Posted on 05/14/2018 10:23:11 AM PDT by Zhang Fei
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s pledge to help a Chinese telecommunication company that broke U.S. sanctions law sparked a backlash from lawmakers who said the move could weaken the U.S. hand in upcoming trade talks with Beijing.
The Commerce Department last month banned U.S. companies from selling to ZTE Corp for seven years after it illegally shipped goods made with U.S. parts to Iran and North Korea, prompting the company to shut its main business operations last week.
Trump said on Sunday that he was working with Chinese President Xi Jinping to help ZTE revive jobs.
In exchange for easing that ban, Beijing would back away from threats to slap tariffs on U.S. farm goods, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people in both countries briefed on the emerging deal.
“Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!” Trump wrote on Twitter. The White House said later that Trump expected Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to make an independent decision.
Ross is slated to make public remarks on Monday at an event with journalists at 1 p.m. ET (1700 GMT).
Trump’s olive branch angered lawmakers from both parties, who said it looked like he was backing down ahead of high-stakes trade talks this week in Washington between the United States and China.
“Shocked. I think it shocked a lot of people in the president’s own cabinet,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, speaking to reporters.
“Maybe he’ll back off - let’s hope. He’s done that before too,” said Schumer, who said getting tough on China was one of the few areas where he agrees with Trump.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio cited concerns about Beijing using telecom companies like ZTE (000063.SZ) (0763.HK), China’s second-largest maker of telecommunications equipment, for espionage.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
It may not be agriculture. Xi may have threatened Apple. He could zero out Apple’s $50b in annual Chinese sales by banning new iPhones. He could also zero out Apple’s output for at least a quarter or two by banning the sales of Chinese-made parts to Apple. Given that most of the physical components used in Apple products are also assembled in China (by a variety of Chinese and foreign companies), Apple would have to spend tens of billions on a crash project to get plants up and going in a low cost labor locale. The US wouldn’t do, because its margins would crash. The big change Steve Jobs made when he took over was to follow Dell in moving production abroad - to China. Apple margins skyrocketed, providing him with the capital to do R&D on breakthrough products like the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad.
I think it’s about the future enforcement of sanctions against Iran. Increasing Chines intel and cooperation.
Heck, Chiona wants a peaceful Iran more than we do.
This is a very bad idea. They were punished for breaking the Iran and North Korea sanctions, and they’re a national security threat. China is our enemy, planning to dominate us. Look up Made in China 2025.
>guilty of the same infraction
It’s not even the same infraction. ZTE smuggled American technology to Iran and North Korea. After getting caught they claimed it was rogue executives and promised to punish them, but it turned out they rewarded them with huge bonuses instead.
Europe continuing with the Iran treaty isn’t breaking any promise they have made. They just don’t withdraw from the treaty.
I was thinking more of the future than the past. If Iran does not completely nullify the agreement and if European, Chinese, and Russian companies continue to do business with them, will the administration place sanctions on those country's corporations as they did with ZTE? And how could that be done when the President is saying that ZTE has been unfairly punished? By coming to ZTE's defense, Trump could well be rendering U.S. sanctions against Iran toothless.
Are these Euros helping us with North Korea?
I get what you're saying, but as I say, there are a lot of moving parts. For one, Trump hasn't actually done anything to help ZTE, he just told Xi he'd look into it. This kicks the rock down the road past the meeting in Singapore. China is in position to help us or mess us up in Korea, so this stalls them. Secondly, this leaves on the table whatever our complaints are with ZTE, to tell them sure, you can come back into the US market, just resolve these two tiny, little, unimportant issues and you can come back, no problem. We'll talk about it more... after we get past Singapore.
After Singapore, its possible that we'll have our own direct line to Pyongyang, and China will have a lot less leverage there, then.
And then, part of any negotiation is throwing your counterpart a bone in order to get the bigger issue resolved. He didn't take any tariffs off or even offer to do it. We're still pushing back in the South China Sea. We're still pushing to get markets open to our products, and he's now shown he has no problem shutting down entire Chinese factories to do it.
He is giving breaks on tariffs to some countries while not China. Now we're getting ready to push hard on Iran sanctions. He is making it plain to Euros and Chinese alike that he is the one they have to deal with.
I see this as 3D chess. The Chinese are good at that, but so is Trump. So for the moment I'm giving him benefit of the doubt. If Singapore goes well, it will make things a lot easier with Iran, we don't want to be rattling sabers in two theaters at the same time, that's for sure.
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