuters reports that officials from the presidential administration met with oil industry executives to discuss the measures on the table, including the suspension ofrefined product exports to Venezuela or Venezuelan crude oil imports into the United States. Gulf Coast refiners have a limited choice of supplier when it comes to heavy crude. Besides local...

GUATEMALA CITY The Latest on an 8-year-old Guatemalan boy who died in U.S. custody (all times local): 10:30 p.m. New Mexico authorities say an autopsy performed on the 8-year-old Guatemalan boy who died in U.S. custody shows he had the flu. The New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator says in a statement late Thursday that more tests need to be done before a cause of death can be determined for Felipe Gomez Alonzo.

President Trump and the White House are claiming that the newly renegotiated North American trade deal means that Mexico is going to pay for the southern border wall Trump promised on the campaign trail. The argument is part of the White House's position on border security as Trump urges Congress to pony up $5 billion for the wall while lawmakers seek a deal to avoid a shutdown. Yet the administration has struggled to explain how the pact ensures that Mexico will actually foot the bill for the barrier...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refused to hold up a copy of the trade pact signed by him, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, and President Trump, at Friday’s ceremony, despite the latter urging him to do so. Trudeau appeared to be in a bit of a feisty mood despite the historic nature of the agreement, along with Trump’s insistence that the two have become ‘great friends.’ Aside from being the only one of the three North American leaders to not hold the document up for a photo op, Trudeau referred to the President as simply “Donald” during the meeting, and...

Still Winning This week the President signed a new trade deal with Mexico, Canada, and Argentina, a deal far more favorable to our interests than the now discarded NAFTA deal. In the same time frame, our master negotiator hosted the first trilateral meeting with Japan and India, which should also boost the economy and which includes defense and military purchases. Merry Christmas, Xi. Comey: Still a Loser On the home front, Mueller and Comey keep looking worse and worse. Previously, former FBI Director James Comey refused to answer 100 questions when he testified before Congress because the hearings were public....

<p>BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- U.S. President Donald Trump says he will shortly be providing formal notice to Congress that he will terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement, giving lawmakers six months to approve the replacement he recently signed. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while returning to Washington from Argentina, Trump says: “I will be formally terminating NAFTA shortly.” Seeking to gain leverage with skeptical lawmakers to approve the revised trade pact, Trump says Congress “will have a choice” as it considers the agreement he signed with the leaders of Mexico and Canada on Friday during the Group of 20 summit. He says they can choose between the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement or “pre-NAFTA, which works very well.” Trump has made renegotiating NAFTA a centerpiece of his presidency.</p>

General Motors will end production of six sedans by the end of 2019. North American customers want SUVs, crossovers, hatchbacks and trucks. Sedans have fallen out of favor. As GM (GM) adjusts to changing customer behavior it is also planning ahead for the future. The company announced massive layoffs and is closing five North American facilities as it transitions to self-driving, electric cars of the future. The soon-to-be closed plants mean GM will no longer make these cars: Buick LaCrosse January - September sales: 13,409, down 14.2% The LaCrosse is a large car built by a brand that was a...

TORONTO, Nov 25 (Reuters) - General Motors Co is planning to close all operations at a plant near Toronto and an announcement is expected on Monday, a local TV news channel reported on Sunday Citing multiple sources, CTV News reported that the plant closure in Oshawa in the province of Ontario was expected to affect “thousands” of high-paying jobs. GM builds sedans on one assembly line and pickup trucks on another. The plant closure is part of global restructuring, the report added. A Canada-based GM spokesman declined comment. GM employs about 2,500 union staff and roughly 300 salaried employees in...

The Trump administration is attempting to negotiate a deal with Mexico over the thousands of Central American caravan migrants camped out in Tijuana and Mexicali, and last night, announced there was one , with asylum applicants having to wait out adjudication of their claims in Mexico, not the U.S. The idea was to disincentivize junk asylum claims from applicants whose real aim is to work in the U.S. for a couple years and remit the earnings until courts get around to dismissing the claims and deports them. Well, until Mexico said there wasn't a deal. Which is about par for...

‘They haven’t gotten his job approval over 50 percent, like Reagan,’ says one GOP pollster. Donald Trump insists the GOP’s midterm election shellacking had nothing to do with him. Things will be different, he says, when his name is actually on the ballot in 2020. While it’s true that most presidents who see their party suffer major losses in their first midterm election get reelected anyway, Trump isn’t most presidents — and there are lots of blaring-red warning lights in this month’s election results for his bid for a second term. Unlike most of his predecessors, he’s been persistently unpopular,...

Democrat Sherrod Brown just won reelection resoundingly in a Trump state running on Trump’s issues — taking a hard line on trade and helping blue-collar workers. Now the Ohio senator is talking increasingly like he’s prepared to take on the president himself.