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It was easy to miss the U.S.-China trade statement that the White House released Saturday, right in the midst of royal wedding mania. But it's hard to hide that China looks as if it's winning President Trump's trade skirmish — so far. The statement said that, after several days of talks, the Chinese agreed to “substantially” reduce the United States' $375 billion trade deficit with China and that the details would be worked out later. It was noticeably vague. Notice China didn't agree to a specific amount. On Friday, Trump's top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, was telling reporters that the...

China is reportedly planning to scrap its controversial two child-policy.The country imposed a one-child policy for decades.China's birthrate has been declining rapidly since the 1980s and has become a pressing concern for President Xi JinPing as he looks to develop the economy.

>How real is the deal? We may not know for a couple of weeks yet (if not longer) but recent talks between China and the United States have resulted in an initial announcement that Beijing will prioritize closing the trade gap with the U.S. by purchasing significantly greater amounts of goods. Included in the few details offered thus far is a plan to increase both agricultural and energy exports from America. While China’s Foreign Ministry disputed some of the target amounts, the rest of the announcement looks as if it may soon become a reality. (CNN) Both parties said in...

China has agreed to “meaningful increases” in its purchase of U.S. agriculture and energy exports to help reduce the U.S. trade deficit, both countries said Saturday after wrapping up two days of high-stakes trade talks in Washington. A joint statement released by the White House said negotiators from both sides found “consensus on taking effective measures to substantially reduce the United States trade deficit in goods with China.” “To meet the growing consumption needs of the Chinese people and the need for high-quality economic development, China will significantly increase purchases of United States goods and services,” the statement said. “This...

China is sending conciliatory signals as U.S. and Chinese negotiators meet in Washington to try to head off a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. Beijing has dropped an anti-dumping investigation into imported U.S. sorghum, which it had accused the United States of unfairly subsiding. It has also given approval for a U.S. private equity firm to buy Toshiba’s memory chip business. Those gestures could suggest a thaw with the U.S. as trade talks went on for a second day Friday in Washington. “China has come to trade,” Larry Kudlow, the top White House economic adviser, told reporters....

"Will that be successful? I tend to doubt it," the president said during an appearance with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. "The reason I doubt it is because China has become very spoiled. The European Union has become very spoiled. Other countries have become very spoiled, because they always got 100 percent of whatever they wanted from the United States." "But we can't allow that to happen anymore," Trump added. (please see full story at link)

Danish shipping group Maersk Tankers on Thursday said it would cease its activities in Iran due to the US decision to leave a landmark nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions against Tehran. Maersk Tankers would honour customer agreements entered into before May 8th, but then wind them down by November 4th, "as required by the reimposed US sanctions," the company told AFP. The group said it "has been transporting cargoes for customers in and out of Iran on a limited basis," without providing precise figures for its activities.

Marco Rubio ‏ Verified account @marcorubio Follow Follow @marcorubio More #ZTE issue should have nothing to do with broader trade talks. What is the point of cancelling Iran deal if we aren’t going to sanction those like ZTE who help Iran avoid sanctions? Plus ZTE helps #China spy on America & steal our intellectual property.

Did anyone happen to catch David Brooks’s latest column, “Donald Trump’s Lizard Wisdom,” in the New York Times? I about fell out of my chair, because Brooks almost tacitly admits that maybe he was wrong about Trump. Referring to Trump’s experience dealing with the mobbed-up New York construction scene in his long real estate career, Brooks says: And yet I can’t help but wonder if that kind of background has provided a decent education for dealing with the sort of hopped-up mobsters running parts of the world today. There is growing reason to believe that Donald Trump understands the thug...

Dow Jones futures today rose modestly vs. fair value, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures. President Donald Trump tweeted that it "will all work out" on U.S.-China trade. He also tweeted that he wants to help China's ZTE "get back into business, less than a month after the U.S. banned domestic companies from selling components to the telecom gear giant. That could be good news for U.S. optical stocks such as Oclaro, Finisar, Acacia Communications and Lumentum Holdings which also is an Apple iPhone supplier.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping are working to give Chinese telecom company ZTE Corp "a way to get back into business, fast."ZTE earlier this month suspended its main operations after the U.S. Commerce Department banned American supplies to its business.As one of the world's largest telecom equipment makers, ZTE relied on U.S. companies such as Qualcomm and Intel for components.

A Chinese tech giant brought to its knees and delays for imported U.S. cars, apples, lumber and other agricultural products are early signs the widening trade dispute between China and the U.S. is exacting a toll on both sides. More talks aimed at resolving the conflict are planned for next week in Washington, while both sides dig in for a fight over their trade imbalance. The tech company, telecommunications equipment and smartphone maker ZTE, said Wednesday that it’s ceasing “major operations” after the U.S. last month banned it from doing business with American suppliers for seven years as a punishment...

The Trump administration will soon unveil a “new” North American Free Trade Agreement. U.S. trade negotiators have sought, among other things, to limit its duration, impose new domestic content requirements on certain products, and weaken investor legal protections. Even with these protectionist features, congressional Democrats are unlikely to vote for President Trump’s Nafta 2.0. He will need the support of pro-trade Republicans like me to ensure passage of any new agreement. To pressure us into voting for an agreement that diminishes free trade, some in the administration suggest offering a grim choice: either approve a diminished Nafta, or the president...

German businesses should immediately halt their operations in Iran following President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, the US ambassador to Germany said on Tuesday. "German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately," tweeted newly-appointed Richard Grenell. Germany is one of Iran's largest trading partners, with German exports hitting some €2.6 billion in 2016, up 26 percent on the previous year, according to the Ministry of Finance in Berlin.

China steps up quarantine checks on U.S. apple, log imports BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s main ports will step up quarantine checks on imports of apples and logs from the United States, and shipments found carrying disease or rot could be returned or destroyed, the Chinese customs agency said on Monday. Reuters reported last week that the main Chinese ports of entry have ramped up checks on fresh fruit imports from the United States, which could delay shipments from U.S. growers already dealing with higher tariffs as China-U.S. trade ties sour. “Recently, pests were detected in apples and logs imported from...

The US has demanded that China cut its US trade surplus by $200 billion, end subsidies for advanced technology industries and sharply cut import tariffs to US levels, two people familiar with US-China trade talks said Friday. The lengthy list of demands was presented to Beijing prior to the start of talks on Thursday and Friday between top-level Trump administration officials and their Chinese counterparts to try to sort out disputes that have threatened a damaging trade war between the world’s two largest economies. The talks ended with China’s Xinhua news agency describing them as “constructive, candid and efficient” but...

The trade deficit doesn't matter. There shouldn't be anything controversial about this fact. As Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, wrote in "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," "Nothing ... can be more absurd than this whole doctrine of the balance of trade." More meaningful economic indicators are the unemployment rate, wages and gross domestic product. Well, the unemployment rate is 4.1% and wages are growing. Although Barack Obama was the first president since Herbert Hoover not to see annual economic growth at 3% or higher during his presidency, the Congressional Budget Office...

The battle lines are drawn in the trade war with China, and President Donald Trump can expect little support from the high tech and financial sectors or the economics profession. They argue the U.S. is doing quite well. Donald Trump has lifted growth to 2.9% a year but that compares poorly with China, whose superior performance can no longer be written off as that of a developing country playing catch up. Beneath the modern theory of free trade lurks an assumption that economists are disinclined to discuss — the textbook theorem assumes balanced trade accomplished through a reciprocal reduction of...

As Europe’s biggest exporter to the United States and with more than 1 million German jobs at stake, Germany is desperate to avoid a European Union trade war with the United States. In the run-up to a June 1 deadline for U.S. President Donald Trump to impose steel and aluminum tariffs on the EU, Berlin is urging its European partners to show some flexibility and pursue a broad trade deal that benefits both sides. But that puts Germany at odds with European peers such as France. Paris, the other half of the motor driving European integration, resents Germany’s big trade...

Well the first quarter data for 2018 is done.