By Jeff Ferry, CPA Research Director Today the CPA published a new article on the U.S.’s Top Ten Bilateral Deficit Nation Trading Partners featuring the latest data for last year. You can read it here. In a nutshell, our trade deficit in goods has increased twenty-fold in the last 25 years to total $956 billion last…
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WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is considering changing the way it calculates U.S. trade deficits, a shift that would make the country’s trade gap appear larger than it had in past years, according to people involved in the discussions. [WILLIAM MAULDIN and DEVLIN BARRETT | February 19, 2017 |Wall Street Journal] The leading idea under consideration would exclude from U.S.…
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A coalition of CEOs from U.S. industries particularly sensitive to foreign dumping is calling for increased enforcement of trade laws in order to restore the U.S. economy, and want Congress to make both statutory and practice changes to trade enforcement law. [Daily News| February 17, 2017 |Inside US Trade] The Committee to Support U.S. Trade…
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Organic grain is flooding into the U.S., depressing prices and drawing complaints from domestic organic farmers who fear their harvests are held to stricter standards than foreign-raised crops. [Jacob Bunge | February 21, 2017 |Wall Street Journal] Turkey, for instance, vaulted ahead to become by far the biggest supplier of organic corn and soybeans to…
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Three Democrats are calling on President Trump to support legislation that would direct the Commerce Department to treat currency manipulation as an export subsidy, allowing it to issue countervailing duties in trade remedy cases. [Daily News| February 17, 2017 |Inside US Trade] In a Feb. 17 letter, signed by former Ways & Means ranking Member Sandy…
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Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), joined by six House Democrats, on Thursday introduced a resolution called the “Blueprint for America’s Future Trade Policy” that outlines principles and a time line for the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. [Daily News| February 16, 2017 |Inside US Trade] The resolution is designed to put pressure on the…
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HONG KONG — In South Korea, it’s all in the family. South Korean officials on Friday arrested Lee Jae-yong, the vice chairman of Samsung and the scion of an immensely wealthy and powerful family. Mr. Lee — known as Jay Y. Lee in the West — was accused of paying bribes to a confidante of South…
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A waiver needed for U.S. trade representative nominee Robert Lighthizer to be confirmed for the role could be delayed as Democrats gear up for a fight to get the Miners Protection Act passed — an effort that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) believes has no chance of success. [Daily News| February 16, 2017…
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WASHINGTON—An uncomfortable question looms over the tax debate in Congress: What’s Plan B? [Richard Rubin| February 17, 2017 |Wall Street Journal] Border adjustment, a pillar of House Republicans’ tax proposal, is taking a beating. Big retailers are lobbying aggressively against the concept, which would tax imports and exempt exports. Senate Republicans have expressed views ranging from skepticism…
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Donald Trump has a reputation for doing as president what he said he’d do when he was a candidate, but there’s one promise he has conspicuously dropped. [Evelyn Cheng| February 15, 2017 |CNBC] Trump during the campaign called China “the single greatest currency manipulator that’s ever been on this planet,” and said he would make labeling China a…
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