Free Republic

The White House push to confront rivals over trade has spread beyond the world’s biggest economies such as China and Europe to include poorer countries that also see the U.S. as a critical market for their goods. Since President Trump took office 18 months ago, the U.S. Trade Representative has launched wide-ranging reviews of the eligibility of less-developed countries for a federal government program that lowers tariffs for thousands of the products they export to the U.S.

Moscow issued a stern warning to the US on Friday against ramping up sanctions against Russia, saying the Kremlin will retaliate with economic, political and unspecified “other” measures. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s warning reflects Russian fears over the impact of new restrictions on its economy and assets, including the ruble, which has lost nearly 6 percent of its value this week on sanctions jitters, according to Reuters. In a sign of how seriously Russia is taking the threat, strongman Vladimir Putin discussed what the Kremlin called “possible new unfriendly steps by Washington” with members of his Security Council. They said...

The intensifying trade war between China and the US has caused a massive rift between the countries, but sources say tension is also rising internally among elite members of the Communist Party of China. Over the past decade, President Xi Jinping has worked diligently to consolidate power and cement his rule over China, claiming control over the country' military and government and cracking down on all forms of political dissent. In the process, Chinese propaganda has pushed hard on the portrayal of China as a strong, nationalistic country, with Xi at its core. Several sources close to the government told...

Authored by Kurt Schlichter via Townhall.com, Of all Donald Trump’s many sins against the Great Church of the Transnational Leftist Establishment, his greatest may be his stubborn refusal to subordinate the needs of the normal citizens of the United States to the dogmas of our alleged betters. He rejects the secular civic religion of our betters, one that urges the sacrifice of regular folk’s interests on the altar of their self-regard and cheesy self-interest. Trump is a heretic, a blasphemer, and it’s no surprise they want to burn him at the stake. Horrors! He demands that the Europeans fund...

A growing trade war with the United States is causing rifts within China's Communist Party, with some critics saying that an overly nationalistic Chinese stance may have hardened the US position, according to four sources close to the government. Chinese President Xi Jinping still has a firm grip on power, but an unusual surge of criticism about economic policy and how the government has handled the trade war has revealed rare cracks in the ruling Communist Party. A backlash is being felt at the highest levels of the government, possibly hitting a close aide to Xi, his ideology chief and...

Xu Yimiao writes that China is running out of retaliatory tariffs against the US and has watched other major parties like the EU and Japan close ranks against it. Before the trade war gets more severe, Beijing’s leaders should seek direct talks with Trump, and may have to swallow their pride

Xu Yimiao writes that China is running out of retaliatory tariffs against the US and has watched other major parties like the EU and Japan close ranks against it. Before the trade war gets more severe, Beijing’s leaders should seek direct talks with Trump, and may have to swallow their pride Some serious discussions are going on in China as the country faces an escalating trade war with the United States, slowing domestic growth and increasing investment restrictions in the US and Europe. There seems to be recognition that the previous playbook drafted by hardliners has not worked and Beijing...

China's exports surged more than expected in July despite U.S. duties and its closely watched surplus with the United States remained near record highs, as the world's two major economic powers ramp up a bitter dispute that some fear could derail global growth... (please see link for full article)

President Donald Trump is clearly concerned about the plight of American farmers. He pushed the Department of Agriculture to make available up to $12 billion of temporary relief to those farms caught in the middle of his tariff war – starting this Labor Day. It’s laudable that he wants to address this problem, but let’s remember that it was a problem of his own creation. America is a breadbasket to much of the world because of our exceptional farmland. We have about two-and-a-half times as much arable land as does China, for instance, with about the same landmass. That means...

Link only due to site not working for me: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/08/trump-still-has-high-approval-among-rural-base-in-farm-states-poll.html Hopefully you'll have an easier time with it. I can't even scroll down to see who the author was or read the article, but based on the headline it looked interesting. Let me know.

On meeting with the EU's Jean-Claude Juncker last month, Donald Trump tweeted: "Both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies! That would finally be Free Market and Fair Trade." Did Larry Kudlow somehow get access to Trump's phone? We know not. But, on hearing this, Steve Forbes, Stephen Moore and Arthur Laffer broke into the "Hallelujah" chorus of Handel's "Messiah." "Amen," they thundered in The New York Times. Trump should declare "total trade disarmament" to be national policy and make free trade his "legacy" to America. Such a proclamation, they wrote, would assure Trump the...

The most murderous dictatorship in all of human history is assembling a massive battery of U.S. lobbyists and propagandists in and around Washington, D.C., sparking growing concerns across the political spectrum about its intentions and the effect this lobbying Leviathan will have on the federal government. That dictatorship, of course, is the Communist Party regime enslaving mainland China. And among the growing roster of political hacks on its payroll are top former officials including ex-House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, who played a key role in transferring America's productive capacity to Communist China in the late 1990s. Unsurprisingly, the Clintons...

Apple has benefited from cheap labor and strong supply chain in China which has helped it boost profit and get to a $1 trillion valuation, the state-backed People's Daily said. The U.S. firm should share that money with Chinese citizens, the article urged. Apple could be the target of "anger and nationalist sentiment" amid the ongoing trade war. ______________________________________________________________ Apple has benefited from cheap labor and a strong supply chain in China and needs to share more of its profit with the Chinese people or face "anger and nationalist sentiment" amid the ongoing trade war, an article in the state-backed...

HAMBURG (Reuters) - China may have to start buying U.S. soybeans again in coming weeks despite the trade war between the two countries as other regions cannot supply enough soybeans to meet China’s needs, Hamburg-based oilseeds analysts Oil World said on Tuesday.

As the trade war between the United States and China ramps up, Beijing has gone an offensive media blitz to counter the White House argument that its tariffs are causing harm to China’s economy and economic growth. Beijing’s top economic regulator told Chinese state media last week that the economy is forecast to see solid growth in the second half of the year, bolstered by buoyant local consumption. “In the first six months, consumption retained growth momentum and has played a key role in supporting economic growth as consumption has become a key element of the nation’s rebalancing act,” Liu...

BEIJING - Chinese state media are reacting to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade actions against China in diverse ways. While denouncing the U.S. leader’s actions, Beijing is also using its media to calm markets and express concern about the impact on the Chinese economy. An editorial in the Communist Party's People's Daily said that by raising tariffs and then offering negotiations, the Trump administration is trying to use "carrot-and-stick diplomacy to bully China into unilateral trade concessions." The paper went on to say "China will eventually defeat the trade blackmail of the U.S. and it is impossible to force China...

At the center of the table in a modest, high-rise apartment in the teeming city of Shenzhen, China, a simmering pot of soup stock was surrounded by large platters featuring mushrooms, different kinds of thinly shaved meat, lettuce, potato, cauliflower, eggs, and shrimp. Folding his hands together, Jian Zhang, a onetime rural farmer who now works as an employee for a small consulting firm in the city, asked his fellow diners to give thanks for the meal — the likes of which he could have only dreamed of when growing up in a remote village in the Jiangxi province. The...

China just lost its ranking as the world’s number two stock market. After a Thursday slump, Chinese equities were worth $6.09 trillion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with $6.17 trillion in Japan. The US has the world’s largest stock market at just over $31 trillion. China’s stock market overtook Japan’s in late 2014, then soared to an all-time high of more than $10 trillion in June 2015. Chinese equities and the nation’s currency have taken a beating this year amid a trade spat with the US, a government-led campaign to cut debt and a slowing economy. “Losing...

UAE and Greek companies claim world first tech allows architects to become industry’s master builders UAE-based 3D printing company Immensa Technology Labs has released the result of a joint effort with Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) to recover a series of concrete casting techniques with the aid of large-format 3D printing. In what the two companies claim is a world-first, a ‘Sensorial Adaptive Concrete Screen’ was developed with NOWlab, the innovation department of Berlin-based BigRep. The screen showcases techniques that once belonged to skilled craftsman but have had life breathed back into them through expert digital fabrication. According to a statement...

A four-party delegation of parliament’s foreign affairs committee met with David B. Cornstein, the new United States ambassador to Hungary. Hungary has started a programme to raise its defense spending to an annual 2 percent of GDP. Zsolt Németh referred to frequent complaints from Donald Trump. The president supposes that Washington pays too much into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military alliance between a host of European countries, the US and Canada. Parties at the talks agreed that Hungary’s “unilateral dependence” on Russian energy supplies was “not healthy” and agreed on the need of diversifying energy sources, Nemeth...