Free Republic

Canadian exports to the United States are beginning to decrease in light of the trade war. Statistics Canada announced that exports to the United States, Canada’s largest trading partner, declined 6.6% during the first month of tariffs while imports from the United States fell 2.9%. March 2025 was the second-highest recorded monthly increase in non-US trade for Canada. Exports to nations outside the US rose 24.8%. Overall exports in March 2025 reached $69.9 billion, a slight decrease from February’s $70.04 billion posting, yet volume rose by 1.8%. The United Kingdom has been purchasing unwrought (crude) gold exports from Canada this...

Ford Motor has hiked prices on three of its Mexico-produced models effective May 2, becoming one of the first major automakers to adjust sticker prices following U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs. Prices on the Mustang Mach-E electric SUV, Maverick pickup and Bronco Sport will increase by as much as $2,000 on some models, according to a notice sent to dealers, which was reviewed by Reuters. Ford earlier this week said Trump's trade war would add about $2.5 billion in costs for 2025, but it expects to reduce that exposure by around $1 billion. Rival General Motors said last week that...

BRUSSELS — The European Union published on Thursday a list of U.S. imports that it would target with retaliatory duties if no solution is found to end President Trump’s tariff war, which could include aircraft maker Boeing. At the same time, the EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, said that it would begin legal action at the World Trade Organization over the “reciprocal tariffs” that Trump imposed on countries around the world a month ago. “The EU remains fully committed to finding negotiated outcomes with the U.S.,” commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. “At the same time, we continue...

The second largest carmaker in the world will be relocating the manufacturing of its luxury brand to the United States after President Donald Trump has been encouraging car companies to do business in the US. Volkswagen Group, which is the second largest car manufacturer in the world, will be joining a number of other car manufacturers in moving production to the United States for the German automaker's luxury brand, Audi, per the Daily Mail. A spokesman for the company told the outlet, "We want to localize more strongly in the USA. To this end, we are currently examining various scenarios....

Speaking to reporters and the American people from the Oval Office Thursday morning, President Donald Trump detailed a new trade agreement between the United Kingdom and the United States just one month after Liberation Day. "I think it's a great deal for both parties," Trump said. "It opens up a tremendous market for for us." "I think it's going to be something very special for the UK and for the United States," he continued. 🚨President Trump announces the "historic" details of his trade deal with the U.K."The deal includes a plan that will bring the United Kingdom into the economic...

We have a big event happening tomorrow. Katie will get the official unveiling, but a major trade deal was struck between the United States and “a big, and highly respected, country.” Is it the United Kingdom? That’s been circling the rumor mill. We are in trade talks with our cousins across the pond, but they’re not the only ones. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will meet with Chinese officials in Switzerland over the weekend. Talks with India are ongoing, but their recent armed spat with Pakistan might put those on hold. Who knows, but trade deals are being hashed out, as...

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump · 2h Big News Conference tomorrow morning at 10:00 A.M., The Oval Office, concerning a MAJOR TRADE DEAL WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF A BIG, AND HIGHLY RESPECTED, COUNTRY. THE FIRST OF MANY!!!

VIDEOInverse Cramer Effect. It never fails as an accurate prediction of where the economy is going. Most recently this was proven when Jim Cramer preached ecomonic doom and gloom on Trump's tariffs including BLACK MONDAY. This prediction of economic woe was reinforced by liberals and the news media who piously proclaimed that China would NEVER negotiate on tariffs. Oooops! Better tell that to the official Chinese team coming to Switzerland to negotiate tariffs with Team Trump.And remember everybody... BEAR STEARNS!!!

Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) predicted Tuesday on MSNBC’s “All In” that President Donald Trump would “cave” on implementing tariffs in the next couple of weeks. When asked about tariffs, Schiff said, “I’m very concerned. I was at one of California’s ports just a week or so ago, and they were talking about the real declines in traffic they’re seeing into the port, which they can see across the horizon, because you can see when ships leave from overseas, when they’re going to arrive, you can see the falloff in cargo containers. I think they’re expecting within the next couple of...

WASHINGTON/BEIJING, May 7 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and chief trade negotiator Jamieson Greer will meet China's economic tsar He Lifeng in Switzerland this weekend for talks that could be the first step toward resolving a trade war disrupting the global economy. News of the planned Geneva meeting, first announced by Washington late Tuesday, sent U.S. equity index futures higher. Stock markets in China and Hong Kong followed suit during Asian trading on Wednesday. The talks come after weeks of escalating tensions that have seen duties on goods imports between the world's two largest economies soar well beyond...

President Donald Trump's tough stance on China is already producing results, and the evidence suggests that Chairman Xi Jinping will have no choice but to back down. China's economy, long propped up by unfair trade practices, is starting to crumble under the weight of Trump's strategic 145% tariffs on Chinese imports.Protests from furious factory workers in China demanding back pay are spreading across the country after President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports began impacting the communist nation’s economy.Unrest has been reported across the country as workers have taken to the streets protesting unpaid wages and challenging unfair dismissals following the...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer will meet with their Chinese counterparts in Switzerland this weekend to discuss economic and trade matters, their offices announced Tuesday.“We have shared interests,” Bessent said later on Fox News’ “Ingraham Angle.” The current tariff war “isn’t sustainable,” said Bessent, “especially on the Chinese side. And, you know, 145 percent [tariffs], 125 percent, is the equivalent of an embargo. We don’t want to decouple, what we want is fair trade.”Bessent and Greer will meet with their Chinese counterparts on both Saturday and Sunday, the Treasury secretary said.

When Americans were experiencing inflation and shortages during the Biden presidency, there was an internet meme going around that juxtaposed a paltry egg with the iconic 2019 image of a grinning Donald Trump, welcoming the national championship–winning Clemson Tigers to the White House, spreading his arms to display a massive bounty of burgers piled in front of him. The underlying message behind that joke became a central part of the 2024 campaign: Under Trump, Americans had plenty; under Biden-Harris, they had less. Yet bizarrely, the man who for decades has been a symbol of unapologetic American excess is now defending...

The average annual wage in America is $63,000 while the average annual wage in India is just $2,500—the average American earns 25x more than the average Indian. Labor is often the largest input cost for making products, accounting for approximately 30 - 35% of the cost of American manufacturing—and it’s an even higher proportion in many service industries. If America and India traded freely, India’s low wages would undercut America’s labor market—either Americans will need to accept lower wages domestically, or the factories will relocate to India to take advantage of dirt-cheap labor. How do we know this will happen?...

U.S. companies are starting to put hard-dollar figures to the damage President Donald Trump's tariffs will do to their bottom lines as trade policy evolves and the economy shows signs of weakening heading into the summer. Ford Motor (F) pulled its full-year profit guidance late Monday, after its solid first-quarter earnings were likely flattered as customers bought ahead of the expected tariffs. Ford said the administration's levies would likely add around $2.5 billion to its overall cost base The hit to earnings, Ford said, would likely be around $1.5 billion, as some of the parts and semiconductors it needs for...

said Monday on CNN’s “The Source” that President Donald Trump’s tariffs hurt consumers who want cheap goods. Pence said, “I do have concerns, that with the president’s call for broad based tariffs against friend and foe alike that ultimately the administration is advancing policies that are not targeted at countries that have been abusing our trade relationship, but rather are essentially new industrial policy that will result in inflation, that will harm consumers and ultimately harm the American economy.”

President Trump appeared to acknowledge Wednesday that toy shortages are possible as his tariff hikes ripple through the economy. The CEOs of Walmart, Target and Home Depot privately warned him last week about the likelihood of product shortages and price spikes. "Somebody said, 'oh, the shelves are gonna be open,'" Trump told reporters Wednesday. "Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more."

India was under pressure by both sides, the USA and China. Part of the Trump Indo-pacific plan was a geopolitical trade strategy aligning the United States with India. However, Beijing was pressuring India to reject alignment with the USA and form a mutually beneficial trade block with China.India has rejected the Chinese plan and chosen to follow the USA model because access to the U.S. consumer base is the stronger economic influence.The result? Once again, sad Panda.INDIA – India has sided with the United States (US) President Donald Trump on the trade war with Xi Jinping of China. Reports indicate...

Beijing is considering ways to address the Trump administration's concerns about China's role in the fentanyl trade, potentially providing an off-ramp from hostilities to allow trade talks to start, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The paper cited unnamed people familiar with the matter as saying that Chinese Minister for Public Security Wang Xiaohong had been inquiring in recent days about what the Trump team wants China to do when it comes to the chemical ingredients used to make the potent drug fentanyl. The report said part of Beijing’s thinking involved dispatching Wang to the U.S. to meet with...

As President Trump brings manufacturing back to the US — and closes in on trade deals with India, Japan, and South Korea — China’s days as “the world’s factory floor” are numbered. And Beijing is furious. In a move harking back to the Cultural Revolution, Chinese schoolchildren are again being taught to hate the US. Class time is devoted to shouting anti-American slogans like “China must win the China-US trade war!” ... But it turns out that — in secret — Beijing has been quietly retreating as fast as it can. Trump divulged in a Time magazine interview on April...