The July goods trade deficit shrunk somewhat but that is not going to stop a $1 trillion goods deficit in 2021. Plus, Vietnam surpasses Germany as major U.S.-bound exporter as China moves offshore to avoid tariffs.
Domestic solar manufacturers are staging a comeback. Here’s a look at what tariffs have meant for investment in this space, and a looming threat ahead that could undermine all of it.
The former Deputy National Security Advisior says in a long Foreign Affairs magazine essay that our relationship with China has to move beyond price tags and the bottom line salivations of a few big corporations, investment firms and venture capitalists.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is telling Chinese companies listed on the NYSE and Nasdaq to reveal more of their ownership structure. Meanwhile, SEC Commissioner is giving them three additional years to allow for third-party audits. That’s too long.
A labor auditor in Shenzhen called Verite was raided and shut down in April. It’s another mark against those companies like Nike that believe auditing their factory floors in China won’t be that difficult. In many cases, it might not be allowed.
Thanks to currencies worth peanuts, and weak environmental rules, China has turned three SE Asian nations into their solar-making vassal states. The 20% tariff against them is not enough. Here’s what Washington needs to do if it wants a domestic solar industry.
Customs makes good on its promise to root out imported solar cells and panels believed to have been made from polysilicon produced by Hoshine Silicon Industry, banned from the U.S. solar supply chain this summer.
School bus manufacturers are domestic. The Senate infrastructure bill gives them $5 billion to build non-diesel buses, but it falls far short of what the industry wanted in order to crank up the volume and reduce subsidy dependence.
The Chinese Communist Party is now one of three members of the board of directors at ByteDance, owners of the TikTok app. Why do we keep allowing this company to operate here, when Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter cannot operate there.
Another positive in the Senate’s recently passed $550 billion infrastructure bill: finding, and producing, more of the minerals that will power a post-fossil fuel economy. If not done fast, the U.S. will be wholly dependent on foreign sources of energy materials.
