Border Tax Adjustability Making Progress on the Hill

I’ve been talking to some of the Coalition for a Prosperous America’s lobbyists about the current situation for border-adjustable taxes, i.e. taxes that might help improve America’s trade situation, up on Capitol Hill. What they told me is basically good news. To wit: [Ian Fletcher| February 4, 2017 |Huffington Post] “We’ve pushed for more border adjustability via…

Globalization’s one-way street

At Davos Chinese President Xi extolled the virtues of globalism. Lo barely one week into President Trump’s administration, Chinese financial-services and payments colossus Ant Financial is buying MoneyGram, America’s second-largest money-transfer network. It underscores however that while the U.S. is wide-open for China’s payments dragons, notwithstanding its 2001 WTO commitment to completely open its domestic…

Brady, Neal confident Trump will abide by TPA rules, time lines for NAFTA renegotiation

Following President Trump’s announcement that he wants to speed up the statutory guidelines for a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) and ranking member Richard Neal (D-MA) downplayed the idea while expressing confidence that the administration’s trade team will adhere to the rules laid…

Trump: Ross to lead accelerated NAFTA talks

Wilbur Ross, President Trump’s pick for Commerce secretary, will lead accelerated talks with Mexico and Canada on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, Trump said today. [Daily News| February 2, 2017 |Inside US Trade] Meeting with the leaders of the House Ways & Means and Senate Finance committee at the White House and flanked…

US trade chief seeks to reshore supply chain

Navarro wants more components made in America to spur domestic jobs and wages [Shawn Donnan| January 30, 2017 |Financial Times] Donald Trump won the presidency on the back of promises to shake up Washington. But according to his advisers he is also setting out to shake up the structure of international business and the global economy.…

Beyond the Art of the Individual Deal

President Trump can’t simply bully large corporations to deliver prosperity for the millions who elected him. [Peter Morici| January 31, 2017 |Washington Times] Although the succession of recently announced deals to keep or create jobs in America is impressive — United Technologies, Fiat Chrysler and others have jumped on board — the challenge of boosting…