One of the most notable political trends over the past 18 months—and one with the potential to affect companies across many industries—has been voter pushback against globalization and free trade. June 18th, 2017 [The Wall Street Journal] Indeed, following the Brexit vote in the U.K. and Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election, nations…
General Motors Co. GM +0.32% said Friday it would open a supplier park near its Arlington, Texas, sport-utility factory, resulting in the relocation of about 600 jobs from Mexico to the U.S. and a higher concentration of American-made parts in Chevrolet Suburbans and Cadillac Escalades. [Mike Colias & William Mauldin] June 16th, 2017 [The Wall Street Journal] Many of those U.S. employees…
U.S. government signals that it will push for a ban on currency manipulation in the North American Free Trade Agreement have attracted little attention, as Mexico and Canada are rarely accused of gaming the foreign-exchange market. The strategy is likely to prove more contentious when the Trump administration turns its attention to South Korea. [Randy…
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told House members Wednesday that the Trump administration supports the World Trade Organization but the global body is in need of changes. Asked by Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) if President Trump supports a slew of institutions including the WTO, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and others, as well as the…
Environmental inspectors in northern China have found that nearly 14,000 companies, or 70 percent of the businesses they examined, failed to meet environmental standards for controlling air pollution, according to a state news agency report. [EDWARD WONG] June 13th, 2017 [The New York Times] The inspectors working for the Ministry of Environmental Protection came up with those results…
Two Democratic senators on Tuesday said they hope a traceability requirement U.S. meat packers must meet to ship beef to China will lead to practices that will allow the U.S. to re-implement a country-of-origin labeling law that is compliant with World Trade Organization rules. [Brett Fortnam & Jack Caporal] June 14th, 2017 [Inside Trade] During a…
According to multiple sources, the Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service is set to publish on Friday a proposed amendment to a rule that will allow China to export poultry products to the U.S. from birds slaughtered in China, a move the U.S. committed to as part of the 100-day plan the Trump…
By Jeff Ferry, CPA Research Director A U.S. bankruptcy court has decided to sell a California mine, the sole U.S. source of rare earth minerals, to a consortium including Chinese mining company Shenghe Rare Earth Shareholding Co. If the transaction goes ahead, this would turn over the unique domestic producer of these vital minerals, used…
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is “very worried” about the semiconductor industry for reasons akin to those cited by the Trump administration in pursuing Section 232 national security investigations into steel and aluminum imports, he said Monday night. [Isabelle Hoagland] June 12th, 2017 [Inside Trade] Ross, speaking at an event hosted by the Wall Street Journal, called the…
President Trump on Monday said “major legislation” on steel, aluminum and dumping is coming “very soon.” June 12th, 2017 [Inside Trade] “We’ll be having some major legislation very soon on the dumping of steel in our country – which is absolutely killing our workers and our steel companies,” he said during a cabinet meeting, offering…