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The Commerce Department says the deficit in goods and services — the difference between what America sells and what it buys from other countries — rose to $50.1 billion in July from $45.7 billion in June. Exports slipped 1 percent to $211.1 billion. Imports increased 0.9 percent to a record $261.2 billion.

U.S. stock markets surged Monday after President Trump announced the United States and Mexico have reached a preliminary trade agreement, which is part of the Trump administration’s effort to rewrite the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Does this mean the new deal is a “huge” improvement over NAFTA? Not exactly.President Trump has called NAFTA the “worst” trade deal in history, but an analysis of key provisions finds limited improvements, some compromises, and quite a few flaws in this new agreement.The biggest improvement is with respect to digital trade, something missing from the NAFTA agreement established in 1990, when...

No Deal! Trade Talks with Canada Conclude for the Week with No Agreement | Breitbart http://bit.ly/2LJgJn2 via @BreitbartNews 6:51 PM - 1 Sep 2018 MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! 6:53 PM - 1 Sep 2018 We shouldn’t have to buy our friends with bad Trade Deals and Free Military Protection! 6:55 PM - 1 Sep 2018

EU Trade Commissioner Gives Ground: We’re Willing To Drop Auto Tariffs To Zero (If The US Will Do The Same)(Full Title) President Trump’s hard line on tariffs has won a significant concession from the European Union, at least the promise of one. Trump has been warning all summer that he could add a tariff on automobile imports which would have a significant impact on automakers in Europe (as well as Japan and Mexico). Today the European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said the EU was willing to drop all of its existing tariffs on cars and other goods to zero...

On June 20, 2018 (83 FR 28710), the U.S. Trade Representative (Trade Representative) provided notice of an initial action in the Section 301 investigation of the acts, policies, and practices of the Government of China related to technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation. The initial action was the imposition of an additional 25 percent ad valorem duty on products of China with an annual trade value of approximately $34 billion, effective July 6, 2018. The proposed modification is to maintain the original $34 billion action and the proposed $16 billion action, and to take further action in the form of...

Investors cheered Monday’s announcement of a trade deal with Mexico, and appropriately so. A final agreement is not yet in hand, but if maintained, it could alleviate a portion of the significant trade-related uncertainty investors have been dealing with for more than a year. The agreement would offer a few notable adjustments to the original 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which primarily dealt with the trade in goods. The world has changed dramatically since 1994, however, and the value-add of manufacturing skills has been diluted by a proliferation of production capabilities around the world. A nation’s economic worth,...

WASHINGTON—High-stakes trade negotiations between Canada and the U.S. were dramatically upended on Friday morning by inflammatory secret remarks from President Donald Trump, after the remarks were obtained by the Toronto Star. In remarks Trump wanted to be “off the record,” Trump told Bloomberg News reporters on Thursday, according to a source, that he is not making any compromises at all in the talks with Canada — but that he cannot say this publicly because “it’s going to be so insulting they’re not going to be able to make a deal.” In a remark he did not want published, U.S. President...

President Donald Trump wants to move ahead with a plan to impose tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports as soon as a public-comment period concludes next week, according to six people familiar with the matter. Companies and members of the public have until Sept. 6 to submit comments on the proposed duties, which cover everything from selfie sticks to semiconductors. The president plans to impose the tariffs once that deadline passes, according to the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions aren’t public. U.S. stocks fell on the news.

... Turning to labor standards, I find nothing in the TPP that comes close to the 75 percent regional auto content, including parts, up from about 62.5 percent under NAFTA. TPP’s auto content rules were set at 45 percent, meaning most of the value of a vehicle could be sourced from China and still have obtained TPP treatment. An even greater standards improvement is the requirement in the U.S.-Mexico deal for $16 an hour pay for 45 percent of auto-production content and 40 percent of auto parts content; that’s about four times what Mexican auto parts workers currently make and...

OTTAWA — Shortly after his election in late 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared “Canada is back,” promising a renewed Canadian presence on the world stage. Trudeau has taken political hits since then for minor lapses, such as a luxury family holiday visit to a Caribbean island and an ill-fated trip to India, but his biggest challenge, just a year before Canadians go to the polls, has come from the leader of Canada’s longtime military ally and economic partner. Now, Canadians worried that their government has been sidelined in crucial trade talks and may be forced to back down on...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Canada’s top trade negotiator joins her Mexican and U.S. counterparts in Washington on Tuesday in a bid to remain part of a trilateral North American trade pact, as U.S. officials expressed optimism a deal could be reached this week. Ottawa is under pressure to accept new terms on auto trade and dispute settlement rules after the United States and Mexico agreed on Monday to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland rejoins the year-long talks following a hiatus of several weeks as the United States and Mexico ironed out outstanding bilateral...

Pennsylvania, a state that helped put President Donald Trump in the White House, isn’t too keen on the president’s tariff push, a new NBC News/Marist poll finds, as a near majority fears that the ongoing trade war will ultimately damage the U.S. economy. Forty-five percent of Pennsylvania adults believe that tariffs and other import barriers will raise costs of consumer goods and hurt the country’s economy. By comparison, 27 percent believe they will protect American jobs and help the economy. The administration’s trade policy is unpopular across virtually all demographic groups in the NBC/Marist poll — the only groups where...

President Donald Trump says the United States is close to a “big Trade Agreement” with Mexico and he’s citing improving ties between the two countries. […] He’s spoken of better relations with America’s neighbor following the rise of Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The U.S. and Mexico have been discussing a trade deal as part of negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement. The Trump administration is seeking a revised version of that trade deal with Mexico and Canada. …

As the Trump administration tightens sanctions against Iran and Russia, and as the imposition of tariffs against China as a means of negotiating a more favorable trade arrangement continue, all three nations are moving away from the U.S. dollar primarily when it comes to oil sales, as a way of circumventing the punitive measures. “There is a common understanding that we need to move towards the use of national currencies in our settlements. There is a need for this, as well as the wish of the parties,” Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak said earlier this month when discussing the move....

Watch it live at 7 p.m. EST right here on ClickOnDetroit. Trump returning to campaign in West Virginia President Donald Trump is making his sixth visit to West Virginia since taking office. Trump’s campaign says the president will hold a rally Tuesday in Charleston at the Charleston Civic Center. He’s expected to encourage voters to turn out for Republican candidates in the midterm elections, including West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. Morrisey is running against incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin. Trump’s campaign said he will speak on topics such as the economy, national security, trade and Supreme Court nominee...

The great engine of American capitalism is once again firing on all cylinders, as shown by the 4.1 percent annualized growth of America’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter of this year. Most Americans (with the exception of Democrats in Congress) are celebrating the good economic news. There is quiet rejoicing in many European and Asian capitals as well, since their mostly sluggish economies will now be drawn along in America’s powerful wake. But there is one capital where the American economic renaissance is definitely not welcome news. Consternation reigns in China, where President Xi Jinping is nervously...

Minxin Pei With the imposition of 25% tariffs on $68 billion worth of their merchandise trade ($34 billion of exports each), the U.S. and China have fired the first salvos of their trade war. If one were to borrow a military analogy, the first round of the U.S.-China trade war is either a skirmish or a probing attack, as the amount of the two-way merchandise trade affected by the tariffs is about only 10% of the total U.S.-China trade. But everyone knows that the main battle will be joined soon. Besides the additional $32 billion merchandise trade targeted for punitive...

This morning, the Labor Department announced that the national unemployment rate ticked up to 4 percent in June for good reasons, as hundreds of thousands more Americans sought work. For the first time in recorded history, the number of job openings is higher than the number of people looking for a job. That has raised hopes that wage growth might finally begin to pick up, with employers bidding more to attract new workers and offering raises to retain their existing staff. Full employment — that magical economic state, in which everyone who wants work has it, and at a good...

President Trump sold himself to the American public as the master of the art of the deal, and, well, gulp, we see it. Seems the squeeze is on for Canada's lefty prime minister, Justin Trudeau, the guy who tried to pull a fast one on Trump in Quebec ahead of his Singapore summit with North Korea's Kim Jong-un earlier this summer. The Mexico upgrade deal on NAFTA, which is about to be announced, according to a top story on Drudge, gets Mexico squared away and leaves Canada's P.M. to face Trump alone. Trump, being a dealmaker, seems to have gotten...

The Trump administration is close to striking a deal with Mexico on a revamped North American Free Trade Agreement, analysts said, but thorny issues are yet to be resolved with Canada, the third party in the trilateral pact. Reaching an agreement with Mexico would mark a breakthrough for the administration after a year of roller-coaster talks and tension with its longtime North American trading partners. President Trump has frequently threatened to withdraw from NAFTA, linked the renegotiations to his call for a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border and slapped tariffs on Mexican and Canadian steel to apply pressure to make...