WASHINGTON –The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced the suspension of all imports of fresh beef from Brazil due to food safety and animal health concerns. [Hannah Packman] June 22nd, 2017 [National Farmers Union] The announcement came on the heels of a scandal in which Brazil’s largest food-processing giants JBS and BRF were raided by…
Washington~ Michael Stumo, CEO of CPA testified today at the Trump Administration NAFTA hearings and charged Mexico with devaluing American workers through its low wages and border-adjustable taxes that unfairly favor Mexican production, and said the US should not be afraid to “walk away” from NAFTA. However Stumo added that because Mexico and Canada are…
A U.S. bankruptcy court has decided to sell a California mine, the sole U.S. source of rare earth minerals, to a consortium including Chinese mining company Shenghe Rare Earth Shareholding Co. If the transaction goes ahead, it would turn over the unique domestic producer of these vital minerals, used in many high-tech electronics products, to…
By Jeff Ferry, CPA Research Director This past April, on a 92-mile bike ride through the hills of Monterey, California, I met a young man I’m proud to call a friend, Rasheen Malone. Rasheen grew up in a tough section of Brooklyn, not far from where I was born. At 18, Rasheen joined the U.S.…
President Trump declared that China’s efforts with North Korea have failed. Tesla, despite Elon Musk’s prior commitment to USA made electric cars, announced that it is in talks to build a plant in Shanghai. It may be time to shift America’s China strategy away from diplomacy towards actions we can take without negotiations. After campaigning…
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer believes the World Trade Organization dispute brought by China against the U.S. over the Commerce Department’s treatment of China as non-market economy in trade remedy cases is a top litigation priority for USTR, telling lawmakers a loss in the dispute would have serious consequences for the WTO. [Jack Caporal] June…
Washington ~ The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) released a paper today addressing common but misleading economic arguments that America’s low savings rate causes trade deficits. Authors Michael Stumo and Jeff Ferry show how deliberate action by trade surplus countries like China and Germany transmit to the US in the form of trade deficits that kill…
In most administrations, lower-ranking officials make the incendiary comments, while the president rises above to offer the calmer, more soothing explanations of his policies. [Gerald F. Seib] June 19th, 2017 [The Wall Street Journal] In the Trump administration, the opposite is true. That’s especially the case on foreign affairs—and in particular on trade policy. President…
Democratic lawmakers, troubled by what they view as a lack of transparency and “due process” in the administration’s reviews of whether steel and aluminum imports are harming national security, are demanding briefings on both Section 232 investigations “immediately.” [Jenny Leonard] June 20th [Inside Trade] “It is troubling that to date the Administration has not briefed…
U.S. cattle groups are asking a U.S. district court to vacate the Agriculture Department’s beef-labeling regulations because they do not mandate that all imported beef labels show countries of origin, which the groups claim is a violation of U.S. law. [Brett Fortnam] June 20th, 2017 [Inside Trade] R-CALF USA and the Cattle Producers of Washington filed…
