As the Trans-Pacific Partnership does or doesn’t approach completion, arguments for and against have had another airing, including the contention that the deal is worth doing for foreign policy reasons to enhance the US’s geopolitical standing in Asia. [Reposted from The Financial Times | Alan Beattie | March 25, 2015] This is an appealing fall-back…
WASHINGTON (Project Syndicate) — Is it appropriate to use trade agreements to discourage countries from using large-scale intervention in the foreign-exchange market to hold down their currencies’ value? That is the question of the day in American economic-policy circles. [Reposted from Marketwatch | Simon Johnson | March 24, 2015] In recent years, Japan, South Korea,…
Below is information on our trade deficit with the 20 Free Trade Agreement countries and a guide explaining how USTR manipulates the trade data to support its outlandish claim that we have a trade surplus with the 20 Free FTA partners. USTR counts foreign-made goods as U.S. exports to artificially inflate export figures and/or removes…
WASHINGTON (DTN) — Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a vigorous opponent of granting President Barack Obama trade promotion authority, lashed out Thursday at USDA officials over the administration’s use of export statistics to convince members of Congress to support trade agreements. [Reposted from AG Partners LLC | Jerry Hagstrom | March 20, 2015] At a House…
U.S. Steel Corp. (NYSE:X) may be looking to fund projects in an effort to save jobs in Birmingham, but steel production in China continues at a pace that could make it difficult for Alabama manufacturers to compete. [Reposted from the Birmingham Business Journal | Ryan Phillips | March 20, 2015] Manufacturers face overproduction U.S. Steel…
A trade association linked to the conservative billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch will begin a new lobbying effort pressuring lawmakers to shut down the Export-Import Bank, a top target of conservative activists and outside groups that will cease to exist after June 30 if it is not reauthorized by Congress. [Reposted from The…
Bidness Etc looks at why AK Steel stock can be expected to remain in the red on Friday, following the downward revision of 1Q guidance [Reposted from Bidness, Etc. | Michael Kaufman | March 20, 2015] On Thursday, AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS) released guidance for the first quarter of fiscal year 2015 (1QFY15),…
(Bloomberg) — Sipping coffee at a Starbucks on a tree-lined road in Bothell, Washington, Representative Suzan DelBene finds herself stuck in the middle on international trade policy. [Reposted from Bloomberg Business | Carter Dougherty | March 23, 2015] As a former executive at global software giant Microsoft Corp., just down the road in Redmond, and…
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) on Thursday accused the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) of “baffling” Democrats “with bullshit” in an effort to advance President Obama’s trade agenda. [Reposted from The Hill | Kevin Cirilli | March 19, 2015] Pocan’s remarks, which were triggered by a debate over whether the U.S. enjoys a trade surplus with…
Despite his inspirational speeches about helping the middle class, President Obama is poised to outsource more well-paying American jobs and irretrievably subvert our democracy and national sovereignty to corporate interests, by ramming through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Free Trade Agreement. Even scarier, our Congress is poised to give him the right to do so, if…
