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President Donald Trump on Thursday authorized the modification of tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum for six countries and the European Union. […] “The tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the following countries are suspended until May 1, 2018, pending discussions of satisfactory long-term alternative means to address the threatened impairment to U.S. national security: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, the member countries of the European Union, and South Korea,” the White House announced. Trump will decide by May 1 whether to continue to exempt those countries from tariffs. …

Global stocks rebounded Monday, pulling European markets higher and lifting U.S. equity futures into the green, following news that White House trade officials agreed to exempt South Korea from steel tariffs and were ready to open dialogue with China in an effort to avert a global trade war that has threatened economic growth and hammered financial markets around the world.

Washington D.C. [USA], Mar 24 (ANI): The United States on Friday officially filed a trade complaint at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against China over its alleged discriminatory technology licensing practices. (please see full article at link)

Tracking the economic value of IP theft is difficult, but a few recent estimates should give us pause. According to estimates from William Evanina, the director of the Counterintelligence and Security Center during the Obama Administration, cyber-espionage alone cost the U.S. economy $400 billion in 2015. This estimate was extrapolated from reports from 140 American companies with interests in China. As costly as this is, the real concern is the origin of said cyber-threats. Evanina claims that China’s government itself was behind 90 percent of all cyberattacks—not rogue companies or basement-dwelling lone-wolf hackers. This is troubling: at best we should...

Texas manufacturers who produce steel oil and gas pipelines and drill pipe are expected to see a relatively modest impact from China's announcement it was slapping a 15 percent tariff on steel pipe from the United States. Last year the United States exported 832,000 metric tons of steel pipe, according to the U.S. International Trade Administration. More than 80 percent of that pipe went to Canada and Mexico, with China coming in a distant third. "Bottom line, if the retaliation is on pipelines, Houston will not see much impact. However, if the trade war escalates to broader energy related machinery...

U.S. agriculture is bracing itself potentially costly tit-for-tat trade retaliation between the Washington and Beijing that could hit everything from American pork to wine. "The producers of the commodities that are being targeted will probably feel the effects of it," said Larry Karp, an agricultural economist at the University of California at Berkeley. "And there's no reason to think that the Chinese will stop at this." On Friday, China's Ministry of Commerce said $3 billion in U.S. goods could face new tariffs following the Trump administration's imposition of duties on imported steel and aluminum. Among the goods listed for retaliatory...

Trump's global trade war with China is one that aims to achieve something no other president has attempted: the protection of American technology against pirating by China The world’s second-largest economy has responded to President Donald Trump’s controversial trade tariffs, according to this morning’s blaring news headlines. “China’s commerce ministry proposed a list of 128 U.S. products as potential retaliation targets, according to a statement on its website posted Friday morning.” (CNBC, March 22, 2018) Notice the words used to describe China: “The world’s second-largest economy”.

Shares of banks and technology firms dragged markets sharply lower Friday, punctuating the worst week for major U.S. stock indexes in more than two years. Friday’s selling highlighted investors’ increasing anxiety over a range of concerns, including the White House’s increasingly protectionist trade agenda, rising interest rates and collapsing bets on technology giants that had powered much of the stock market’s rally until recently. The Dow industrials lost more than 1,100 points in the week’s final two sessions. Financial stocks in the S&P 500 dropped 3% Friday, with Bank of America and Morgan Stanley falling nearly 5% apiece. Tech stocks...

We’re Off To A Good Start In The “Trade War” Yesterday, the Trump administration slapped $60 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports. The tariffs are intended to protect American innovation and competitiveness in the global market. In response, China put retaliatory tariffs to the tune of $3 billion on US imports early Friday morning. Trump also indicated that this will be the first of many economic actions the White House will take to combat China’s unfair trading practices. Watch below: As this editorial has argued since it’s inception, tariffs are a good thing and are in fact necessary to bring...

Why did China and other countries act contrary to the theory of Friedman? Because Friedman's arguments, unfortunately, are correct only when all other variables in economic equations remain unchanged. Trump had changed the overall conditions of the economic game. On the one hand, Trump raises taxes for companies outside America (tariffs), and on the other hand, he reduces domestic taxes for companies in America. Let me remind you that thanks to Trump, now corporate income tax in America has been reduced from 35% to 21%. Also, the lion's share of bureaucratic barriers to business development, set by Obama, are canceled...

The new tariffs announced by President Donald Trump have generated intense controversy. With the debate ongoing, it might be useful to examine how other countries have dealt with similar policy debates in the past. New Zealand now ranks third in The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom and is one of the champions of economic freedom around the world. But it wasn’t always so. In the mid-1980s, New Zealand was facing an economic crisis, with its domestic market and international trade both heavily regulated. Unemployment had reached 11 percent, and inflation was a sky-high 15 percent. In response, the government...

MINAS TIRITH, GONDOR—Kicking off a major trade war between the two kingdoms, the Middle-Earth Trade Federation has announced heavy tariffs on the import of Narnian steel, sending the stock market into a freefall Thursday.Any steel imported from Narnia to Gondor, Rohan, Erebor, or Mirkwood will be subject to a 30% tax. The move is expected to raise the end consumer price of various imported goods significantly, according to expert economists working at Rivendell.“Trade wars are great, and they’re really easy to win,” the king of Gondor said in a dispatch via carrier pigeon. “If we keep allowing cheap Narnian steel...

Trade war fears that have roiled the markets for two weeks intensified Thursday, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling more than 700 points and adding to concerns that stocks could be headed for a larger reckoning. Thursday’s selling, which sent shares of manufacturers, aluminum producers and steelmakers sharply lower, marked the culmination of months of growing investor anxiety over the course of U.S. trade policy. It came at a time when many say the market was already under pressure, gripped by fears over rising interest rates and sliding technology shares. Trade tensions ratcheted higher, as the Trump administration said...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will announce tariffs on Chinese imports on Thursday, a White House official said, in a move aimed at curbing theft of U.S. technology that is likely to trigger retaliation from Beijing and stoke fears of a global trade war. There was no indication of the size and the scope of tariffs, which U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said on Wednesday would target China’s high technology sector and which could also include restrictions on Chinese investments in the United States. Other sectors like apparel could also be hit. “Tomorrow the president will announce the actions...

China will open up its economy further, and its door to the outside will only get wider, with foreign and domestic firms allowed to compete on an equal footing, Premier Li Keqiang said at the close the country's annual parliament session on Tuesday. The familiar-sounding pledges from Beijing came as the prospect of a global trade war loomed in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump imposition of hefty import tariffs on steel and aluminum earlier this month. (please see link, for full article)

Premier Li Keqiang said Tuesday that China doesn’t want to see a “trade war” with the United States and hopes to reach a negotiated settlement of disputes. Speaking at a nationally televised news conference, Li said rash action would hurt all sides. He made no mention of a possible Chinese response to any increase in U.S. import controls. Beijing faces mounting pressure from the government of U.S. President Donald Trump over complaints it hampers access to its markets, pressures foreign companies to hand over technology and is flooding foreign markets with unfairly low-priced steel and other goods. That has prompted...

Shapiro claims that I favor “total state control of the economy” because I think it is possible to “simply pick the best industries and subsidize them.” Apparently, tariffs are Communism, and I am Stalin. . . Shapiro has it entirely backward: tariffs are the form of taxation most consistent with small government. . . tariffs are antithetical to big government because they preclude socialism. How? Tariffs make imports expensive. This encourages domestic production and discourages offshoring—thereby boosting demand for American labor. Basically, tariffs create stable jobs and increase wages for American workers... The key to solving this puzzle is recognizing...

President Trump’s practice of staking out extreme positions on trade as a negotiating tactic is a sign of his brilliance. Or so we’re told. But that theory took on water last week, when Mr. Trump had to backtrack on a promise to hit Mexico and Canada with a 25% tariff on steel and a 10% tariff on aluminum, without any concessions from either Mexico City or Ottawa. To understand the change of heart, take the list of products slated for a new Trump tariff on steel and total the value of those same products exported by U.S. producers. You will...

WASHINGTON—Forty-five trade associations, representing a wide swath of the U.S. economy, are petitioning the Trump administration to halt plans to levy tariffs on China and to work instead with other nations to press Beijing to end restrictions on foreign firms. Imposing heavy tariffs, said a letter by the trade groups, “would trigger a chain reaction of negative consequences for the U.S. economy, provoking retaliation; stifling U.S. agriculture, goods, and services exports; and raising costs for businesses and consumers.” The White House is putting together a package of measures, including tariffs on at least an annual $30 billion of Chinese imports,...

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum has prompted a stampede by foreign countries and companies and their American partners pressing for exemptions and exclusions that could be worth billions of dollars in trade. Corporations and foreign leaders are leaning on personal relationships in vying for meetings with White House officials, hiring lawyers and lobbyists to defend them, and drafting messages to persuade the public of the importance of free trade. On Thursday afternoon, top oil and gas executives left an American Petroleum Institute board meeting at the Trump International Hotel in Washington and...