Tag: Trump trade war

Farmers’ Frustration With Trump Grows as U.S. Escalates China Fight

New York Times logoWASHINGTON — Peppered with complaints from farmers fed up with President Trump’s trade war, Sonny Perdue found his patience wearing thin. Mr. Perdue, the agriculture secretary and the guest of honor at the annual Farmfest gathering in southern Minnesota this month, tried to break the ice with a joke.

“What do you call two farmers in a basement?” Mr. Perdue asked near the end of a testy hourlong town-hall-style event. “A whine cellar.”

A cascade of boos ricocheted around the room.

American farmers have become collateral damage in a trade war that Mr. Trump began to help manufacturers and other companies that he believes have been hurt by China’s “unfair” trade practices.

View the complete August 27 article by Alan Rappeport on The New York Times website here.

Trump blames Fed for manufacturing slowdown

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Tuesday blamed the Federal Reserve for a recent slowdown in manufacturing, a key sector he promised to revive as a candidate.

“The Federal Reserve loves watching our manufacturers struggle with their exports to the benefit of other parts of the world,” he tweeted. “Our Fed has been calling it wrong for too long!”

The manufacturing sector’s output has shrunk for two consecutive quarters, meeting the widely accepted definition of a recession. It has been among the hardest-hit sectors from Trump’s escalating trade war with China.

View the complete August 27 article by Niv Elis on The Hill website here.

US, Japan move closer to limited trade deal

NOTE:  Trump announced this as a deal at the G-7, but it appears there is no firm deal.

Trump, Abe outline possible deal that could open Japanese markets to $7 billion in U.S. goods

The United States and Japan have reached a tentative agreement that could give President Donald Trump a trade win for his farm constituency and could protect Japan against steep auto tariffs that the administration is threatening to impose on imported vehicles.

Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe outlined the agreement in principle on agriculture, industrial tariffs and digital trade Sunday during the G-7 summit in France. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the agreement, if finalized, would open Japanese markets to an additional $7 billion in U.S. products.

Abe said negotiators will continue to fine-tune the language. The two leaders said they hoped to sign the agreement in New York in late September when the U.N. General Assembly meets. There was no mention of whether Congress would have a role in approving the agreement.

View the complete August 26 article by Ellyn Ferguson on The Roll Call website here.

Trump insists trade talks have restarted with China, but details are elusive

Washington Post logoBIARRITZ, France — After several days of whiplash statements about China that brought new tariffs, olive branches, countermeasures, reversals and bravado, President Trump on Monday said trade negotiations are set to resume once more.

“We’ve gotten two calls and very, very good calls,” Trump told reporters at the Group of Seven summit. “Very productive calls. They mean business. They want to be able to make a deal.”

Trump later clarified that the calls had occurred as recently as Sunday evening. Other administration officials were more circumspect, and it wasn’t clear how substantive any interaction had been. “There were discussions that went back and forth, let’s leave it at that,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters.

View the complete August 26 article by Damian Paletta and David J. Lynch on The Washington Post website here.

G-7 summit ends with little consensus amid Trump’s mixed messaging on the trade war

Washington Post logoBIARRITZ, France —  President Trump’s divergence on key international flash points, particularly trade, the climate and Russian provocation, upended a consortium of world leaders that was created four decades ago to address major crises.

On Monday, when leaders at the Group of Seven summit traveled home after the three-day meeting, their differences appeared to have sharpened, and many agreements seemed further out of reach. And in his concluding news conference, Trump appeared content with the way the meeting ended — without major breakthroughs.

All eyes were on the U.S. president, in part because of the burgeoning trade war between the White House and China. Trump said that he felt personal “unity” during talks, and that he was pressed to explain his strategy by several world leaders but wouldn’t back down.

View the complete August 26 article by Toluse Olorunnipa, Michael Birnbaum, Damian Paletta and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

‘Accept the pain’: Lindsey Graham defends Trump’s escalating trade war with China

Washington Post logoAs markets have reacted with turmoil to President Trump’s escalating threats against China, one of the president’s staunchest allies in Congress had a stark message for American businesses and consumers: “Accept the pain” that comes with a trade war.

“We’ve just got to accept the pain that comes with standing up to China,” said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) in a Sunday appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “How do you get China to change without creating some pain on them and us? I don’t know.”

Trump caused strife in trading rooms on Friday when he promised a 5-percentage-point increase on all existing and planned Chinese tariffs and then “ordered” U.S. firms to stop doing business in China. Those threats came at an already volatile moment, with American indicators suggesting a potential recession and Trump questioning on Twitter whether Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome H. Powell is an “enemy” of the United States.

View the complete August 26 article by Tim Elfrink on The Washington Post website here.

White House says Trump pressing forward amid escalation of China trade war

The Hill logoPresident Trump‘s economic advisers and allies on Sunday defended the trade war with China as necessary and beneficial to the U.S. after a week of mounting tensions.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday”that Trump remained “as determined as ever” in the trade war.

The president earlier seemed to indicate he regretted escalating the trade war with Beijing, though the White House quickly pushed back on that interpretation, saying Sunday that Trump regrets not imposing even higher tariffs.

View the complete August 25 article by Zack Burdryk on The Hill website here.

WATCH: Larry Kudlow wilts under barrage of questions about Trump’s conflicting trade war comments

AlterNet logoLarry Kudlow, who appeared to have been drinking before his FOX News appearance last Sunday, probably wished he was drinking this Sunday after his stammering performance on CNN where he faced a barrage of questions from “State of the Union” fill-in host Brianna Keilar.

Speaking from France where he is attending the G7 conference with Donald Trump, Kudlow was put on the spot over the president’s comments where he seemed to express regret over launching a trade war with China.

According to the president’s economic adviser, Trump failed to hear a reporter’s question over whether he had any “second thoughts” about launching a trade war with China.

View the complete August 25 article by Tom Boggioni from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

New data challenges Trump’s economic narrative

The Hill logoPresident Trump has repeatedly said the U.S. economy under his watch has been extraordinary.

His tweeted descriptors have included “BOOMING,” “GREAT,” “stronger than ever” and “perhaps the greatest ECONOMY and most successful first two years of any President in history.”

But a slew of recent data suggests the Trump economy has fared no differently than other expansions at this stage. And those same numbers indicate the president’s economy may be headed toward a downturn.

View the complete August 25 article by Niv Elis on The Hill website here.

‘I Hereby Order’: Internet Mocks Trump’s China Tariff Tweeting

President Donald Trump is being mocked right now for his insane Twitter meltdown in response to China’s announcement it is imposing $75 billion on tariffs on U.S. goods.

But it was not only Trump’s meltdown, but his insistence that he can dictate how private American companies operate that added to the hilarity.

After saying China has “stolen our Intellectual Property at a rate of Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year,” and claiming “We don’t need China,” Trump made this fascist declaration:

“Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA.”

The President of the United States does not have any authority to do that.

View the complete August 21 article by David Badash from the New Civil Rights Movement on the National Memo website here.