Free Republic

The US has agreed to ease Trump-era tariffs on UK steel and aluminium shipments, resolving an issue that had strained relations between the allies. The move follows earlier deals with the European Union and Japan over the controversial taxes, which were imposed by former President Donald Trump in 2018 in the name of national security. In exchange, the UK will suspend extra taxes it had put on US products such as bourbon and Levi's jeans.

President Donald Trump took a lot of heat from the mainstream, business and free-market Republicans for implementing tariffs against China and other countries. The common criticism was that it was a populist, anti-free market move. They pointed to it as evidence that he is a populist, not a conservative (I recently addressed the differences between populists and conservatives, showing the accusation to be a red herring). The MSM jumped on it even more, declaring — as if they are the authority — that Trump was going against Republicans. Was he? Look at history. The Founding Fathers imposed tariffs. The first...

A total of 140 House Republicans and Democrats are lobbying President Joe Biden to cut United States tariffs on billions of dollars worth of China-made imports. Last month, Breitbart News exclusively reported how Reps. Darin LaHood (R-IL), Jackie Walorski (R-IN), Ron Kind (D-WI), and Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) were courting lawmakers to sign their letter to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai — urging her to allow more “made in China” imports to avoid U.S. tariffs. The Section 301 tariffs on billions of dollars worth of China-made products were first imposed by former President Trump after a decades-long free trade...

As a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat in Arizona, businessman Jim Lamon has claimed that he will put America First and stand up to Communist China. But when it comes to his business practices, he clearly has no intention of putting his money where his mouth is. Fund Real News Lamon has said that he will “defeat the Communist Party,” and that as a Senator, he will see to it “that goods coming into the U.S. are not made with cheap slave labor, unfettered environmental pollution, and unsafe working conditions.” He has even claimed that his own company, Depcom...

Solar panels aren’t as environmentally friendly as you may think. And now an industry group is saying looming tariffs will cripple the industry... ...a group is claiming China-made panels are coming via countries like Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand in order to skirt tariffs. In August, the American Solar Manufacturers Against Chinese Circumvention (A-SMACC) asked the Commerce Department to investigate "unfairly traded" imports from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam of solar cells and modules that are "unlawfully circumventing antidumping and countervailing duties on China."... ...This has triggered a response from the SEIA, claiming that tariffs would cripple the industry....

NEW YORK – Never before in US political history has the whole of the American business community—more than thirty major business organizations—spoke with one voice as it did in an August 5 appeal to the Biden administration to eliminate tariffs on imports from China. No entities in American politics are timider than business lobbies, most of whose work involves quiet lobbying for administrative relief and legislative tweaks. Such a high-profile intervention suggests that the business organizations believe that a deal is already underway. A deal is likely because inflation could poison the Democratic Party’s chances at 2022 mid-term elections and...

(Reuters) - Nearly three dozen of the United States' most influential business groups have asked President Joe Biden's administration to restart trade talks with China and cut tariffs on imports, the Wall Street Journal reported https://www.wsj.com/articles/business-groups-call-on-biden-to-restart-trade-talks-with-china-11628212436?mod=latest_headlines on Thursday. (Please see link for full article)

The United States is pursuing every avenue to ensure that countries suspend or roll back discriminatory digital services taxes, but will keep tariffs as an option if that does not happen, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Wednesday. Yellen told the Senate Finance Committee she had engaged in “very constructive” bilateral conversations with the Irish finance minister on the issue, and believed the entire European Union would ultimately support an increase in global minimum taxes, as proposed by the United States. She said she was hoping for progress on the tax issue, which is being negotiated under the leadership...

When President Joe Biden meets with European leaders next week, he will commit to dropping tariffs protecting U.S. steel and aluminum and resolving other trade disputes this summer. ...Bloomberg’s indicated the surrender of metals tariffs was practically a done deal. Bloomberg, CNBC, and Reuters said they had reviewed a draft statement that would be issued at the conclusion of an EU-U.S. summit in Brussels set to begin on June 15.

Implementing a border levy to price carbon-intensive imports and protect European industries will be “extremely complicated,” warned Jonathan Pershing, a member of the US climate envoy’s team. “I do note that it’s extremely complicated to think about the structure of a border tax,” Pershing told participants at a EURACTIV debate last Friday (7 May). “I don’t disagree in principle that it has value, but I think that it’s got enormous complexity,” he warned. The carbon border adjustment mechanism, due to be revealed in July, aims to put a price on imports from countries where it is cheaper to pollute, as...

President Joe Biden’s proposed infrastructure legislation has the political class seemingly locked in a debate about what “infrastructure” means. Biden and Democratic leaders—backed by a majority of the U.S. population—believe that “infrastructure” is more than just roads and bridges and encompasses all the structures that help modern society function. Their new bill reflects that understanding, including improvements to water pipes and the electrical grid, universal broadband access, charging stations for electric vehicles, physical upgrades to schools and universities, and—perhaps most innovatively—home care for the elderly and disabled, support for families with children, and expanded access to health care. Republican elected...

Trade will not play a central role when the Washington delegation meets with their China counterparts in Alaska next week, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on March 12. Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken will join talks with China’s foreign minister Wang Yi and senior foreign policy diplomat Yang Jiechi on March 18, marking the two countries’ first top-level meeting in person since President Joe Biden took office. Asked about trade sanctions on China, he said that he doesn’t expect “the phase one trade deal is going to be a major topic of conversation next week.” “This...

Neoliberal economists prefer abstractions to proper nouns so they don’t have to assign actions or consequences to actual people. But the people involved in productive labor are not some “input” into the market, easily shuffled about like interchangeable pawns on a chess board. They are American citizens, whose competencies and concerns should matter intensely to their elected representatives. Yet here we are, as the European Union looks into manufacturing semiconductors, having discussions about the theory of comparative advantage with people who imagine the post-war consensus is still meaningful. A nation gains comparative advantage through dedicated work and application of labor...

ARLINGTON, Va.—Americans for Prosperity (AFP) today issued the following statement from Dan Pearson, AFP Trade Policy Fellow, on the Biden administration’s decision to suspend tariffs previously imposed on billions of dollars of EU goods stemming from the Boeing-Airbus dispute. The move has prompted the EU to follow suit, setting the stage for settlement of the dispute and further opening trade markets. The suspension will last four months while the countries attempt to resolve the matter: “Again, we applaud the Biden administration for moving to reduce burdensome tariffs and put an end to the trade war that has harmed American businesses,...

The Trump administration forced a lot of conservatives to rethink issues. For me, I had to revisit the topic of tariffs. Initially, I was knee-jerk hostile to tariff schedules. We should support free trade at all costs, right? That was what Milton Friedman told us, and that is what we should be fighting for. After four years of Trump, I realized that Pat Buchanan and other economic nationalists had a good point about tariffs. Indeed, every nation needs to take steps to ensure that essential industries remain strong and thrive in the home country. In times of war or a...

ARLINGTON, Va.—Americans for Prosperity (AFP) today issued the following statement from Dan Pearson, AFP Trade Policy Fellow, on the Biden administration’s decision to suspend tariffs previously imposed on a number of UK products stemming from the Boeing-Airbus dispute. The suspension will last four months while the countries attempt to resolve the matter: “It is encouraging to see the Biden Administration provide relief from these tariffs. In addition to the benefits Americans will experience from this move, we are hopeful this will lead to a lasting settlement of the dispute between the US and the UK and EU. Freer trade increases...

Chinese foreign affairs minister Wang Yi urged the United States to meet four requirements from Xi Jinping’s regime at the Lanting Forum, a video conference organized by the Chinese foreign affairs ministry on Feb. 22. The requests include: ending support for Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Tibet; resuming the U.S.-China dialogue; ending the tariffs on Chinese products and sanctions on Chinese enterprises; and removing all restrictions on China’s news agencies and cultural entities such as the Confucius Institutes. After President Joe Biden announced that he won the presidential election, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his senior diplomats urged the United...

Let’s go back just a few years ago to the world as President Donald Trump had remade it. He had canceled or pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership “treaty” (which was not a treaty because the Senate had never ratified it); ended America’s participation in the Paris Climate Agreement; renegotiated a new NAFTA along lines far more favorable to the United States, and entered into negotiations with the Chinese aimed at forcing them into a fairer trading arrangement.

House Republicans and Democrats are joining retail corporations to ask United States Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer to reduce tariffs on China in the midst of the Chinese coronavirus crisis. The National Retail Federation (NRF) is circulating a pre-written letter asking Lighthizer to reduce U.S. tariffs on China and extend tariff exemptions so certain corporations continuing to make their goods in China are exempt from having to pay significant costs to export their products back into the U.S. marketplace.

Joe Biden just confirmed that President Trump has forever altered the American foreign policy framework - once dominated by a pro-free trade bipartisan consensus closely guarded by the deep state - by confirming that he will not immediately move to scrap the 'Phase 1' trade deal or - and this is critical - move to remove the controversial tariffs imposed by Trump, according to a report in the New York Times.In an interview with - who else? - NYT columnist Thomas Friedman, Biden discussed how his administration will approach foreign policy, though Biden insisted his top priority was getting a...