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The first round of negotiations on a new North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) kicked off Wednesday in Washington.

There are trillions of dollars at stake; you might have heard us mention that before.  At no time was it more clearly evident than RIGHT NOW. All anxiety is driven by the economics of politics.  Oh, they’ll point to other excuses; but those who understand the larger elements within multinational corporate and government finance totally understand this is all about money. Economics is money. Money is Economics. Every syllable and syntax by every oppositional entity, and the authorities who are directing them, are related to the current economic threat that is President Trump. Those who really understand this dynamic; those who...

Trump orders probe of China's intellectual property practices WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Monday authorized an inquiry into China's alleged theft of intellectual property in the first direct trade measure by his administration against Beijing, but one that is unlikely to prompt near-term change. Trump broke from his 17-day vacation in New Jersey to sign the memo in the White House at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing over North Korea's nuclear ambitions. The investigation is likely to cast a shadow over relations with China, the largest U.S. trading partner, just as Trump is asking...

Forget the social chaff and political countermeasures being promoted in the media. It is all manufactured distraction. It’s MONEY that matters to the powerful interests in the upper suites of the corporate media apparatus. Everything, e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g, every story, is circling the upcoming economic and financial trade confrontations. There are trillions at stake and President Donald Trump is facing off against the international “BIG CLUB”. The purchased multinational political entities who operate within the massive and institutional multinational corporate and financial networks behind the World Bank and World Trade Organization. NAFTA re-negotiations are set to begin in Washington DC this coming...

Canada will enter talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with a goal to seek exemptions from Washington's Buy America directives, and push for stronger labor and environmental standards in the pact. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland on Monday provided broad outlines on what Canada's bottom line on Nafta renegotiations, which begin in earnest on Wednesday in Washington. ... She said local-content provisions, such as Buy America, "are political junk-food -- superficially appetizing, but unhealthy in the long run." Ms. Freeland said Canada also wants to make Nafta more "progressive," through tougher labor and environmental standards. On the...

I eat steak whenever I'm in the United States. Your steaks are bigger, juicier, and more tender than those I can buy in Europe. Why? Partly because American cattle are given hormones that are banned in the EU. Now, you might prefer the idea of unadulterated beef, raised only on rich green grass. Plenty of people in Europe say they do, and good luck to them. No one is going to force them to eat anything they don't want. But why should they impose their taste on the rest of us? Over the past two weeks, a bizarre alliance has...

In New Trend, U.S. Natural Gas Exports Exceeded Imports in 3 of the First 5 Months of 2017 August 8, 2017 by U.S. EIA: Today in Energy Leave a Comment   Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Natural Gas Monthly The United States exported more natural gas than it imported in February, April, and May of 2017 according to the latest EIA’s Natural Gas Monthly. The United States has been a net natural gas importer (on an average annual basis) for nearly 60 years. Declining net pipeline imports from Canada, growing natural gas pipeline exports to Mexico, and increasing exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) are all contributing...

China’s debt surpasses 300 percent of GDP, IIF says, raising doubts over Yellen’s crisis remarks Silvia Amaro Wednesday, 28 Jun 2017 Global debt has hit a record level in the first quarter of this year, mainly driven by emerging markets, raising questions of whether there will be another financial crisis in the near future. Data from the Institute of International Finance showed that global debt reached $217 trillion in the first quarter of this year, or 327 percent of gross domestic product. "The debt burden is not distributed evenly. Some countries/sectors have seen deleveraging while others have built up very...

The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in June as exports hit the highest level in 2 ? years. The Commerce Department says the trade gap slid 5.9 percent in June to $43.6 billion. Exports of goods and services rose 1.2 percent to $194.4 billion, the highest amount since December 2014. Services exports reached a record $65.4 billion. Overall imports slipped 0.2 percent to $238 billion. So far this year, the trade deficit is up 10.7 percent to $276.6 billion. A shrinking trade gap adds to U.S. economic output. President Donald Trump has vowed to bring down America's trade deficits, saying they...

Trump China speech postponed as president expected to order trade probe Aug 4, 2017 ROBERT SCHROEDER A speech on China’s trade practices that President Donald Trump was slated to give Friday has been postponed. Trump was expected to order an investigation into trade with China. He is being encouraged by some Democrats to get tough with Beijing, making for rare bipartisan agreement with the Republican commander-in-chief. The administration has been considering invoking a little-used provision of U.S. trade law to investigate whether China’s intellectual-property policies constitute “unfair trade practices,” The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week. The move could...

WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) and rival Mazda Motor Corp are expected to announce plans on Friday to build a $1.6 billion U.S assembly plant as part of a new joint venture, a person briefed on the matter said. The plant will be capable of producing 300,000 vehicles a year, with production divided between the two automakers, and employ about 4,000 people when it opens in 2021, the person said on Thursday. A new auto plant would be a major boost to U.S. President Donald Trump, who campaigned on promises to boost manufacturing and expand employment for American...

President Trump will give a speech at the White House on Friday, and will sign a memo directing his trade representative to go after Chinese theft of intellectual property and the way U.S. companies are forced to share technology with Chinese firms, as Axios scooped yesterday. Administration officials say Trump is doing this because of complaints he's heard from Silicon Valley executives saying Chinese IP theft is one of their biggest challenges (Peter Thiel was involved in crafting this new step). What happens next: About a week after Trump's announcement, the U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, is expected to announce...

China’s weaponization of trade China has encouraged and then exploited other countries’ economic reliance on it to compel their support for its foreign-policy objectives Brahma Chellaney China denies mixing business with politics, yet it has long used trade to punish countries that refuse to toe its line. China’s recent heavy-handed economic sanctioning of South Korea, in response to that country’s decision to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system, was just the latest example of the Chinese authorities’ use of trade as a political weapon. China’s government has encouraged and then exploited states’ economic reliance on it...

Democrats have had a full eight months to digest their humiliating 2016 electoral defeat. Eight months to write a post mortem. Eight months to develop a new platform. Eight months to show the American people they deserve a chance to govern. But instead of self-critique, introspection and innovative solutions, Democrats have offered excuses, complaining and Russian collusion conspiracy theories. In an effort to engender enthusiasm for 2018, Democrats unleashed a “new” agenda on Monday, which amounted to little more than a stale attempt at mimicking President Donald Trump . The name alone suggests the new Democratic plan is the work...

Colombia on Friday opens bidding for investors willing to retrieve billions of dollars in gold and silver from an 18th century ship wreck off the country's Caribbean coast. The Spanish galleon "San Jose" was the main ship in a fleet carrying gold and silver -- likely extracted from Spanish colonial mines in Peru and Bolivia -- and other valuables back to King Philip V. It sank in June 1708 during combat with British warships attempting to take its cargo, as part of the War of Spanish Succession. Only a handful of the ship's crew of 600 survived. President Juan Manuel...

President Trump hates America's trade deals. But he hasn't said what better deals would look like, or how he'll bring jobs back from Mexico. That should change on Monday. Trump's U.S. trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, is expected to publish a list of goals for the upcoming renegotiation of NAFTA, the free trade agreement among Canada, Mexico and the United States. Trump made NAFTA his No. 1 trade target during his campaign for the White House. "NAFTA is the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere, but certainly ever signed in this country," he said during the first presidential debate in...

DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa farmers received a major boost Thursday after a Chinese delegation in Des Moines signed commitments to purchase nearly all of Iowa’s soybeans. The $4.5 billion deal to buy 460 million bushels of soybeans comes a week before Gov. Kim Reynolds is expected to lead an agricultural trade mission to China and brings tremendous value to the Iowa economy. Advertisement “As an Iowa farmer, this is huge,” said April Hemmes, a farmer who owns a 1,000-acre farm near Hampton in rural Franklin County. “They basically bought the entire production that we have in the state of...

During his Senate hearing to be confirmed as ambassador to China, then-Gov. Terry Branstad said he would prefer to serve Iowa beef — not cuts from Australia — at the U.S. Embassy there. He won’t get that wish yet, but the prime rib he slices into Friday when joined in Beijing by U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Chinese government officials to ceremonially mark the return of U.S. beef to China after a 14-year ban will be from closer to home — Nebraska. Branstad: Work to open Chinese market to U.S. beef exports Trump calls for rural internet...

Theresa May has hailed the "powerful vote of confidence" in Britain Donald Trump and other world leaders have shown with their "strong desire" to strike new trade deals after Brexit. The Prime Minister said she is "optimistic and positive" about a future pact with the US after the president said he believed an agreement could be reached "very, very quickly". Following talks on the margins of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Mr Trump hailed the "very special relationship" he had developed with the PM. He said he expected an agreement on new trading arrangements with Britain to be "very powerful"....

Donald Trump has promised to sign a trade deal with Britain "very very quickly" as he told Theresa May: "There is no country that could possibly be closer than our countries." The US President said he had developed a "very special relationship" with Mrs May as the two leaders sat down for a one-on-one meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg this morning. (CHART-AT-LINK) He also told Mrs May he had "a tremendous meeting" with President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Friday, which lasted for two and a quarter hours. The President's comments are a huge boost for Mrs May,...