It’s a straight line up. The goods and services deficit kicked off January by rising a record 34% over December. Importers are front running tariffs and getting in their orders before everything changes, likely at some point after April 1.
It took nine months to rescue two astronauts stuck on the International Space Station this weekend, yet somehow President Trump is expected to rewrite global trade rules between the U.S. and 166 World Trade Organization-member countries in less than two months.
Nine different companies joined members of the House Select Committee on China at a press conference on Wednesday to talk about their battles with “China trade cheats” that have cost them a fortune. Most of them closed factories, or rolled back investment. Despite tariffs and anti-dumping (AD/CVD) trade case victories, the battle continues.
In a House Oversight subcommittee hearing on Feb. 26, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was hit with the usual swipes from detractors, with some calling it the “green scam”, but China’s solar company benefits were never mentioned.
In 2024, China and India accounted for 57.6% of total U.S. pharmaceutical imports by weight, highlighting the potential risks associated with such reliance. Growing U.S. dependence on China and India for widely-used generic pharmaceutical products creates serious risks to national security and patient safety when drugs are in short supply, or ineffective.
Lutnick has faced adversity before. He lost his parents when he was just 18 and later rebuilt Cantor Fitzgerald after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks claimed the lives of over 600 staff and key executives, including his own brother. Now, as Commerce Secretary, he must tell trade ministers that the United States is seeking a different kind of relationship.
Industrial Policy for the United States seeks to list all of the tools a country can use to improve its industrial base and entice businesses to invest in manufacturing. If these tools are deployed, the authors argue, the results will be good for local economies and labor.
The duties impact several major Chinese solar brands, including Jinko Solar and Trina Solar, as well as Vietnamese manufacturers that Commerce believes have been circumventing tariffs by importing components from mainland China for final assembly.
Varoufakis’ essay is a must-read for CPA members curious about what a former G-20 Finance Minister (the equivalent of our Treasury Secretary) thinks about the dollar.
President Trump released his “Fair and Reciprocal Trade” memo on Thursday, calling into question whether these new proposed tariffs will be permanent like the China Section 301s or quickly removed once a country “reciprocates” in kind.
