Inside the bitter Oval Office tariff fight

This culminated last week. But the war — between Peter Navarro’s economic nationalist camp and Gary Cohn’s free trader-cohort — has been roiling the White House for months. [Jonathan Swan | March 4, 2018 | Axios] It came to a head in the Oval Office in January of this year, when Cohn, Navarro, Rob Porter, Wilbur…

Why the U.S. Trade Deficit Is Worse Than It Seems

You don’t have to know David Ricardo from Ricky Ricardo to understand the problems with President Trump’s approach to fixing America’s trade woes. [ Spencer Jakab | March 5, 2018 | WSJ] But a seemingly unrelated news item on Monday shows what is being ignored in the debate over Mr. Trump’s tariffs: The U.S. trade balance may be much worse…

Tariffs on steel, aluminum are long overdue

Yesterday, President Donald Trump said that he has decided to impose tariffs of 25% on all steel imports and 10% on aluminum imports, promising to sign the measures next week. Trade remedies for steel and aluminum are long overdue. [Robert E. Scott | March 2, 2018 | Marketwatch] Trump promised quick action after announcing investigations of the national-security…

Auto, dispute settlement, sunset clause talks progress as bilateral discussions break out on ISDS

MEXICO CITY – Negotiators have made progress on automotive rules of origin, state-to-state dispute settlement and a review mechanism during the seventh round of North American Free Trade Agreement talks here, though the U.S. continues to refuse to back down from some of its more controversial proposals, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. [ Brett…

Don’t Worry About Trump’s Tariffs

Last week President Trump announced new tariffs on steel and aluminum products, and the response couldn’t have been more negative — critics warned of trade wars, recession, global instability. But the blowback is overblown, and seems to constitute reflexive anti-Trump sentiment rather than careful economic reasoning. [Josh Bivens | March 5, 2018 | NY Times]…

Trump rightly puts foot down on steel cheating

As the recent Winter Olympics reminds us, cheating is absolutely unacceptable in the international arena. A policy of “zero tolerance” is enforced, and any athletes taking performance-enhancing drugs are immediately disqualified.  Op-ed By Michael Stumo Originally Appeared on The Hill Unfortunately, such scrutiny doesn’t always extend to the world of international trade, with countries like…