Free Republic

It’s too good! Yesterday, former Obama Treasury Secretary Jack Lew was on CNBC bashing President Trump’s Trade Tactics when the news came out that Trump had reached a deal with the European Union! They asked Lew for immediate reaction and he clearly didn’t know what to say. CNBC’s Sara Eisen then directly confronted him: “If this is true, this certainly would be a win for the Administration, and it would show the World that these tough trade tactics are working . . . ."

The meeting on trade Wednesday between President Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker had all the makings of a potential crackup, but in the event it provided the best economic news in weeks. Financial markets were clearly pleased, as stocks rose across the board before the closing bell on the statements by the two presidents after their White House session. Call it a relief rally. The two sides essentially declared a tariff truce, pending negotiations on a larger trade deal between the 28-nation European Union and the U.S. Mr. Trump agreed to step back from his threat of 25%...

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is approaching his wary South American neighbors about developing a nuclear energy program, raising questions in Washington about his atomic ambitions. ADVERTISEMENT Chavez, a self-described socialist revolutionary fiercely opposed to the U.S. administration, says he wants to cooperate with Argentina, Brazil and possibly Iran to develop nuclear energy as part of his drive for regional integration. But energy experts estimate it will take his government at least five years of studies, training and investment to develop a sustainable nuclear energy project in Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter. "Nuclear energy is...

As President Trump made clear at the NATO summit with European leaders, “other countries trade barriers” have for years harmed U.S. businesses and hurt American workers while U.S troops have defended their borders. These same countries are now attacking criticizing the U.S. for levying its own tariffs to protect our own national defense. As some of America’s largest aluminum producers, we strongly support Trump’s leadership on the steel and aluminum tariffs to protect our own national security. Since Trump announced the historic tariffs in March, the American public has been inundated with “sky is falling” rhetoric from entrenched special interests...

The Senate on Wednesday took a symbolic shot at President Trump’s trade policy amid anxiety on Capitol Hill over his tariff strategy. Senators voted 88-11 to instruct lawmakers hashing out a deal on a government funding bill to include language “providing a role for Congress” on tariffs implemented for national security reasons, known as Section 232 of the trade laws. The vote is nonbinding, meaning lawmakers don’t have to add trade language into the funding bill. But the vote margin, with more senators supporting it than the amount needed to override a veto, underscores the depth of concern on Capitol...

There are Americans working in Canada covered by trade provisions that have certain tax privileges. NAFTA is dead as a door nail. What happens when the reality sets in?

The chairman of Molson Coors, which owns MillerCoors, is warning the cost of beer may be going up under President Donald Trump's new tariffs on aluminum.

President Trump is reportedly mulling 'new' aluminum and steel tariffs for Canada, Mexico, and the European Union, a new report claims. The tariffs could be unveiled as early as Thursday and could take effect as soon as Friday, sources familiar with the plan told the Washington Post. Canada, Mexico, and the EU were provided 'temporary exemptions' from the tariffs. The exemptions expire on June 1. The Post reports that Trump is growing angry with the aforementioned countries' unwillingness to give certain concession on trade to the White House.

The Trump administration will put tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union, the latest action in a string of protectionist policies to crack down on alleged trade abuses. The tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum imports will take effect at midnight Thursday, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told reporters. The U.S. gave those allies a reprieve from those duties, but the exemptions were set to expire Friday. The Trump administration will place quotas or volume limits on other countries such as South Korea, Argentina, Australia and Brazil instead of...

Canada will retaliate against new U.S. tariffs by imposing its own trade barriers on U.S. steel, aluminum and other products, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said Thursday. This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

The clean energy transition and other initiatives to decarbonise Europe’s economy will represent 25% of EU spending under a seven-year EU budget plan put forward by the European Commission on Wednesday (2 May). Another key aspect is whether the EU will commit to stop funding fossil fuel projects like gas pipelines, which environmentalists claim risk locking Europe into unnecessary infrastructure. “I’m not sure it’s reached the upper layers of the Commission yet,” Gaventa said. Other parts of the budget could prove controversial, like a proposal to allocate 20% of revenue from carbon trading to the EU budget, as well as...

German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier on Sunday warned the European Union against sparking a trade war with the US in the dispute over US tariffs on steel and aluminum. “I’m of the opinion that neither the US nor the Europeans should risk a trade war,” said Altmaier during a talk show on German public broadcaster ARD. He warned that the trans-Atlantic relationship was at stake. […] Altmaier, who is a member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives (CDU/CSU), said the EU should try to solve the tariff dispute, along with other trade disagreements, in a comprehensive US-EU deal. Earlier, the...

Mark Warner was texting a Russian oligarch using an encrypted app, Signal, and his messages were set to automatically delete. FoxNews broke a huge story about Senator Mark Warner, which has been discussed elsewhere. What I haven’t seen anyone else cover is the fact that the “text messages” were not ordinary messages. Warner was communicating via Signal, an encrypted app. Moreover, Warner had his messages set to disappear. (The hour glass icon in the text exchange.)

New evidence suggests that a former top staffer for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) may be directing the post-election efforts of Fusion GPS, a Democrat-linked political opposition research firm, to vindicate a series of memos alleging illegal collusion between the Donald Trump campaign and Russian officials

The nation’s top metals processor says business has surged following the Trump administration's tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. “Improved demand, a limited amount of customer pre-buying as a result of announced tariffs, and normal seasonal patterns" pushed first-quarter shipments up 10 percent from a year earlier, yielding a record quarterly sales volume of 1.6 million tons, 'Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.' said Thursday. 'Union Pacific' on Thursday reported first-quarter net income of $1.3 billion on Thursday. Revenue for the first three months of the year was $5.5 billion, up 7 percent from the same time period in 2017.

BEIJING — China has made a series of market opening pledges over the past week, but analysts said the moves are unlikely to help Beijing and Washington take any steps toward resolving their differences or advance negotiations. Instead, frustrations are growing as punitive trade actions pile up. China has pledged specific steps to open up its financial and insurance sector with milestones set for June and again before the end of this year. It has also addressed a key concern of President Donald Trump, pledging to significantly cut 25 percent tariffs on automobile imports this year. Beijing also says that...

In the latest “believe it or not” moment, farmers are experimenting with collars for cows equipped with GPS and electronic signaling that would eliminate the need for fencing and herding. American farmers spent $300 million last year on fencing. To policymakers concerned about the creation of jobs, did anyone see farm fencing falling to the veracious appetite of disruption? The Republican Party, led by Donald Trump, is unabashedly lurching backwards. The tax bill was straight out of the supply side 1980s. The steel tariffs are from the Smoot-Hawley 1930s. Democrats are, understandably, mostly in opposition mode. But the world is...

Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on Thursday urged policymakers to steer clear of all protectionist measures amid rising trade tensions between the United States and its major trading partners. "Trade restrictions have not been proven helpful and we suspect that they might even dent confidence," Lagarde said at a press conference during the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, adding all countries should "work together to resolve disagreements without using exceptional measures." The spring meetings of the two leading international financial institutions come after the Trump administration recently announced additional tariffs on...

After suggesting last week that the U.S. government would seek to rejoin the sovereignty-shredding Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), President Donald Trump took to social media on April 18 to slam the controversial “free trade” regime that he once described as the “rape of our country.” Instead, Trump is seeking a bilateral agreement with remaining Pacific-rim governments such as Japan. Grassroots conservatives celebrated the announcement. But establishment voices were less than happy about it. Writing after a meeting at his Mar-a-Lago estate with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump suggested he was still opposed to TPP and preferred a bilateral trade deal...

Everything I have learned as a capitalist and a Republican is that tariffs are counterproductive. They are hidden taxes that raise the price of the goods we buy and harm trade with other countries, which is not good for America or for our trading partner. If that is so, then provide us with another path to solving the China trading problem. President Trump probably made a mistake with going after steel and aluminum importers as a class. Certainly he has a point that we must maintain our own production capabilities in those areas, but just because our industries are suffering...