Free Republic

President Trump sure knows how to spoil an economic mood. Three days after he signed the GOP’s big budget bill, saving the economy from a scheduled $4.5 trillion tax increase, Mr. Trump was back playing the role of Tariff Man. On Monday he announced 25% tariffs on Japan and South Korea, while adding to renewed will-he-or-won’t-he uncertainty for the U.S. economy and trading partners. In letters to Japan’s Prime Minister and South Korea’s President, Mr. Trump huffs and puffs again about bilateral trade deficits, which he mistakenly thinks are a sign of foreign exploitation. “We must move away from these...

The Trump Administration has extended the global trade negotiation deadline to August 1, 2025. So far, less than a handful of countries have been able to work out interim deals, including the United Kingdom, Vietnam, and (ironically) China. A few others, like India, have offered zero-for-zero tariffs with the United States—free trade, at least on paper. President Trump’s team has so far avoided making any “free trade” deals. They are right to be skeptical. Why? Real global free trade—much like real communism—has never been tried! And this is not for lack of trying. It’s because it is impossible. In reality,...

A new CESifo working paper, blandly titled “Making America Great Again? The Economic Impacts of Liberation Day Tariffs,” lands with all the drama of a footnote—until you read what it actually says. If the U.S. can impose tariffs without sparking retaliation, it can come out ahead. Higher wages. Smaller trade deficit. Slightly lower taxes. A net gain in welfare. That’s not a MAGA slogan. That’s a math-based result. The study, authored by economists from UC Davis, the Norwegian School of Economics, Indiana University, and the University of Milan, builds a global trade model to simulate Trump’s April 2 tariff policy—what...

While Canada may not be affected by Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariff deadline for July 9, the two countries still have to work out the details of their own agreement by July 21.

Financial markets are on edge, but White House officials say they anticipate “a lot of deals very quickly.”President Donald Trump on Monday threatened 25 percent tariffs on imports from Japan and South Korea, the first of what he said would be a series of higher duties unveiled by the White House as it continues negotiating trade deals with dozens of countries. In a pair of letters posted on Truth Social, his social media site, Trump said the United States “has agreed to continue working with” each country despite large trade deficits. “Our relationship has been, unfortunately, far from Reciprocal,” he...

President Trump said nations that support the group’s “Anti-American policies” would face an additional 10 percent tariff. He did not elaborate.President Trump threatened late Sunday to impose an additional tariff on countries that align themselves with the policies of BRICS nations, after the group expressed “serious concerns” over countries imposing unilateral tariffs.“Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy,” Mr. Trump said in a Truth Social post. He did not elaborate, nor did he say what BRICS policies he was referring to.The BRICS...

President Trump’s threat to put new tariffs on countries embracing the policies of the Brics group has added fresh uncertainty to global trade and prompted pushback from Moscow and Beijing. Trump posted on social media that countries aligning themselves with “the Anti-American policies of Brics, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff.” -snip- Responding to Trump’s threats, a spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry stated on Monday its oft-repeated line that trade wars and tariff wars have no winners. Brics “does not target any country.” The Kremlin echoed those remarks, saying that Brics “has never been and will never be directed...

The United States will impose 25% blanket tariffs on imports from Japan and South Korea starting Aug. 1, President Donald Trump revealed Monday. Trump, in a pair of Truth Social posts, shared screenshots of letters apparently sent to Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung dictating the new tariff rates. The two form letters appear to be the first of what Trump said could be as many as 15 letters sent between Monday and Wednesday, the deadline when his so-called reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries were scheduled to snap back to the higher levels he...

What a week he is having! Or month. Or first five and a half months of his presidency. The “he” of whom I speak, is, of course, President Donald J. Trump. Has any president ever had a couple of weeks like the past two for Trump? Has any president ever had such a torrid and impactful start to his term? The border is secure, something many thought impossible a relative blink of an eye ago. The stock market -- S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average alike -- is at an all-time high. Tariffs have brought in large sums of...

With U.S. tariffs on steel, aluminum and light-duty vehicles continuing to batter the Canadian automobile industry, the CEOs of Canada's big three automakers are asking for a break. They met with Prime Minister Mark Carney this week to lobby for the elimination of the Liberal government's zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate. Maintaining it, they say, will cripple their companies and put thousands of jobs at risk. Carney cancelled Canada's digital services tax last weekend to keep trade negotiations going with the U.S. Could the ZEV mandate also be removed to help an auto industry bleeding from the trade war? And what...

Unfortunately, this lesson is also lost on America’s leaders. America is selling hundreds of billions worth of assets—everything from shares in New York’s largest companies to Iowa’s best farmland—every year to pay for our trade deficit. For example, foreign investors now own some 40% of all U.S. equities. This has skyrocketed up from just 12% in 2007. Likewise, Americans are selling enormous amounts of real estate to pay for foreign production. In 2019 alone, foreigners purchased $183 billion in American real estate. America is selling its heritage and its economic lifeblood for cheap Chinese trinkets. We are selling our soul...

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose a 10 percent tariff on any country aligned with the BRICS group of nations, which includes Russia, delivering a potential economic blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The bloc—which also consists of Brazil, India, China, South Africa and five other emerging economies—held a summit over the weekend in which it condemned Trump's "indiscriminate" import tariffs and the Israeli-U. S. strikes on Iran. Trump posted on Truth Social late on Sunday that "any country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10 percent Tariff," adding: "There will...

"There will be no exceptions to this policy," the US leader warnedWASHINGTON, July 7. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose an additional 10% tariff on countries supporting policies being pursued by the BRICS grouping. "Any country aligning themselves with the anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an additional 10% tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy," the US leader warned on his Truth Social media platform. In June, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, who also serves as Russia’s BRICS Sherpa, told the TASS Analytical Center in an interview that the developments at BRICS...

Fixed tariffs on Canadian vehicle exports to the United States would be the beginning of the end of auto assembly in Canada, one industry expert warns, as high-stakes Canada-U.S. trade talks lurch toward a July 21 deadline.

On Saturday, two "Elbows Up" rallies returned to Western New York, drawing crowds at both Freedom Park in Buffalo and Terrapin Point in Niagara Falls. Dozens of participants expressed their opposition to tariffs already put in place by the Trump administration and comments made by the president about making Canada a ‘51st state’ back in January. According to a White House fact sheet in April, Canada was left off the list of countries receiving "reciprocal tariffs,” making them largely exempt from the then-sweeping tariffs. However, Tariffs still in place include a 25% tariff on non-compliant CUSMA goods, such as aluminum,...

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday that the U.S. central bank would have eased monetary policy by now if not for President Donald Trump’s tariff plan.When asked during a panel if the Fed would have lowered rates again this year had Trump not announced his controversial plan to impose higher levies on imported goods earlier this year, Powell said, “I think that’s right.” “In effect, we went on hold when we saw the size of the tariffs and essentially all inflation forecasts for the United States went up materially as a consequence of the tariffs,” Powell said at European...

Back Truth Details 1301 replies Avatar Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump “U.S. TARIFF REVENUE” $27 BILLION........................... VIDEO AT LINK....................

Economists say freer trade benefits everyone—even trade with China. America gets cheap goods and China gets money. Win-win. Even if we assume America benefits—which is a false assumption as proven in my book Reshore—China has clearly benefited more. For example, China’s economy has grown by an average of 8.12% since joining the World Trade Organization since 2001—about four times greater than America’s. China and America benefited asymmetrically from trade. Asymmetry may not be a problem economically, but it is a problem politically. Why? Power is zero-sum. The strong China grows, the weaker America becomes relative to China. As such, trade...

<p>The first six months of the Trump administration have not been kind to the experts and the degree-holding classes.</p><p>Almost daily during the tariff hysterias of March, we were told by university economists and most of the PhDs employed in investment and finance that the U.S. was headed toward a downward, if not recessionary, spiral.</p>

As America’s largest trading partners race toward deals, they are increasingly worried about being hit with future tariffs on their critical industries.Governments around the globe are racing to negotiate trade deals with the United States in order to forestall President Trump’s punishing tariffs, which could kick in on July 9. But the discussions have been slowed because Mr. Trump has threatened to impose more tariffs even if those deals are in place. Mr. Trump announced what he refers to as “reciprocal tariffs” on April 8, which he said were in response to other countries' unfair trading practices. But he agreed...