Editors note: Joe Biden risks being branded as clueless if he does not think China is a competitive threat to the United States. The president plans to use his trade war with China to attack the Democratic front-runner. [Elaina Plott | May 8, 2019 | The Atlantic] When trade talks between the United States and…
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By Jeff Ferry, CPA Chief Economist The US trade deficit in goods and services edged up in March to $50.0 billion, slightly worse than February’s $49.3 billion. But the big news in today’s report from the Department of Commerce was that the US goods deficit with China has fallen significantly, to just $20.7 billion. This…
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Listen to the full interview here:
Monthly goods deficit with China falls to lowest level in five years Washington. This morning’s latest report from the Department of Commerce shows that the monthly US goods deficit with China fell to just $20.7 billion in March. That’s the smallest monthly deficit with China since March 2014. The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA)…
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Excerpt: Dan DiMicco, a former steel executive and trade adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign, said the president’s base wants him to maintain a tough position on trade, even if it causes some short-term economic head winds. “He believes that this trade issue is as important as the economy because they’re totally related,” he said. “He’s going…
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Editor’s note: China’s economy is continuing to slow as it harvests the fruit of its trade war against the United States. China posted a big miss in its overall trade surplus for April, as exports unexpectedly fell and imports surprisingly rose. [Huileng Tan | May 8, 2019 | CNBC] The numbers came on Wednesday as…
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Excerpt: “China reneged on a dozen things, if not more … The talks were so bad that the real surprise is that it took Trump until Sunday to blow up.” WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) – The diplomatic cable from Beijing arrived in Washington late on Friday night, with systematic edits to a nearly 150-page draft trade agreement…
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Excerpt: “Stumo sees China as an economic predator, if not on the level of the Soviet Union quite yet, then at least headed there.” The trade talks may end. But the trade war will never die. [Matt Petterson | May 7, 2019 | The Atlantic] Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative, is no one’s idea of…
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By Jeff Ferry, CPA Chief Economist On April 30th, global wireless telecom company Vodafone went public with a statement to Bloomberg News saying that the London-based wireless provider found “hidden backdoors,” i.e. multiple security flaws in the wireless network supplied by Chinese network provider Huawei. The problem first surfaced in 2011 when Vodafone engineers found “backdoors”…
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Editors note. The US decision to quit the job of eating global overcapacity means that other countries must wrestle with the decision of whether they want that job. Increased tariffs designed to protect the U.S. steel industry are starting to have international repercussions in unexpected places with Malaysia launching an anti-dumping investigation into steel imported…
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