Posted on 02/27/2019 2:42:08 PM PST by Zhang Fei
A stunning debate unfolded in the Oval Office between President Trump and his top trade negotiator last Friday in front of the cameras and a visiting Chinese trade delegation. The president argued that memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with China are essentially meaningless, while U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer vowed to change the name of the document under negotiation to a trade agreement and promised it was enforceable.
In fact, though, it doesnt matter what you call it: Whatever the United States and China sign is meaningful only if Beijing decides to actually do what the document says. And Chinas history with such agreements provides overwhelming evidence that it cant be trusted to uphold any pledge to address the real structural issues in the U.S.-China economic relationship, such as fair competition, intellectual property protection, forced technology transfer and state-directed economic espionage.
The Trump-Lighthizer public dispute, besides being an embarrassment, tells us the president is souring on those inside his team who are driving a hard line toward Beijing. All the signs are that hes getting ready to strike a weak bargain that includes some trade benefits while setting aside larger national security concerns.
They are headed on the path of making a suboptimal deal, one administration official told me. Its all about the president being able to say he got a deal. He never cared as much as some thought about the structural stuff.
The MOU or trade agreement being prepared for Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to sign at an upcoming Mar-a-Lago summit will surely include Chinese promises to address their large-scale predatory and unfair economic practices, officials say, but theres internal skepticism that any of it will be truly enforceable.
They will have some stuff around the edges, things that you could point to as change, if
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
This is not the end of history, but just a moment in its ever changing flow.
The tariff toolbox remains, and now everyone believes it to be credible.
The 25% tariffs remain locked and loaded, should they need to fire.
And he's right about the MOU....They mean nothing.....pretty words....to placate any situation.
"The Trump-Lighthizer public dispute, besides being an embarrassment, tells us the president is souring on those inside his team who are driving a hard line toward Beijing. "
Those two statements sound contradictory. The first sounds like Trump is taking a harder line than his team. The second says it's the other way around.
Trump should keep the tariffs in place until the trade deficit comes down and we have the industries back that we want.
In fact Trump should keep raising the tariffs if the trade deficit doesn't drop significantly.
And he should make some of the tariffs permanent so that we don't lose the industries again.
"The Trump-Lighthizer public dispute, besides being an embarrassment, tells us the president is souring on those inside his team who are driving a hard line toward Beijing. "
Those two statements sound contradictory. The first sounds like Trump is taking a harder line than his team. The second says it's the other way around.
Trump should keep the tariffs in place until the trade deficit comes down and we have the industries back that we want.
In fact Trump should keep raising the tariffs if the trade deficit doesn't drop significantly.
And he should make some of the tariffs permanent so that we don't lose the industries again.
Wow, yet another pro Trump article from the compost. They went from Trump lied when he said he would get a deal with China to Trump is getting a bad deal with China. I guess that is progress of sorts.
Agreed. These clowns at the Post and NYTimes lavished praise on Obama for being Xi’s lapdog and they love to claim POTUS Trump is a doofus who doesn’t know shit from shinola.
And yet Trump is the one who got Beijing to the negotiating table to begin with.
Trump is not a sign and forget Guy
Lamestream media desperately tries to spin forcing ChiCom trade concessions as a bad thing.
Awesome!
WaPoop pretending to be proUSA.
Fear of a Republican Solution.
Media pundits are horrified at the prospect of President Trump receiving credit for achieving success in negotiations with the ChiComs - so whatever is accomplished must be derided as imperfect.
If only John Kerry, Hillary and Obama or AOC were here, they would have done so much better.
Yes, that is the way I read it too. It sounds from that statement like Trump is fighting for toughness and eliminating toothless agreements where his trade negotiator’s are pursuing “meaningless” pledges of cooperation.
Yes, that is the way I read it too. It sounds from that statement like Trump is fighting for toughness and eliminating toothless agreements where his trade negotiator’s are pursuing “meaningless” pledges of cooperation.
Yes, that is the way I read it too. It sounds from that statement like Trump is fighting for toughness and eliminating toothless agreements where his trade negotiator’s are pursuing “meaningless” pledges of cooperation.
Yes, that is the way I read it too. It sounds from that statement like Trump is fighting for toughness and eliminating toothless agreements where his trade negotiator’s are pursuing “meaningless” pledges of cooperation.
The only safe deal is 25 to 50 percent tariffs
The washington pest/compost continues its dissembling, dishonest, distorting ways. What incredible losers. Who reads their spew?
I am sure his daughter was behind this.
Aesop would say this is just the WashPost saying: “Those grapes are probably sour!”
Yeah, wish he’d upped the tariffs too.
By Fall he won’t be able to do any hard bargaining as the election approaches.
Josh Rogin is another Max Boot. If Josh says something, it is preemptively wrong.
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