Posted on 04/12/2017 12:28:15 PM PDT by ColdOne
The odds of President Trump fulfilling his campaign promise to label China a currency manipulator within his first 100 days are quickly diminishing.
One of Trump's top economic advisers, Stephen Schwarzman, chairman of the Blackstone Group, waived off the possibility that China would meet the necessary criteria to be designated a currency cheater.
The Trump administration's first currency report is set to be released in mid-April and will outline whether major U.S. trading partners are gaming their currencies.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
No problem.....everyone else will do it and has for years.
Trump is getting concessions out of China. He’s got them going in his direction.
All part of the deal.
maybe because they just put 150,000 men on the korean border and refused to buy coal from North Korea?
Yup. That’s part of it.
Trump is playing chess. People (even some Freepers) complain about some of his moves, but they don’t understand there is a lot more going on than they see.
Looks like currency is straightening itself out, as Chicoms not manipulating now.
maybe because they just put 150,000 men on the korean border and refused to buy coal from North Korea?
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And they are buying US coal, instead.
A three-fer.
I don’t know every word that passed between him and Ji. Maybe not publicly branding China for currency manipulation was traded for less actual manipulation. We’ll see, I guess.
All of this “not fulfilling campaign promises” shows me Trump thinks, can learn and is capable of critiquing his own conclusions. The world is not nearly as black and white as everyone would prefer. Many of his campaign promises are multi-faceted and, whether we like it or not, he has to get some Dem participation.
I may not like all of this, but it is reality. So far, there have been a lot more wins than concessions.
Moreover, China's wealthier citizens continue to accumulate substantial holdings of foreign currency and property as a form of savings and protection against expropriation and yuan devaluation -- a trend that denies the Chinese economy a substantial increment of hard-earned savings and necessary capital even as it pumps up overseas real estate markets in Vancouver, Sydney, and other venues favored by China's private investors. China knows that this trend will be rewarded and spurred by devaluation of the yuan.
Meanwhile, other Asian countries like Vietnam are now using China's previous strategy of low currency value and export-led industrialization to mobilize large pools of labor for rapid economic growth. China must watch ruefully as low wage industries move there, while its own workforce is stagnant in size and graying. And China's domestic economy continues to be burdened by a massive load of bad debt, dodgy statistical reporting, and the middle income trap. As the saying goes, China will get old before she gets rich.
Most important, even without action by the Trump administration against China for previous currency manipulation, US manufacturing is poised for a recovery based on low energy costs due to abundant and cheap natural gas -- thank you, frackers -- and from closeness to markets, new products, and new manufacturing technologies.
Peck-sniffs may complain that Trump had little to do with creating any of that, but he will add tax reform, Obamacare repeal and replace, regulatory relief, and a big dose of optimism and energy -- both literally and figuratively, making favorable developments into a major transformation. MAGA, baby -- bigly MAGA.
What I want to see addressed are:
1) Cheating on trade by using prison labor
2) Industrial espionage of US firms
3) The fact that Chinese products do not have to meet the same quality and safety standards as US products
Would it hurt to enact tariffs to offset those “sins”?
That would be a good thing for domestic producers.
Are you kidding? These economic Libertarians would sell your mother into slavery for 10 bucks. You think they are going to agree to a tariff?
Well, I am, at least ideologically, very “libertarian” economically, but am still offended by the situation we have with China. Economic liberty goes so far, and I am in the Duncan Hunter camp in regards to China. China should be expected to meet the same quality and safety standards that a US firm would have to, and the US can’t be expected to compete with slave labor – I am talking prison labor here.
Your observation is consistent with the effects of the rise in Chinese labor costs that exceeds productivity gains and the rise in the value of the Chinese yuan. When productivity is factored in, US labor costs are now only slightly more than those of China. Of course, even with favorable economic conditions, it takes time and money to rebuild lost or idled factories and to rehire workers.
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