Free Republic

This is the big one. The Economic Policy is the distinct and singular policy at the core of Make America Great Again. The MAGA coalition is centered around the principles of America First economics, and Ron DeSantis has just admitted he does not support them. CTH has long warned about Ron DeSantis’ economic policy being driven by the donors who fund him. When he was in congress, DeSantis voted in support of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) for President Obama, and DeSantis voted in support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement (TPP). These are the trade policies supported by the Club...

"Trump says he delayed tariffs because of concerns over Christmas shopping season" “We’re doing this for the Christmas season,” Trump told reporters on an airport tarmac around noon Tuesday. “Just in case some of the tariffs would have an impact on U.S. customers.” “So far they’ve had virtually none,” the president added. “But just in case they might have an impact on people, what we’ve done is we’ve delayed it, so that they won’t be relevant to the Christmas shopping season.”

The simmering trade war between the U.S. and China has led both sides to raise tariffs, but the lopsided trade relationship between the two countries means the impact will fall heaviest on Chinese producers and American consumers and farmers. The U.S. imported a record $539.5 billion in goods from China in 2018. The U.S. is a net importer from China in most market segments such as consumer electronics, apparel, furniture and industrial supplies. The one major exception: agriculture. By contrast, the U.S. shipped a much smaller $120.3 billion in goods to China last year, Census trade figures showed. Exports to...

The United States and China have traded since the early days of our republic, but only recently has the scale of that trade become a political issue. More than any other point, Donald TrumpÂ’s rhetoric against outsourcing to China gave him the blue-collar Midwestern votes that made up his margin of victory in 2016. His election was a break with the generation-long bipartisan consensus that more and freer trade is better, whether the trading partner is a liberal democracy that respects the rule of law or a communist dictatorship where unfree people labor in unsafe conditions for government-suppressed wages.Even...

Apple Opens a New Window. is reportedly considering moving up to 30 percent of their production from China GoPro The action camera company is moving the bulk of its production out of China to Mexico by mid-2019. It will still continue to manufacture its local products in the country. “Today’s geopolitical business environment requires agility,” GoPro CFO Brian McGee said in December. “We’re proactively addressing tariff concerns.” Hasbro The toymaker is shifting most of its production from China to Mexico, Vietnam and India due to Trump’s tariffs. Steve Madden The footwear and handbag maker, which ships the bulk of its...

There's an important point to remember in the current U.S.-China trade conflict: Beijing started it. For the past 20 years, China has been at war with the U.S. economy, using massive subsidies, currency manipulation and intellectual property theft to continually erode America's manufacturing base. It's a strategy that has worked phenomenally well. Over the past two decades, the United States has lost 5 million manufacturing jobs and nearly 90,000 factories. After years of this economic aggression, the Trump administration is now saying, "Enough is enough." But when the president recently imposed 25-percent tariffs on roughly half of Chinese imports, Wall...

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Saturday accused China of allowing the value of its currency to slide in a bid to offset the impact of Washington’s trade tariffs on the cost of its goods to American consumers. “It’s not coincidental in my mind that the currency has moved from approximately 6.30 [yuan to the US dollar] to 6.90,” the official said on the sidelines of the G20 finance leaders’ meeting in Japan. (Please see link for full article)

China warned Canada that it needs to be aware of the consequences of aiding the U.S. in an extradition case involving Chinese tech giant Huawei that is believed to have sparked the detentions of two Canadians in China. Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang’s comments came after U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for the release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. Both were arrested on Dec. 10 after Canada detained a Huawei executive wanted by the United States on fraud charges. […] “We hope that the Canadian side can have a clear understanding of...

Experts are warning America has become too dependent on China for its medicine -- everything from painkillers, to antibiotics, and even aspirin can all be sourced back to a country the Department of Defense considers an adversary. The Food and Drug Administration estimates that at least 80 percent of the active ingredients found in all of America's medicines come from abroad – primarily China. "Imagine if China turned off that spigot," said Rosemary Gibson, author of "China RX: The Risks of America's Dependence on China for Medicine." "China's aim is to become the global pharmacy to the world -- it...

China appealed to the United States to meet it halfway to salvage a deal that could end their trade war, with its chief negotiator in Washington for two days of talks hoping to stave off U.S. tariff hikes set to be triggered on Friday. The two sides had appeared to be converging on a deal until last weekend, when U.S. President Donald Trump announced his intention to raise tariffs with his negotiators saying that China was backtracking on earlier commitments. “The U.S. side has given many labels recently, ‘backtracking’, ‘betraying’ etc...China sets great store on trustworthiness and keeps its promises,...

In the escalating economic showdown between the United States and China, President Trump is trying to put American shoppers first. The administration did not place tariffs on necessities like shoes and clothes, and mostly spared smartphones from the 25 percent levy on Chinese goods announced this week. But by shielding consumers, Mr. Trump has put American manufacturers — a group he has championed — in the cross hairs of a potential global trade war. If the measures stand, along with China’s retaliatory tariffs, they could snuff out a manufacturing recovery just beginning to gain steam. “If you want to spare...