WASHINGTON — President Obama is facing opposition from fellow Democrats to one of his top priorities: winning the power to negotiate international trade agreements and speed them through Congress. [Reposted from The New York Times | Julie Hirsch | January 8, 2015] As Mr. Obama’s team works privately to line up support for the so-called…
Failed dreams and broken promises are all that remain of the hope that led the United States to open free trade with China in 2001. [Reposted from the Epoch Times | Joshua Phillips | January 1, 2015] President Bill Clinton had told a crowded room a year prior that “if you believe in a future…
China retains an active value-added tax (“VAT”) rebate program for exports. [Reposted from Textiles and Trade | David Trumbull | January 6, 2015] China’s Ministry of Finance increased the VAT rebate for most textile and apparel products to 16 percent in 2009 effective April 1, 2009. According to a news account in World Textile Information…
“We are tens of millions of Americans and we are committed that we are not going to have another raw deal on trade.” – Larry Cohen of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Reposted from the Campaign for America’s Future blog | Dave Johnson | January 8, 2015] Several members of Congress joined with representatives…
More wrong-headed rhetoric on trade deals to nowhere! [From the blog of Dan DiMicco | Dan DiMicoo | January 8, 2015] Every past deal has been a failure as we are terrible negotiators and even worse enforcers of the penalties for cheating and circumvention by the other signers. They use non-tariff barriers to replace their…
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The biggest engineering project in the history of the world got under way this week, but don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard of it. [by Darrell Delamaide | December 24, 2014 | MarketWatch] U.S. mainstream media tends to shy away from reporting anything that doesn’t directly involve American interests, especially…
The 114th Congress will be sworn in next week, and the media campaign for President Obama’s next power grab is already under way. The New York Times, Washington Post and Politico (Tiger Beat on the Potomac) are all telling us the GOP Congress is ready to surrender its oversight responsibilities and grant extraordinary new…
Nicaragua on Monday announced the start of work on a $50 billion shipping canal, an infrastructure project backed by China that aims to rival Panama’s waterway and revitalize the economy of the second-poorest country in the Americas. [by Gabriel Stargardter | December 22, 2014 | Reuters] The groundbreaking was largely symbolic, as work began…
It was one thing to get elected but it will be another for the Republican Congress to work with a president best known for his imperious style and a hard left agenda. Still in the most recent round of budget negotiations, President Obama did accept modifications to the bank regulations imposed by Dodd-Frank, and other…
Success could be squandered if TPP concerns are not addressed. President Obama begins his pre-State of the Union swing today by highlighting a key success during his presidency – the auto sector recovery. The Obama administration touts its success in Detroit, but has failed to bring the Big Three’s concerns to trade negotiations. [Reposted from the blog…
