Free Republic

German businesses should immediately halt their operations in Iran following President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, the US ambassador to Germany said on Tuesday. "German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately," tweeted newly-appointed Richard Grenell. Germany is one of Iran's largest trading partners, with German exports hitting some €2.6 billion in 2016, up 26 percent on the previous year, according to the Ministry of Finance in Berlin.

China steps up quarantine checks on U.S. apple, log imports BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s main ports will step up quarantine checks on imports of apples and logs from the United States, and shipments found carrying disease or rot could be returned or destroyed, the Chinese customs agency said on Monday. Reuters reported last week that the main Chinese ports of entry have ramped up checks on fresh fruit imports from the United States, which could delay shipments from U.S. growers already dealing with higher tariffs as China-U.S. trade ties sour. “Recently, pests were detected in apples and logs imported from...

The US has demanded that China cut its US trade surplus by $200 billion, end subsidies for advanced technology industries and sharply cut import tariffs to US levels, two people familiar with US-China trade talks said Friday. The lengthy list of demands was presented to Beijing prior to the start of talks on Thursday and Friday between top-level Trump administration officials and their Chinese counterparts to try to sort out disputes that have threatened a damaging trade war between the world’s two largest economies. The talks ended with China’s Xinhua news agency describing them as “constructive, candid and efficient” but...

The trade deficit doesn't matter. There shouldn't be anything controversial about this fact. As Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, wrote in "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," "Nothing ... can be more absurd than this whole doctrine of the balance of trade." More meaningful economic indicators are the unemployment rate, wages and gross domestic product. Well, the unemployment rate is 4.1% and wages are growing. Although Barack Obama was the first president since Herbert Hoover not to see annual economic growth at 3% or higher during his presidency, the Congressional Budget Office...

The battle lines are drawn in the trade war with China, and President Donald Trump can expect little support from the high tech and financial sectors or the economics profession. They argue the U.S. is doing quite well. Donald Trump has lifted growth to 2.9% a year but that compares poorly with China, whose superior performance can no longer be written off as that of a developing country playing catch up. Beneath the modern theory of free trade lurks an assumption that economists are disinclined to discuss — the textbook theorem assumes balanced trade accomplished through a reciprocal reduction of...

As Europe’s biggest exporter to the United States and with more than 1 million German jobs at stake, Germany is desperate to avoid a European Union trade war with the United States. In the run-up to a June 1 deadline for U.S. President Donald Trump to impose steel and aluminum tariffs on the EU, Berlin is urging its European partners to show some flexibility and pursue a broad trade deal that benefits both sides. But that puts Germany at odds with European peers such as France. Paris, the other half of the motor driving European integration, resents Germany’s big trade...

Well the first quarter data for 2018 is done.

WASHINGTON—The White House on May 5 sharply criticized China‘s efforts to force foreign airlines to change how they refer to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, labeling China‘s latest effort to police language describing the politically sensitive territories as “Orwellian nonsense.” Amid an escalating fight over China‘s trade surplus with the United States, the White House said China‘s Civil Aviation Administration sent a letter to 36 foreign air carriers, including a number of U.S. carriers, demanding changes. The carriers were told to remove references on their websites or in other material that suggests Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau are part of...

Trump White House accuses China of 'Orwellian nonsense' Beijing seeks to change US airline references to disputed territories Harsh statement released as US trade delegation returns The White House on Saturday condemned Chinese efforts to control how US airlines refer to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao as “Orwellian nonsense”. The harshly worded statement came as a high-level trade delegation led by the Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin returned from negotiations in China. The carriers were told to remove references on their websites or in other material that suggests Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau are part of countries independent from China, US...

The United States has demanded that China cut its U.S. trade surplus by $200 billion, end subsidies for advanced technology industries and sharply cut import tariffs to U.S. levels, two people familiar with U.S.-China trade talks said on Friday. The lengthy list of demands was presented to Beijing prior to the start of talks Thursday and Friday between top-level Trump administration officials and their Chinese counterparts to try to sort out disputes that have threatened a damaging trade war between the world's two largest economies. The talks ended with China's Xinhua news agency describing them as "constructive, candid and efficient"...

WASHINGTON/BEIJING — The Trump administration has drawn a hard line in trade talks with China, demanding a $200 billion cut in the Chinese trade surplus with the United States, sharply lower tariffs and advanced technology subsidies, people familiar with the talks said Friday. The lengthy list of demands was presented to Beijing before the start of talks Thursday and Friday between top-level Trump administration officials and their Chinese counterparts to try to avert a damaging trade war between the world(ple’s two largest economies. (please see full article at the link)

Donald Trump has dispatched a high-level delegation to Beijing for trade talks with China this week, which should be a reassuring sign amid rising tariff threats. Both countries will benefit if a modus vivendi can be found that opens markets and sets new rules of the road. But the Trump Administration hasn’t decided what it wants out of a deal, and that increases the risks of a larger breakdown between the world’s largest economies. Recall that the U.S. first amped up the tension with threats to impose sanctions in retaliation for China’s theft of intellectual property. Beijing’s trade point man,...

WASHINGTON — It sounds like something out of a science fiction movie: In April, China is said to have tested an invisibility cloak that would allow ordinary fighter jets to suddenly vanish from radar screens. This advancement, which could prove to be a critical intelligence breakthrough, is one that American officials fear China may have gained in part from a Chinese researcher who roused suspicions while working on a similar technology at a Duke University laboratory in 2008. The researcher, who was investigated by the F.B.I. but never charged with a crime, ultimately returned to China, became a billionaire and...

OK sorry this is from the New York Times, but they are occasionally completely right no some issues. I believe this is one of those rare moments: -- BEIJING — China will refuse to discuss President Trump's two toughest trade demands when American negotiators arrive in Beijing this week, people involved in Chinese policymaking say, potentially forcing Washington to escalate the dispute or back down. The Chinese government is publicly calling for flexibility on both sides. But senior Beijing officials do not plan to discuss the Trump administration's two biggest demands: a mandatory $100 billion cut in America’s $375 billion...

Rumors out of Washington these days regarding technology boggle the mind, with the unthinkable sounding more and more possible at a time of intense rhetoric: A ban by the Trump administration on all sales of computer chips by U.S. companies to China. Under legislation known as the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, or IEEPA, instituted during the Iranian hostage crisis, the executive branch can place quotas on U.S. goods, and restrict what can be sold, in order to sanction a target country on national security grounds. Computer chips are a tremendous area of leverage for the U.S. on the global...

If a trade war breaks out, companies like Apple and Walmart will be caught in the crossfire, but Apple has the most to lose, CNBC's Jim Cramer argued on Friday. "You can't crack down on China without hurting large swaths of the American economy," the "Mad Money" host said. "Why? because China's our biggest trading partner." (please see link for full article)

WASHINGTON – China's plan to transform itself into the global technology nexus is a "frightening" one that puts American intellectual property at risk, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Tuesday. "It's a huge, huge problem," Ross told a gathering of fabric industry executives about the repeated theft of technology. "And it's not going away." He said Beijing's development plan — Made in China 2025 — maps out the country’s strategy to dominate "every hot industry" from space to telecommunications to robotics to electric cars. "They have been the factory floor of the world, now their vision is to be the...

In off the record conversations with fund managers and investment research firms in New York, there is a growing consensus that Trump will ultimately slap tariffs on a broad array of Made in China goods. The threats of tariffs would have moved to becoming actual tariffs. China charges more for imports of U.S. products -- sometimes 10 times more (automobiles, for example) -- than the U.S. charges for China goods coming here. Politically speaking, the trade war is something Wall Street hates, but Main Street does not. There is a concern in farm country that higher U.S. tariffs would force...

There Is More to the Trade War than Trade April 6, 2018 The clamor of timorous voices that have greeted the president’s “Trade War” with China makes one fear for the republic. Let’s do a quick recap: China has extracted billions of dollars of intellectual property and confidential business information from U.S. companies. This has cost thousands of jobs and billions in lost revenue for the United States. China imposes unfair restrictions on foreign companies that want to do business there, requiring them to become minority partners in joint ventures, transfer intellectual property, or in some instances, China blocks them...

Mexico and the European Union agreed to a new trade deal over the weekend, and the timing is no accident. With the French and German leaders in Washington this week, and the Nafta talks getting serious, America’s trading partners are showing that the world won’t stop if the U.S. goes protectionist. The EU-Mexico deal is the sort of trade opening that is increasingly common beyond America’s shores. The two sides have agreed in principle to remove protections on a long list of agricultural goods, and to expand two-way trade in services such as travel and telecommunications. The pact also will...