By Kenneth Rapoza, CPA Industry Analyst Katherine Tai reportedly gave the Business Roundtable some clues as to where Biden’s tariff policy is heading. Potential new US Trade Representative, Katherine Tai, reportedly told the Business Roundtable that lobbying for tariff removal won’t work, at least for the time being. She said companies keen to keep the…

By Kenneth Rapoza, CPA Industry Analyst What countries and what products helped lead to an historic trade deficit in the middle of a global pandemic. The biggest takeaway from 2020 trade: Vietnam is now China’s offshore lovechild. And Switzerland’s currency maneuvers gave it the biggest jump in its trade gap with the US, ever. Demand…

By Kenneth Rapoza, CPA Industry Analyst The US says there will be no new vacancy slots filled at the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body due to a number of “systemic” problems. Biden sticking with Trump’s policy for now. In continuing with the Trump administration’s hard tack against the World Trade Organization, the Biden administration said…

By Kenneth Rapoza, CPA Industry Analyst Worried about China and the US policy towards our biggest strategic rival? Then Tom Cotton’s office has the perfect weekend reading. The 84-page Beat China: Targeted Decoupling and the Economic Long War looks in the rearview at China-US policy, and lists some strategies to deal with China going forward.…

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…

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.…

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…