By Kenneth Rapoza, CPA Industry Analyst US chip makers have a commanding lead when it comes to sales worldwide of the chips in our X Box controllers, laptops, and — increasingly — our cars. But mostly all of it is made in Asia. The recent chip shortage has executives from Intel, AMD and elsewhere asking…
By Kenneth Rapoza, CPA Industry Analyst China threatens to withhold some key rare earths used in navigational equipment on American fighter planes. But that’s not all. For at least a decade, Washington has been aware of China’s growing dominance in mining and processing of rare earth metals. These metals might not be household names like…
Americans are impatiently waiting for their chance to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. It’s estimated 70 to 85 percent of the nation will need to be fully vaccinated in order for the United States to return to “normal” living conditions. So far, however, only about three percent of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated. Clearly, there’s a lot of…
By Kenneth Rapoza, CPA Industry Analyst President Biden makes first call to Xi Jinping since winning the White House. By the looks of things, we have a continuation of the previous government’s take on China. President Joe Biden spoke with his China counterpart on Wednesday evening, and after wishing him a Happy Lunar New Year…
By Kenneth Rapoza, CPA Industry Analyst USTR Senior Advisor Mark Wu shares our view on the World Trade Organization. He warns that the Biden Administration will likely realize that they do have to go it alone sometimes in dealing with China, just like the previous administration did. If you have never heard of Mark Wu,…
By Kenneth Rapoza, CPA Industry Analyst New hires inside the USTR bode well for CPA view on trade, currency. Joe Biden is filling new roles at the United States Trade Representative, led by Katherine Tai, whom we suspect will replace Robert Lighthizer. The new hires are interesting, including former Obama/Biden Treasury Department economist Brad Setser.…
CPA sent the following letter to President Biden asking that he take into consideration three suggestions to ensure the strongest Buy American provisions possible. Dear President Biden: The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) would like to reiterate our thanks following our press release last week supporting your Buy American Executive Order (EO).[1] Your emphasis…
By Kenneth Rapoza, CPA Industry Analyst The December trade deficit in goods and services fell 3.5% to $66.6 billion in December after a big boom in November. One big takeaway from the last month of 2020, China trade is giving way to Mexico in near-shoring effort. The goods and services deficit for the month of…
By Kenneth Rapoza, CPA Industry Analyst President Biden’s National Security Council looks tough on China. How will they act on it? President Biden, initially criticized for being soft on China, is having to prove otherwise. We are liking some of the additions to the China watch team inside the National Security Council (NSC). Other than…
Michael Stumo, CEO of CPA, was a guest on “HuffPost Live” on January 4, 2013 at 7:20 pm eastern time. This is a streaming video news service by the Huffington Post. The show was called “Does Buying American Hurt America?”. From HuffPost Live: It’s hard to do the right thing when it comes to consumer behavior.…