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The NAFTA 2.0 agreement, or USMCA as Donald Trump wants to call it — and he would appear to have won the right to call it anything he wants — ought to be sending chills up the spines of diplomats and trade negotiators around the world. Trump largely got his way. And now, no one can tell him his bull-in-a China-shop way won't work. Should Sunday night's sudden 11th-hour approval of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement give hope or dismay to Europeans hoping to do a trade deal with America, to China fearing a trade war with the United States, or to...

Gold has gotten a bad rap. Long seen as the investment choice of the cranky and the fearful, the metal yields nothing; as Warren Buffett has said, it just “looks at you.” This year has been especially lackluster for gold. Its price has slumped 8%, to about $1,200 an ounce, and is off more than 35% from its high of $1,900 in 2011. Adding insult to injury, Vanguard will soon rechristen the largest gold-oriented U.S. mutual fund and shift its focus away from the metal. But this out-of-favor asset class now deserves a place in investment portfolios. Compared with stocks...

Retailers say they are OK with new trade rules that will allow Canadians to buy more from the United States duty free — because dire alternatives that would have been worse never came to pass. One aspect of the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement announced over the weekend is an increase in the so-called de minimis threshold for duty-free shopping — the amount that Canadians can buy from a store in the U.S. and import to Canada without having to pay a duty. Under the old rules, Canada's limit was $20. That's much less than what the U.S. allows, a discrepancy that...

This is a tale of two Politicos... In the October 1 USA edition of Politico, the new NAFTA agreement was viewed through the lens of President Donald Trump's supposed braggadocio starting with the very title, "Trump hails 'historic' trade deal with Canada, Mexico" while being rather light on the details, making it seem that it was mainly Trump's opinion that the trade deal was  "historic." In contrast the Politico Pro Canada edition of the same day went much heavier into the details which revealed just how successful Trump was in getting a better deal for the United States.

The North American Free Trade Agreement reportedly reemerged from the ashes of President Trump’s trade hostilities late Sunday. While the details of the renegotiated deal were still trickling out, they appeared unlikely to justify months of manufactured drama that rattled markets, frayed alliances and hurt business.

A GREAT MOMENT NEAR THE END OF THE TRADE NEWS CONFERENCE ....... President Trump: ( In response to the question of who were the "bad" players with weak character in Congress.) President Trump: "I THINK I'LL SAVE IT FOR A BOOK .... LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE". LMAO!

Thread by @TheLastRefuge2: "1. The economics will be in the details. But the big issue was always a problem. Canada no longer manufactures much. They have no heavy indu […]" 1. The economics will be in the details. But the big issue was always a problem. Canada no longer manufactures much. They have no heavy industry left, and generally only assemble stuff now. They are a narrow and weak economy by design @manny_ottawa

Today’s Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends) Hey, remember when all the “experts” were telling you that President Donald Trump could not possibly successfully renegotiate the 25 year-old NAFTA deal? – Yeah, they were wrong about that, too. Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump Late last night, our deadline, we reached a wonderful new Trade Deal with Canada, to be added into the deal already reached with Mexico. The new name will be The United States Mexico Canada Agreement, or USMCA. It is a great deal for all three countries, solves the many...... 5:30 AM - Oct 1, 2018 32.5K...

Stocks rose sharply on Monday as investors cheered news of Canada joining a trade deal with the United States and Mexico. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 264 points as American Express and Boeing outperformed. The S&P 500 gained 0.8 percent, led by 1 percent jumps in materials and industrials. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.7 percent as Amazon and Apple both climbed more than 1 percent. "The biggest risk factor [in the market] is a trade war and we've dialed that down a bit," said Mike Bailey, director of research at FBB Capital Partners. Bailey noted, however, the market may...

e are going to get relief from the trade wars between the United States and China.  I don’t see how he did it, but President Trump actually worked his magic again. I was concerned about the long list of products on the Tariff List, but new imports from Canada and Mexico will help this Country to bear the tariffs on goods imported from China. The list made me realize we have to start making these products here in the United States.  We cannot allow any Country to hold us hostage, because we cannot produce the products here.  It makes no...

Regardless of whether Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is ultimately confirmed by the Senate or not, the circus surrounding it will have a tremendous impact on our body politic. The #MeToo movement, which has helped many female victims receive long-begotten justice in high-profile cases, is now being utilized as a partisan weapon by the Democratic Party, who will stoop to any level to manipulate the emotions of the citizenry to win November's crucial mid-term elections.All Republicans need to take a deep breath, shake themselves out of their cloud of anger, and try to learn lessons from the chaos and calamity...

No doubt, Trump-haters will portray this move by China as minor and meaningless, for they cannot admit any success on the part of the 45th president of the United States.  And so far, details are lacking, but this bulletin from Reuters reports that a "wide range of products" are to benefit from Chinese tariff cuts: 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. ... Earlier in July, China reduced import tariffs on a range of consumer items including apparel, cosmetics, home appliances,...

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.

Is the United States ‘trade bullying’ like China says? If so, what is this going to do to the average American – like you and me? Tariffs have a direct effect on all American clothing and many of the people and businesses we work with. A tariff is a tax on goods imported into a country. This tax is a percentage of the total cost of the product. which includes insurance and freight. It goes without saying a tariff will raise prices on imported goods. Tariffs are waived when countries form free trade agreements with each other. Businesses use trade...

Watch "President Trump Addresses the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly" on YouTube https://youtu.be/q6XXNWC5Koc This speech is so damned incredible, I must post the link in case anyone here has not watched it. Unbelievable clarity and conviction.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrapped up his visit to the United Nations on Wednesday, and although he did not have a personal meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, he said not to “read into it.” Trudeau was referring to an interaction between the two leaders at the annual UN General Assembly on Tuesday. The prime minister was greeting other leaders around a table Trump was sitting at, and after a few handshakes, he approached the president, who looked like he was reading notes on the toast he was about to give at the luncheon. The two exchanged a quick handshake,...

Past administrations have called out China for violating the internationally agreed-upon rules of trade for decades. After countless high-level talks, admonitions and appeals, China did nothing to change its cheating ways. President Trump has dispensed with the talk and taken action, slapping tariffs on billions of dollars of goods China exports to the United States at artificially low prices. Naysayers predicted the president’s tariffs would tank the stock market and drag down the economy. But the Dow is posting record gains, unemployment is at a 49-year low and the economy remains strong. The forecasters are at a loss to explain...

A day after a bruising round of new tariffs came into effect, China ramped up its criticism of the U.S. in a news conference of six top trade and industry officials, portraying itself as a virtuous defender of global trade and the Trump administration as hurting the global economy. Hardening China's tone, trade negotiator Wang Shouwen said new U.S. tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods were so massive that it made trade talks impossible. "Now that the United States has adopted such huge restrictive measures, like holding a knife to someone's neck, how can negotiations proceed?" said Wang at...

“Consumers are paying the price” for President Trump’s tariffs, CNN claims. Millions will feel the pinch; many thousands will lose their jobs. What CNN fails to mention is that millions of Americans already feel the pinch, and millions more have already lost their jobs. Why? Chinese consumers won’t pay the price for American exports: China steals up to $600 billion in American intellectual property (IP) every year. Trump understands that tariffs are a powerful political tool that can — and should — be used to force China to pay for their crimes. Most Americans have only a fuzzy understanding of...

The United States cannot win its tariff war with China, regardless of what President Donald Trump says or does in the coming months. Trump believes he has the upper hand in this conflict because the US economy is so strong, and also because politicians of both parties support the strategic objective of thwarting China’s rise and preserving US global dominance. But, ironically, this apparent strength is Trump’s fatal weakness. By applying the martial arts principle of turning an opponent’s strength against him, China should easily win the tariff contest, or at least fight Trump to a draw. […] In handicapping...