Washington’s latest trade controversy has blown up over a dispute over differing sets of statistics for measuring our foreign trade. Trump administration officials are advocating for wider use of export/import measures that exclude pass-through goods, while Commerce Department officials advocate the older measures, total exports and total imports. by Jeff Ferry, appears on The Hill The newer…
Trade attorney Stephen Vaughn will be named the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s general counsel if USTR nominee Robert Lighthizer is confirmed, and Gilbert Kaplan will be tapped for Commerce under secretary for international trade provided Commerce secretary nominee Wilbur Ross is approved by the Senate, according to multiple sources. [Daily News| February 23,…
The senior adviser who led President Donald Trump’s trade transition team suggested to Business Insider that the next trade agreement that could come under fire from the White House was the US’s participation in the World Trade Organization. [Allan Smith| February 26, 2016 |Business Insider] Dan DiMicco, the former Nucor CEO and board member of…
Wilbur Ross is expected to emerge as the Trump administration’s leading voice on trade after the Senate votes tonight to confirm him as Commerce Department secretary. He’s already singled out a surprising pet project: Reducing America’s reliance on seafood imports. [Megan Cassella| February 27, 2016 |Politico] “Given the enormity of our coastlines, given the enormity of our…
Tomi’s “Final Thoughts” are based on her experience as a midwestern girl who grew up in a small state in a family and community of ranchers and farmers. Not as a political commentator, conservative or “that girl from facebook.” She remarks that people like her family are struggling to survive right now thanks to the big meat packers…
The White House and members of Congress are in consultations over a slew of new bilateral trade deals, chief White House strategist Steve Bannon said today, adding that President Trump’s withdrawal of the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership was a monumental historic event. [Daily News| February 23 2016 |Inside US Trade] The White House…
President Donald Trump declared China the “grand champions” of currency manipulation on Thursday, just hours after his new Treasury secretary pledged a more methodical approach to analyzing Beijing’s foreign exchange practices. [Steve Holland and David Lawder| February 24 2016 |Reuters] In an exclusive interview with Reuters, Trump said he has not “held back” in his assessment that…
The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) supports Trump administration efforts to improve export, import and trade deficit measures. Administration officials have reportedly discussed returning to trade performance measures that exclude “pass through” goods from the calculations, i.e. goods which enter the U.S. and merely pass through en route to a foreign country without change. The US International Trade…
President Donald Trump’s former senior trade adviser told Business Insider the border-adjustment tax proposal being discussed in Washington could help solve what he believes are major issues with the North American Free Trade Agreement. [Allan Smith| February 22, 2016 |Business Insider] Dan DiMicco, the former Nucor CEO and Coalition for a Prosperous America board member…
WASHINGTON—Lawmakers from both parties are mounting efforts to bolster the federal government’s scrutiny of surging Chinese investment in the U.S., emboldened by President Donald Trump’s anti-China rhetoric on trade. [KATE O’KEEFFE | February 21, 2017 |Wall Street Journal] They have yet to coalesce around any one plan, and the disparate ideas so far show early battle…