Free Republic

<p>President Donald J. Trump didn't wait long to act on one of his signature campaign promises, announcing just moments after being sworn in as the country's 45th president that the U.S. intends to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and that he will renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement "to give American workers a fair deal."</p>

The globalist modus operandi of handing over to the president immense powers to act unilaterally without Congress may now come back to bite them. During the recent presidential campaign, President-elect Donald Trump often railed against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), charging that it was hollowing out American industry, costing hundreds of thousands of Americans good-paying jobs, and promising to do something about it were he to be elected.Turns out, the provisions of NAFTA may very well allow President Trump to act on his own to change tariff rates, force negotiations to modify the pact, or even withdraw the...

PHILADELPHIA — President Trump plans to make Mexico pay for his border wall by imposing a 20 percent tax on all imports into the United States from Mexico, raising billions of dollars that would cover the cost of the new barrier. The proposal, which Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said the president discussed privately with congressional Republicans before giving remarks at a party retreat here, would be a major new economic proposal that could have far-reaching implications for consumers, manufacturers and relations between the two governments. Mr. Spicer said the 20 percent tax on annual Mexican imports would...

Good Evening/Night, WELCOME MARK LEVIN!

Multinational software giant SAP SE has called on the incoming Trump administration to rethink any punitive tariffs and tax policies as it sets out to create 10,000 new jobs in the U.S. over the next year. The firm, which currently serves 25 industries across 190 countries, aims to significantly boost its business in the U.S. over the coming 13 months, chief executive Bill McDermott told CNBC's Squawk Box at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. However, he said that he was worried that added taxes and tariffs could be "problematic" for these goals. "We obviously don't want to get...

A couple of years ago, free trade was seen as a key principle of the Republican Party. Then Donald Trump became the Republican nominee for president, and things got more complicated.

After Trump's Thursday morning twitter taunt targeted Toyota, when the President-elect warned Japan’s biggest carmaker that it will face heavy penalties if it chooses to make cars for the US market in Mexico, writing  "Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax", a tweet which sent shares of Japanese carmakers sliding on Friday with a 1.7% fall for Toyota, 2.2% for Nissan and 3.2% for Mazda, an angry Japanese government and corporate establishment pushed back against Trump’s criticism of...

In the latest not too subtle threat lobbed by China's official press aimed at Donald Trump, the mainland media warned the President-elect that he’ll be met with "big sticks" if he tries to ignite a trade war or further strain ties."There are flowers around the gate of China’s Ministry of Commerce, but there are also big sticks hidden inside the door -- they both await Americans," the Communist Party’s Global Times newspaper wrote in an editorial Thursday in response to Trump’s plans to nominate lawyer Robert Lighthizer, who has criticized Beijing’s trade practices, as U.S. trade representative.The latest lashing...

Who’s “we,” kemosabe? Twenty-four hours ago, over Ryan’s own objection, House Republicans were all set to revamp the Office of Congressional Ethics. Then Trump logged into Twitter and, three hours later, the plan was scrapped. Members of Ryan’s caucus were eager to reassure the media yesterday that it wasn’t Trump’s influence that made them reconsider, it was the barrage of angry phone calls their offices were getting from grassroots Republicans, but that seems to be a partial explanation at best: OVERHEARD in the Speaker's lobby: "The guy puts out a tweet and half our conference goes nuts. What are...

Among the first steps being floated by the incoming Trump administration is a 5 to 10 percent tariff on imports, implemented through an executive order. It’s the sort of shoot-first, ask-questions-later action that President-elect Donald J. Trump promised during the campaign. It’s also unconstitutional. That’s because the path to imposing tariffs — along with taxes and other revenue-generating measures — clearly begins with Congress, and in particular the House, through the Origination Clause. When presidents have raised (or lowered) tariffs in the past, they have tended to do so using explicit, if sometimes wide-ranging, authority from Congress. The founders thought...

Lots more nukes? 10 percent tariffs? Remember how the guy operates before you wet yourself Public statements affect different people in different ways. Since the news media think the world revolves around them - since how they react to something is obviously more important than anything else under the sun - they get quite exorcised whenever someone makes a public statement that strikes them as ill-considered. Donald Trump does that a lot. He talks (or more often, tweets) about halting immigration by Muslims. And about imposing tarrifs on foreign goods. This past week, if you listen to the media, Trump...

In the tweet heard round the world, Donald Trump threatened to slap a 35% tariff on companies that shift jobs overseas, then ship their goods back to the U.S. Since his election, the focus has been on the carrots Trump will offer to grow and protect America's manufacturing base: corporate tax cuts and possibly a side order of state tax incentives. That's the menu that will keep open a Carrier plant in Indiana... But now Trump is signaling a more combative approach... ...There will be a tax on our soon to be strong border of 35% for these companies," Trump...

WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders signaled on Monday that they would not support President-elect Donald J. Trump’s threat to impose a heavy tax on companies that move jobs overseas, the first significant confrontation over the conservative economic orthodoxy that Mr. Trump relishes trampling. “I don’t want to get into some kind of trade war,” Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and majority leader, told reporters in response to Mr. Trump’s threats over the weekend to seek a 35 percent import tariff on goods sold by United States companies that move jobs overseas and displace American workers. Speaker Paul D. Ryan...

WASHINGTON; If President-elect Donald Trump thinks he’s going to impose a 35 percent tariff on companies importing goods, he might want to check with Republicans in Congress. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) suggested Monday that Republicans would not be in favor of imposing the 35 percent tariff on foreign goods that Trump proposed Sunday in a series of tweets.  Trump may not understand how tariffs really work; it would be very difficult for the United States to impose them on specific companies that move jobs to a foreign country; or that Congress, not the president, sets them. But he...

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Monday refused to back President-elect Donald Trump’s push for a 35-percent tariff on companies that move operations abroad and then sell their goods back in the United States, saying corporate tax reform is the key to retaining American jobs. “I think that’s a better way to solve the problem than getting in a trade war over a 35-percent tariff,” the California Republican told reporters.

Trump warned companies of “retribution or consequences” for leaving the U.S. Donald Trump warned U.S. companies of “retribution or consequences,” such as a massive tariff, if they leave the country. In a series of early morning tweets Sunday, Trump said companies with offshore factories would face a 35% tax on products they want to sell back in the U.S. “The U.S. is going to substantialy [sic] reduce taxes and regulations on businesses, but any business that leaves our country for another country, fires its employees, builds a new factory or plant in the other country, and then thinks it will...

Famed basketball coach Bobby Knight might be the one to call corporate executives and warn them of potential punitive tariffs if they move jobs overseas in a Trump administration, Donald Trump suggested Monday evening. "I'll have Bobby Knight make the call," Trump said in a campaign stop in Warren, Mich., alongside the former Indiana college hoops coach. "I think he could make the call better than anybody," the Republican nominee said.

...Trump called the trade agreement between Canada, Mexico and the United States “the single worst trade deal ever approved in this country” during the first presidential debate against Hillary Clinton. Earlier this year, Bernie Sanders leveled a similar criticism, calling it disastrous when debating the former secretary of date... ...But whether NAFTA has been good or bad for the U.S. economy depends largely on who you ask... ...NAFTA “means jobs. American jobs, and good-paying American jobs. If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't support this agreement,” then-President Clinton said in 1993. Fast forward more than two decades later and NAFTA...

Americans these days are not in a charitable mood when it comes to trade, it seems. The August IBD/TIPP Poll shows that Americans overwhelmingly favor placing restrictions on imports ... Generally speaking, do you think the U.S. trade policy should have restrictions on imported goods to protect American jobs or have no restrictions on imported goods to enable American consumers to have more choices and the lowest prices?