Tag: Trump trade policy

China threatens U.S. companies with sanctions following Trump’s WeChat ban

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TAIPEI, Taiwan — American companies including Apple and Google could land in Beijing’s crosshairs after the Chinese government responded to President Trump’s WeChat ban by pointedly announcing details about a restrictive new corporate blacklist.

China’s Commerce Ministry said Saturday that companies added to its “unreliable entities list” would be prohibited from investing in China or trading with the Chinese market — including imports and exports. The Chinese government has not yet named which companies would land on the list, but state media has long threatened that Apple and Google could be sanctioned if China’s relations with the United States continued to fray.

The move appeared to signal China was ready to retaliate less than one day after the Trump administration said it would ban TikTok and WeChat from mobile app stores, citing national security concerns. The U.S. ban of popular Chinese software — including WeChat, an app that is central to Chinese communications, business and everyday life — represented a sharp acceleration in the unraveling of trade relations with China and a step by the United States to mirror Beijing’s ­long-standing policy of prohibiting foreign social media services on national security grounds. Continue reading.

Trump’s recent trade moves show adversarial approach has only just begun

Washington Post logoIn White House ceremonies and raucous campaign rallies, President Trump has celebrated a pair of “America First” trade deals he says will end the unfair treatment of American workers.

“Unlike so many who came before me, I keep my promises. We did our job,” he said during his State of the Union address on Feb. 4, referring to new trade deals with Canada, China and Mexico. “. . . Our strategy has worked.”

The new deals rewrite the trade rules Trump says were responsible for “the catastrophe” that struck U.S. manufacturing over the past quarter-century. Yet with fresh tariffs this month on European aircraft and products such as steel nails and aluminum vehicle bumpers, it’s clear that the high-profile accords have not completed the president’s planned overhaul of U.S. trade relations. Continue reading.

Trump Effort to Keep U.S. Tech Out of China Alarms American Firms

New York Times logoThe administration wants to protect national security by restricting the flow of technology to China. But technology companies worry it could undermine them instead.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s push to prevent China from dominating the market for advanced technologies has put it on a collision course with the same American companies it wants to protect.

Firms that specialize in microchips, artificial intelligence, biotechnology and other industries have grown increasingly alarmed by the administration’s efforts to restrict the flow of technology to China, saying it could siphon expertise, research and revenue away from the United States, ultimately eroding America’s advantage.

The concerns, which have been simmering for months, have taken on new urgency as the Commerce Department considers adopting a sweeping proposal that would allow the United States to block transactions between American firms and Chinese counterparts. Those rules, on top of new restrictions on Chinese investment in the United States and proposed measures that would prevent American companies from exporting certain products and sharing technology with foreign nationals, have the tech industry scrambling to respond. Continue reading.

Minnesota farm bankruptcies increased 15% in 2019

Says Adam Belz in the Strib, “Farm bankruptcies in Minnesota and across the U.S. rose again in 2019, as a prolonged slump in commodity prices, poor weather and the ongoing trade war with China squeezed farmers. Last year, 30 farmers in Minnesota — a 15% increase — filed for Chapter 12 bankruptcy, which allows family farms to restructure their finances and avoid liquidation or foreclosure. Farm bankruptcies rose 20% nationally in 2019 and 16% in the Upper Midwest, according to data released by the federal court system.”

For MPR, Kirsti Marohn reports, “Cities, industries and some livestock farmers could pay more for water quality permit fees under a proposal by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The MPCA says revenue from the fees has not kept pace with its costs to administer the permits, which cover city and industrial stormwater and wastewater, septic systems and livestock feedlots. Most of the fees haven’t been raised in almost 25 years, said Katrina Kessler, assistant MPCA commissioner.”

For MPR, Robin McDowell writes, “Civil rights activists and legal experts challenged Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s claims that she was unaware of questionable evidence and police tactics used to send a young black teen to prison for life when she was a top Minneapolis prosecutor. … In an interview with ‘Fox News Sunday,’ Klobuchar denied that she had knowledge of any evidence that would call the conviction into question. But much of what The Associated Press found while investigating the case of Myon Burrell, now 33, would have been available to her office at the time.” Continue reading.

Experts: Trump Tax And Trade Policies Slowing Economy

Economic growth in the United States slowed to just 1.9 percent in the past three months, far slower than promised Donald Trump made during his 2016 campaign. The sluggish growth is even worse than the second-quarter numbers, when the economy grew at 2 percent, NPR reported on Wednesday.

In his annual budget to Congress, Trump predicted a more robust 3.2 percent growth.

“That’s not going to happen,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, told NPR, adding, “we won’t get a 3-plus percent growth rate for the year.”

View the complete October 31 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National Memo website here.

Trump Says China Will Suffer as Data Shows Trade War Hurting U.S.

New York Times logoWASHINGTON — President Trump said on Tuesday that Chinese manufacturing would “crumble” if the country did not agree to the United States’ trade terms, as newly released data showed his trade war was washing back to American shores and hurting the factories that the president has aimed to protect.

Days after new tariffs went into effect on both sides of the Pacific, a closely watched index of American manufacturing activity fell to 49.1 from 51.2, signaling a contraction in United States factory activity for the first time since 2016. The companies responding to the Institute for Supply Management survey, which the index is based on, cited shrinking export orders as a result of the trade dispute, as well as the challenge of moving supply chains out of China to avoid the tariffs.

The manufacturing sector’s struggles are likely to increase as the world’s two largest economies continue to escalate their trade fight. On Sunday, Mr. Trump placed a new 15 percent tariff on a range of consumer goods, including clothing, lawn mowers, sewing machines, food and jewelry, and Beijing retaliated by increasing tariffs on $75 billion worth of American products. China also said on Monday that it was filing a complaint at the World Trade Organization over Mr. Trump’s new tariffs.

View the complete September 3 article by Ana Swanson on The New York Times website here.

Recession Hits US Manufacturing Sector In Trade War

U.S. factories are struggling so badly that the manufacturing sector is officially in a recession, according to a Bloomberg report. It’s thanks in large part to Trump’s trade war with China.

New data released Tuesday shows shrinking orders, production, and hiring in the manufacturing industry, hitting a three-year low. The news follows worrisome data from August showing new manufacturing orders and exports hit a 10-year low.

Factories are struggling so much that the manufacturing industry is “technically already in a recession in the U.S.,” Bloomberg wrote. A recession is defined as when the Federal Reserve observes two straight quarters, or six months, of declining output.

View the complete September 3 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National Memo website here.

Trump’s Trade War Raised Taxes By $30 Billion

Trump’s trade war is going to cost American taxpayers an additional $30 billion taxes a year, according to a new analysis released Thursday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

“CBO estimates that all tariffs enacted under Trump are raising taxes by about $30 billion annually ($315B 2020-2029),” noted Zach Moller, deputy director of Third Way’s Economic Program. “This would rise to about $45 billion a year if announced tariffs go into effect.”

The trade war tax hike would add to Trump’s already weak record on taxes.

View the complete August 31 article by Oliver Willis on the National Memo website here.

Amid Recession Worries, Trump Points Finger at American Businesses

New York Times logoWASHINGTON — President Trump wants Americans to understand that the economy is doing great, thanks to him. But if in fact the economy sours, then it is someone else’s fault.

Mr. Trump’s Blame List is long. On top, of course, is Jerome H. Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve — never mind that Mr. Trump was the one who appointed him. Then there are the Democrats, and not to mention the news media.

And on Friday, the president added American businesses to the list, arguing that struggling companies have only themselves to blame and are rationalizing their own mistakes by pointing to, just to name an example, Mr. Trump’s multibillion-dollar tariffs and America’s biggest trade war in generations.

View the complete August 30 article by Peter Baker on The New York Times website here.

Wall Street ends volatile month in major test for Trump

The Hill logoWall Street ended a wild August with the Dow up slightly on Friday, capping a tumultuous month for the global economy that spurred a wave of volatility in financial markets and posed a challenge for President Trump.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 index and Nasdaq closed the final day of August trading little changed from their Friday opens, with the Dow and S&P up only 0.2 and 0.1 percent, respectively.

But the three indices were well below their levels at the start of the month after a notoriously rough stretch for Wall Street. The Dow fell 1.76 percent in August, down 474 points. The index this month suffered two of its seven largest point losses, falling by 800 points on Aug. 14 and 767 points on Aug. 5.

View the complete August 30 article by Sylvan Lane on The Hill website.