Free Republic

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog, Somebody out there apparently does not want President Trump to make a trade deal with China. Just after U.S. and Chinese officials agreed to suspend the implementation of new tariffs for 90 days, one of China’s most important tech executives was literally kidnapped as she was changing planes in Canada. Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was simply on her way to Mexico, but at the urging of U.S. authorities the Canadians grabbed her and are refusing to let her go. Reportedly, the plan is to extradite her to the United States where...

It started with the Washington Post... The story (or narrative) from The Washington Post was about the "successful trade talks" between Donald Trump and Xi Peng in China. WaPo claimed that it wasn't true. They went on to say that the talks were all nonsense and confusion. They went ahead, quoting a former U.S. government official (unnamed, of course, but implied that he was an expert who was said to have been in contact with Chinese officials. This "expert" claimed that Beijing are “puzzled and irritated” by the Trump administration’s behavior, and widespread confusion across media claiming the 'truce' as...

New export orders contracted for the fifth month in a row in October, to 46.9 from 48 in September. Imports also contracted for a fourth straight month, indicating weakening demand within China, while the decline in manufacturing employment accelerated. Non-manufacturing activity, dominated by the service sector, also slowed in October... We expect a worse growth slowdown in spring 2019.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will cut import tariffs on textile products and metals, including steel products, to 8.4 percent from 11.5 percent, effective Nov. 1, the finance ministry said on Sunday.

While the Chinese make good on a pledge to refuse negotiations while under threat, President Trump is making good on his campaign pledge to improve trade conditions for the United States with countries he believes have long taken advantage of the American market, the largest in the world. It’s hard to fault the president. China’s trade imbalances with the U.S. have been massive — in the hundreds of billions — for years. Now, much of that is due to the fact that U.S. manufacturing capacity had fallen off over the past few decades (not altogether caused by, but accelerated after,...

U.S. media reports said Friday that President Donald Trump has instructed aides to proceed with tariffs on $200 billion more in Chinese products... Last week, Trump threatened even more tariffs on Chinese items — duties on another $267 worth of goods, which when combined with the others would cover virtually all the products that China sends to the United States. "That changes the equation," he told reporters.

China made a “dumb move” in targeting America’s heartland with tariffs. Soybeans are a case in point. “I understood politically why they chose soybeans, but they made a dumb move,” says John Baize, a market analyst with the U.S. Soybean Export Council. The U.S. is the number one exporter of soybeans. Brazil is number two. No one comes close after that except for Argentina, which is the largest exporter of soymeal and soybean oil. Soybeans don’t fall from the sky, so China has very little mega-markets outside of the U.S. Brazil is the only one, really. And now they are...

Link Only: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-16/china-to-send-group-to-u-s-for-first-trade-talks-since-june

Spectators claim that Satan himself appeared on stage during the opening performance of Christopher Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus (1588). The grizzly specter, it was said, drove men mad with fear. Some in attendance wanted to demolish the theater, while others wanted to hang Marlowe for his occult summoning. In spite of the controversy (perhaps because of it), the play was a hit. Today Faustus remains one of the greatest works of literature. Why? Exquisite language?—lines like “the face that launch’d a thousand ships” have haunted readers for centuries. Perhaps. But time rarely preserves art for art’s sake: what survives is...

In a trade war, we are told, foreign manufacturers are not affected at all by tariffs imposed by the U.S. government. Only U.S. consumers will pay more. Yet, mysteriously, if a foreign country imposes tariffs on U.S. exports, it is a catastrophe for U.S. manufacturers and “farmers” (giant conglomerates). So we are told that U.S. exporters will suffer from a trade war. However, foreign producers importing to the U.S. will not be affected in the slightest. That is not sound analysis, but propaganda. Saying that tariffs hurt U.S. consumers and U.S. producers, but tariffs have no effect at all on...

“Make America Great Again” will, given the astonishing victory it produced for Donald Trump, be recorded among the most successful slogans in political history. Yet it raises a question: how did America first become the world’s greatest economic power? In 1998, in The Great Betrayal: How American Sovereignty and Social Justice Are Being Sacrificed to the Gods of the Global Economy, this writer sought to explain. However, as the blazing issue of that day was Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton, it was no easy task to steer interviewers around to the McKinley Tariff. Free Trade Shouldn't Be a Litmus Test...

They must be burning whatever gallons of midnight oil they have left at MSNBC, CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, CBS, NBC, ABC, etc. -- all the propaganda organs of the Democratic Party -- trying to figure out how to downplay the agreement Donald Trump just made with European Union President Jean-Claude Juncker, but it's not going to be easy. This is the beginning of a massive free trade deal between Europe and the U.S. with zero tariffs outside the auto industry. If even half of it comes true, there will be a (okay, why not?) YUUUGE growth...

The Senate on Wednesday took a symbolic shot at President Trump’s trade policy amid anxiety on Capitol Hill over his tariff strategy. Senators voted 88-11 to instruct lawmakers hashing out a deal on a government funding bill to include language “providing a role for Congress” on tariffs implemented for national security reasons, known as Section 232 of the trade laws. The vote is nonbinding, meaning lawmakers don’t have to add trade language into the funding bill. But the vote margin, with more senators supporting it than the amount needed to override a veto, underscores the depth of concern on Capitol...

U.S. pork producers are about to be bitten by a second batch of hefty retaliatory tariffs from China and Mexico — and that has some large producers predicting they could lose big money and be forced to invest overseas. Executives say the pork industry has been expanding in recent years, in part on the expectation of export opportunities that would continue to support growth. However, the threat of a trade war is adding uncertainty and driving fear. "We put a halt on all investment, not just because we will be losing money, but because we don't know if growing in...

Minnesota-based Polaris acknowledged on Friday that it is considering moving some production of its Indian Motorcycles overseas amid concerns over new tariffs from Europe. A spokeswoman for the company told The Associated Press that it could move some of its production to Poland from Iowa, but noted that "nothing is definitive." "We're looking at a range of mitigation plans," the spokeswoman, Jess Rogers, told the AP. Polaris did not immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment.

I like how the constant harping and carping about tariffs these days gets invoked together with fearmongering about Smoot Hawley and the Great Depression. What is missing? The Revenue Act of 1932. After the 1929 crash there was a small tax cut, but this was overshadowed by Smoot Hawley just months later. In the middle of bad economic times, you simply don't raise taxes, and yes, a tariff is a tax. But let's get to the meat of the numbers, shall we? The Revenue Acts of 1918 and 1921 had a top tax rate of 73%. The Revenue Act of...

A flat tariff would trigger the relocation back to the U.S. of the right industries. For example, a 30% tariff would not cause the relocation of the apparel industry back to the U.S. from abroad. The difference between domestic and foreign labor costs is simply too large for a 30% premium to tip the balance in America’s favor in an industry based on semi-skilled labor. But a 30% tariff quite likely would cause the relocation of high-tech manufacturing like semiconductors. This is key, as these industries are precisely the ones we should want to relocate. These capital-intensive, knowledge-intensive industries support...

China will impose an additional 25 percent tariff on 659 U.S. goods worth $50 billion, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing the Tariff Commission of the State Council. Tariffs on $34 billion of U.S. goods including agricultural products, autos and aquatic goods will take effect from July 6, Xinhua reported early on Saturday, citing the commission.

Dan Moore, a 58-year-old steel mill worker, gives the president an A+ on everything from tax cuts to foreign policy, but he is not so sure about tariffs. "We need tariffs, but when it starts to impact the company where you work ... you're thinking, well wait a minute, time out!" he said. Moore is worried the tariffs might cost him his job. The mill where he works, NLMK Pennsylvania, in the town of Farrell, not far from the border with Ohio, employs 750 workers and is a subsidiary of Novolipetsk Steel, or NLMK, Russia's top steelmaker. But even though...

A dozen House lawmakers have introduced legislation to remove President Trump's tariffs on Canadian newsprint so a study can be done on how much those tariffs are crushing local newspapers around the country. The bill, introduced by Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., is a response to the 22 percent tariff that the Trump administration has imposed on some Canadian newsprint since the beginning of this year. Noem said that tariff has led to rising costs for local newspapers, and are a threat to their survival. "In recent years, new tariffs on Canadian newsprint have increased paper prices by 20 to 30...