Free Republic

... Only months ago Mr. Trump signed a new trade pact with Mexico and Canada to replace Nafta. The deal reassured financial markets. But now he whacks Mexico with unilateral tariffs that violate Nafta and World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. Other national leaders can be forgiven for concluding that any trade deal with Mr. Trump is subject to revision on his personal political whim. The tariffs could also complicate passage of the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada deal in Congress. Mr. Trump is invoking a 1977 statute—the International Emergency Economic Powers Act—to impose the tariffs after declaring an emergency. The Congressional Research Service...

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador dispatched his foreign relations secretary to Washington on Friday, as the country scrambles to negotiate a solution with the United States following President Trump’s surprise move this week to slap tariffs on Mexico in the hopes it would remedy the illegal immigration surge at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Stocks and bond yields around the world fell Friday after President Trump threatened to impose escalating tariffs on Mexico, capping a brutal month for markets as rising trade tensions roiled investor confidence. The threat pushed stock markets down as investors feared applying tariffs on Mexican products could hurt corporate earnings, increase prices for U.S. consumers and crimp economic growth. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 300 points, while the Nasdaq Composite Index and S&P 500 both fell more than 1%. As investors sold stocks, they moved to government bonds, gold and the Japanese yen, all assets typically perceived...

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...

It hasn’t been China that has been the source of sudden escalation; nor Iran; nor North Korea; nor Turkey, who admittedly gave it a good go in announcing they may install Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missiles in the area of the Mediterranean they are looking for energy in despite protests from the EU’s Cyprus it’s their naval territory; nor even Italy, where Deputy PM Salvini is threatening new elections that would very likely strengthen his hand further has he prepares for battle with Brussels. No, it was Mexico. (Or rather US President Trump, which is less of a surprise.) Don’t get...

The surprise announcement by President Donald Trump of an escalating tariff regime against Mexico sent ripples through almost every economic sector in the U.S., hammering American companies that sell automobiles or run railroads, grow vegetables or build power infrastructure. Trump tweeted late Thursday that he is slapping a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports, effective June 10, and will raise those tariffs to 25%, “until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied.” Whether it’s avocados on a taco or a new Chevrolet Blazer SUV in the driveway, if the tariffs go into effect, Americans could feel it. The companies that produce...

<p>WASHINGTON – The president of Mexico says he wants to avoid a confrontation with the United States, but had harsh words about President Donald Trump's plan to impose tariffs on Mexican goods to pressure the nation to stem the flow of Central American migrants.</p>

I keep reading where the Chinese are flaying us in trade. Balance of trade deficits keep going up, and the Chicken Littles scream that the sky is falling. Seems to me balance-of-trade worries are misplaced. Supposedly, we got equal value for what we spent; it's just easier to quantify the dollars we put up than the goods they put up. Example: Who got more out of the deal when you bought your car? All you got was a car, but the dealer got, say, $40K. Is your balance of trade with the dealer out of whack? Not at all. He...

“We are now entering into a period of great power rivalry. The outcome is unclear, but it is critical that we stabilize the system.” That was the warning on Thursday from Singapore’s Heng Swee Keat, the man set to be the city-state’s next prime minister. China’s rapid ascent over the past decade, he said, has caused a clear shift in global politics, and those changes need to be addressed. The Singaporean deputy prime minister’s sentiment was echoed by other political figures and experts gathered in Tokyo for a conference on the future of the region. At the event, which was...

Just hours after President Trump announced he will be imposing 5% tariffs on Mexican imports over illegal immigration, Mexico’s president Lopez Obrador sent Trump a letter begging for a meeting to work toward a solution. “Mexico’s President Lopez Obrador asks Trump to have U.S. officials meet with the Mexican foreign minister in Washington on Friday to seek a solution that benefits both nations,” Reuters reported.

President Trump announced Thursday he’s slapping tariffs on all goods imported from Mexico as punishment for what he darkly described as the country’s failure to combat “chaos” on the U.S. southern border. In a Twitter statement, Trump announced a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports will start June 10. […] The potentially economically crippling tariffs — which will be paid by American consumers of Mexican goods — are allowed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Trump said. In his statement, Trump painted the unprecedented number of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border with a broad and fear-mongering brush.“Gang members,...

The next time President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet will likely be at the G-20 summit in Japan next month. The leaders of the world’s two largest economies will no doubt aim to resolve their long-simmering trade dispute that has the U.S. and China going tit-for-tat on tariffs. If they fail to reach an agreement, there’s a good chance Trump will follow through on his threat to place additional 25% tariffs on $300 billion worth of Chinese goods. A new report by Citi estimates the impact of additional tariffs on virtually all Chinese imports would be far...

As things stand, America is likely to lose the tech war with China. The stock market should be sending a message to President Trump. U.S. semiconductor stocks are down 20% in the past month, and the broad market has been in freefall for a week. This is a war we can win, by mobilizing American ingenuity to produce technology that will crush the competition. No-one ever won a war by trying to stop someone else from doing something. I'm an Always Trumper, and I want the president to win another term. But he's risking the U.S. economy and his re-election...

Economist Gary Shilling predicts that not only will President Donald Trump win the seemingly endless trade war with China, but in the long run the U.S. will be better off. “People say nobody wins trade wars. Yeah, in the short-run you don’t, but in the long-run…the U.S. will be better off,” Shilling recently told Business Insider. “When you’ve got plenty of supply in the world, and I think you do. It’s the buyer that has the upper hand not the seller. The buyer has the ultimate power and who’s the buyer? U.S. is the buyer, China is the seller,” he...

China is whipping up patriotic furor domestically by allowing the posting of a propaganda video to an internet platform that it controls, castigating the United States’ escalation of tariffs in the economic confrontation underway. The video openly states that military conflict may become necessary --“China must be prepared to fight a protracted war” -- and uses rhetoric invoking violence: YouTube screen grab But keep in mind that there is an element of deniability built-in for the government and communist party, which are not officially the creator or publisher. Bill Gertz of the Free Beacon explains: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR...

American voters were concerned about an economic downturn in a Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service poll that found 58 percent of voters approve of the president’s performance when it comes to the economy. Registered and likely 2020 voters from both sides of the Republican-Democrat aisle were surveyed in the “Battleground Poll” from March 31-April 4 that reached 1,000, according to NBC News. Of those, 59 percent expressed concern about the possibility of an economic decline. However, 58 percent approve of the job President Donald Trump is doing when it comes to the economy. The report noted that the...

It's been well over a couple of years since Apple officially announced the availability of iPhone SE in 2016 and since then the main iPhone line was upgraded on a regular basis but not the SE. But now we know why! Our source which is closely associated with Foxconn's manufacturing facility in India has confirmed the iPhone SE 2 is actually iPhone XE. According to the source, iPhone XE will feature an iPhone X or XS style edge-to-edge 4.8" AMOLED display, but sadly with the notch. The iPhone XE will be having Face ID and no Touch ID is reportedly...

The biggest Chinese newspaper explicitly warned the U.S. on Wednesday that China would cut off rare earth minerals as a countermeasure in the escalated trade battle, using an expression the publication has only used twice in history, both of which involved full-on wars. “We advise the U.S. side not to underestimate the Chinese side’s ability to safeguard its development rights and interests. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!” the People’s Daily said in a commentary titled “United States, don’t underestimate China’s ability to strike back.” The publication is the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China. The phrase “Don’t...

From the volume of bellicose rhetoric in China’s state media, you might think Beijing is digging in for a bloody fight to the finish in its trade conflict with the United States. But after the US administration this month jacked up import tariffs on US$200 billion of Chinese goods to 25 per cent, and threatened equal tariffs on another US$340 billion, the Chinese government faces a problem. The policy responses it is considering are all either impossible, impractical, ineffective or expensive. This leaves Beijing in an unenviable position. The usual trade-war response to the imposition of tariffs is to impose...

Allan Lichtman doesn't mind swimming against the political tide. Lichtman, a professor at American University in Washington, DC, was the most prominent voice predicting Donald Trump's victory in the run-up to the 2016 election. When Trump won, it marked the 9th(!) straight presidential election where Lichtman had correctly predicted the Electoral College winner. (That's all the way back to 1984, for you math wizards.) In short: Lichtman is someone the political world should listen to. So I reached out to him on Tuesday to see what he thought of Trump's current chances at a second term next November. Here's what...