Tag: Trump trade policy

In visit to Minnesota, Pence touts Trump trade policy

Vice President Mike Pence spent part of Thursday in Minnesota, promoting the Trump administration’s trade policies and trying to build support for the president’s replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement, known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

Pence first visited a farm near Glyndon in the northwestern part of the state, and then stopped at Gerdau, a St. Paul company that mills recycled steel.

The locations highlighted the difficulty of the administration’s trade stance, including tariffs, which are hurting farmers while they boost the steel industry.

View the complete May 9 article by Mark Zdechlik on the MPR News website here.

Revealed: The stunning annual costs of Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs on US consumers and businesses

President Donald Trump has been doubling down on his love of tariffs this week, vowing to increase tariffs on Chinese imports. Trump’s tariffs, however, aren’t limited to China: he has also been imposing tariffs on U.S. allies such as Canada and Mexico. And according to analysis from the Peterson Institute for International Economics, steel and aluminum tariffs are costing Americans hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Analysis from the Peterson Institute shows that consumers and businesses in the United States are paying over $900,000 per year for every job created or saved by Trump’s steel tariffs. The Independent quotes Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute and the person who did the steel tariffs calculation, as saying that the cost of Trump’s steel tariffs is “very high. It’s arresting. The reason it’s so high is that steel is a very capital-intensive industry. There are not many workers.”

Trump, however, has vigorously defended his steel tariffs, insisting that they have been a success—especially in Pennsylvania, a swing state that Trump won in 2016 and is hoping to win again in 2020. Last week, the president tweeted, “232 Tariffs make Pennsylvania and USA more prosperous/secure by bringing Steel and Aluminum industries BACK. Tariffs are working. Pittsburgh is again The Steel City. USA economy is BOOMING!”

View the complete May 9 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

China warns of ‘countermeasures’ against U.S. products if Trump increases tariffs

BEIJING — China warned Wednesday of retaliation if President Trump goes through with his threat to further raise tariffs on Chinese goods, setting up a potential escalation in a trade war that had seemed just weeks ago to be nearing its end.

The trans-Pacific brinkmanship now spills over to face-to-face negotiations as trade talks resume late Thursday in Washington — just hours before Trump’s latest tariff threats are due to hit $200 billion in Chinese products.

The Chinese warning — issued as China’s vice premier arrived in Washington — signaled that Beijing was prepared to take the same hard-line route as Trump and raise tariffs on American products in response.

View the complete May 8 article by Anna Fifield and David J.Lynch on The Washington Post website here.

Trump pulls out rug from GOP on trade

Senate Republicans feel that President Trump has once again pulled the rug out from under them on trade, leaving GOP lawmakers frustrated over their inability to influence the White House’s policy on an issue that could have major economic and electoral ramifications. 

Days after a group of Republican senators relayed to Trump at a White House meeting their concerns about trade tensions with Canada, Mexico, Europe and China, Trump over the weekend threatened new tariffs on China, escalating a fight with Beijing and rattling markets. 

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said after the stock markets closed Monday that higher tariffs on China will take effect Friday, shortly after negotiations with a trade delegation from China are due to resume later this week. Lighthizer’s remarks are likely to rattle markets after they recovered most of their losses Monday afternoon as Wall Street strategists cautioned that Trump’s tough talk is a negotiating tactic and a deal with China is still possible.

View the complete May 7 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.

Trump administration accuses Chinese officials of ‘reneging’ on commitments in trade talks

Senior U.S. officials accused Beijing on Monday of reneging on commitments it had agreed to during negotiations for a comprehensive trade deal and vowed that punishing tariffs on Chinese imports would more than double Friday.

Despite the tough talk, Robert E. Lighthizer, the president’s chief trade negotiator, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the administration expects to host Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and a Chinese team for further talks in Washington on Thursday evening and Friday.

But with the officials publicly underscoring President Trump’s weekend anti-China broadside, prospects for a deal this week — as the administration had hoped for — appear to be fading.

View the complete May 6 article by David J. Lynch and Robert Costa on The Washington Post website here.

Explainer: Who pays Trump’s tariffs – China and other exporters or U.S. customers?

CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he would raise tariffs to 25 percent from 10 percent on $200 billion of Chinese goods.

The United States has levied tariffs on a total of $250 billion of Chinese imports, global steel and aluminum imports, and shipments of washing machines and solar panels since January 2018, when Trump’s administration levied its first trade tariffs.

Trump has referred to himself as a “Tariff Man” and says the duties he has imposed on a range of goods and metal imports are filling up state coffers.

View the complete May 5 article by Rajesh Kumar Sing with additonal reporting by Yawen Chen on the Reuters website here.

Trump’s trade policies are costing Americans a lot of money

Tariffs and sanctions drive up costs and will create a negligible number of jobs.

When Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced this week the end of waivers for U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil, he assured the world that oil prices and supplies will be kept in check. But on Tuesday, less than 24 hours after his announcement, oil prices spiked to a six-month high.

Taking Iran’s supplies out of the equation was bound to increase prices, despite what Pompeo and President Donald Trump have said, especially given that Venezuela’s oil supply is similarly sanctioned. This increase in oil prices will have an impact on economic growth in the United States, said Robert E. Scott, senior economist and director of trade and manufacturing policy research at the Economic Policy Institute.

View the complete April 25 article by D. Parvaz on the ThinkProgress website here.

Trump weighs tariffs or quotas on uranium imports

The nuclear power industry argues import limits would bring higher costs for electricity producers and force some out of business

President Donald Trump is considering a Commerce Department report on whether imported uranium ore poses a threat to U.S. national security and the domestic production of nuclear power.

The president will weigh whether to impose tariffs or quotas on imported uranium following claims by the uranium mining industry that limits on foreign uranium imports are necessary to aid a shrinking industry. The nuclear power industry, meanwhile, argues import limits would bring higher costs for electricity producers and force some out of business.

The Commerce Department announced it met the Sunday deadline to submit the report to the White House but offered no details Monday on whether it recommended some form of limits on imported uranium such as tariffs and quotas.

View the complete April 16 article by Ellyn Ferguson on The Roll Call website here.

Trump’s North American trade deal at risk of stalling in Congress

President Trump’s effort to rework a major trade deal with Canada and Mexico is showing increasing signs of faltering on Capitol Hill, straining under a variety of angry complaints from lawmakers of both parties who won’t commit to backing the plan.

Trump reached agreement with Canada and Mexico last year to update the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. But Congress must approve the deal, and the White House has been unable to mollify the growing group of critics.

The administration’s goal is to get the pact approved ahead of Congress’s annual August recess. It’s not clear whether that timeline is realistic. But delaying action past Labor Day could greatly increase political risk because of the accelerating presidential campaign.

View the complete March 29 article by Erica Werner, David J. Lynch and Emily Rauhala on The Washington Post website here.

US markets plunge after arrest of Chinese tech executive

The Dow Jones industrial average plunged more than 500 points on Thursday, the first day of trading after U.S. authorities secured the arrest of a Chinese technology company executive, fueling fears that the trade war with China is heating up.

News broke late Wednesday that Canadian law enforcement had arrested Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, a major Chinese tech firm that has been linked to the Chinese military.

U.S. officials have requested her extradition, citing a suspected sanctions violation.

View the complete December 6 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.