The following is a rare account of President Trump in a small Oval Office meeting, venting at senior staff for sometimes resisting his hawkish trade agenda. [Jonathan Swan | August 27, 2017 | Axios] This account — confirmed by sources with knowledge of the meeting and undisputed by the White House — hints at where…
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The leaders of three major U.S. business organizations this week told the Trump administration that a renegotiated NAFTA must include an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism if the groups are going support a retooled deal. [Brett Fortnam | August 25, 2017 | Inside US Trade] In an Aug. 23 letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, U.S. Chamber of…
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BEIJING (Reuters) – Late last month, executives from more than a dozen top European companies in China met in Beijing to discuss their concerns about the growing role of the ruling Communist Party in the local operations of foreign firms, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions. [Michael Martina | August 24, 2017 |…
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In normal times, you could bank the bet that a man who was a Russian stooge, gave comfort to neo-Nazis and spent his first year in office trying to take health care from 22 million Americans was going to get destroyed when voters finally had a chance to send him a message. [Timothy Egan | August…
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By Jeff Ferry, CPA Research Director Economists in the US are overwhelmingly in favor of free trade. But they continue to be frustrated that the public doesn’t buy their arguments. So frustrated are they that last May, one of the leading pro-free-trade think tanks, the Peterson Institute, invited highly respected economist Alan Blinder, now a…
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The United States has just started renegotiating its free trade deal with Canada and Mexico, but President Trump is already warning the talks may fail. [Jethro Mullen | August 23, 2017 | CNN Money] “Personally, I don’t think we can make a deal because we have been so badly taken advantage of,” Trump said during a…
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(WASHINGTON) – The following is a statement by Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to the conclusion of the first round of NAFTA renegotiation talks that ended Sunday. [August 22, 2017 | Teamsters] “The Teamsters have been calling for NAFTA withdrawal or its dramatic renegotiation for more than 20 years. Therefore, we support…
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China is trying to clamp down on overseas acquisitions by its companies. Hostility is growing in the United States toward Chinese deals. And the auto industry faces substantial change in the form of battery-powered vehicles and autonomous cars. [JACK EWING and KEITH BRADSHER | August 21, 2017 | The New York Times] None of that deterred one Chinese…
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Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials this week moved to collect millions of dollars in unpaid anti-dumping penalties after finding that Chinese companies obscured the source of exports to the United States by shipping them through other countries. [Brendan Kirby | August 18th, 2017 | PoliZette] The agency issued 10 decisions under the Enforce and…
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The first round of the Trump administration’s NAFTA renegotiations began in Washington wrapped up on Saturday. The negotiators will meet again in September in Mexico City and then again in October in Canada. The United States has not yet proposed any specific measures on important issues such as labor rights, currency manipulation, or rules of origin. By all accounts,…
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