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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A new trade agreement between the United Kingdom and Florida was signed here in Jacksonville Tuesday by Governor Ron DeSantis and UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade Kemi Badenoch. The new memorandum of understanding is the ninth agreement of its kind between the UK and states here in the US and according to Secretary Badenoch, it is by far the largest to date. The agreement is aimed at increasing investments between Florida and the UK as well as strengthening trade, academic research, and business relationships. Priority areas laid out in the agreement include space, fintech,...

The Biden administration has failed to enforce the U.S.-China phase one trade agreement. There are serious concerns about the enforcement mechanism of the deal as China's purchases fall behind targets. In the trade deal signed in January 2020, Beijing promised to purchase about $200 billion of US goods and services over 2020, 2021 compared with 2017 levels. We've noted on multiple occasions how China was never going to live up to the deal, and nearly two years later, it still hasn't. Top Biden officials have tried to reassure that the deal is still intact and said the administration would hold...

In China, we are seeing forced televised confessions, a mass surveillance state, the killing of Falun Gong practitioners for their organs, and what many are calling a genocide of the Uyghur people. 83 global brands, including major U.S. companies, are tied to Uyghur forced labor in China. Over in Hong Kong, 53 pro-democracy activists, lawmakers, and lawyers were arrested on Jan. 6 under the draconian national security law. Despite all this, the EU recently announced a major trade deal with China. American Thought Leaders interviews human rights activist and writer Benedict Rogers, founder of Hong Kong Watch and deputy...

Europe must be an autonomous global actor and it would be “a terrible sign” if the EU blocked a recently concluded investment agreement with China in order to coordinate with Washington, Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa told EurActiv’s partner Lusa in an exclusive interview.The EU and China reached last Wednesday (30 December) an agreement in principle on investment, which has been under negotiation for seven years. However, the deal could cause tension with the new US administration weeks after President-elect Joe Biden proposed a transatlantic dialogue on “the strategic challenge posed by China’s growing international assertiveness”. […] According to the...

Joe Biden just confirmed that President Trump has forever altered the American foreign policy framework - once dominated by a pro-free trade bipartisan consensus closely guarded by the deep state - by confirming that he will not immediately move to scrap the 'Phase 1' trade deal or - and this is critical - move to remove the controversial tariffs imposed by Trump, according to a report in the New York Times.In an interview with - who else? - NYT columnist Thomas Friedman, Biden discussed how his administration will approach foreign policy, though Biden insisted his top priority was getting a...

Britain’s US trade deal is in jeopardy if the UK endangers Northern Ireland peace over Brexit, US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has said. “We can’t allow the [1998] Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit,” Biden said on Wednesday (16 September). “Any trade deal between the US and UK must be contingent upon respect for the agreement and preventing the return of a hard border. Period,” he added. Biden spoke out during a visit by British foreign secretary Dominic Raab to Washington. The Democrats’ concern comes after the UK threatened to...

Today we got a taste of things to come when White House China hawk Peter Navarro stated to the press that the US-China trade deal was “over”. Cue a plunge in stocks and in CNY and in bond yields and general risk off. Then cue the inevitable rapid winding-back of those comments from Navarro and Kudlow and Trump, with the former saying his comments had been taken “wildly out of context” (they hadn’t given he was talking about the total collapse of US trust in China) and the latter tweeting “The China Trade Deal is fully intact. Hopefully they will...

The Chinese Communist Party is punishing India for working with America, and the President should show the nation stands by its friends. One of the many discussions our country has had over the Trump Presidency is what it means for America to be “great.” For some, it’s a country which answers to no external pressure, and only the will of its citizens. For others, it’s a state deeply involved in international politics, actively working with other nations to deepen cooperation. Both sides, however, should agree with at least one prerequisite for greatness. If America is great, it will not be...

The U.S. and China are making progress toward implementing the phase one trade deal struck earlier this year, with Beijing now accepting shipments from more U.S. plants than ever before. The announcement from U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer comes amid flaring tensions after the U.S. criticized Beijing's initial handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was first identified in Wuhan, China, and has since infected nearly 4.9 million people worldwide. Even with the recent tensions between the two sides, however, Beijing has forged ahead with updating its list of U.S. facilities eligible to ship their goods to China. The list now...

Kim Jong-un speaks saying "the world will witness a new strategic weapon' from North Korea 'in the near future' more later on.... Part of the alert brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division deploying to Kuwait tonight, some 750 US soldiers. More to follow in the coming days..... This after thousands of protesters in Iraq attacking and some entering the US Embassy grounds in Baghdad forcing US forces to disperse them with tear gas today. The protesters angered by the US air strikes in Iraq and Syria Sunday against an Iranian backed militia group.... Chelsea Manning, who gave Wikileaks documents on...

Despite the devastating economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, Britain is making scant effort to negotiate a far-reaching free trade deal in the wake of Brexit that would stave off a costly final separation at the end of the year, the European Union said Friday. EU negotiatior Michel Barnier said his British counterparts keep insisting on unrealistic deadlines and demands that could only lead to a chaotic trade rupture which would mount economic losses on both sides on top of those already expected from the coronavirus crisis. “I am worried,” Barnier said after what he described as another week of...

I was very skeptical when U.S. and Chinese officials announced the two nations had reached a “Phase One” trade deal last December. Neither country released any details regarding the agreement. Chinese officials have been exceptionally muted since the announcement, only emphasizing that the United States would remove a number of tariffs, without mentioning any commitments China had made. Neither the United States nor China even articulated a specific dollar amount of the additional U.S. farm products China pledges to purchase.Last week, both the White House and the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office posted the full text of the agreement, immediately...

In what is not really a surprise, Politico is looking at the trade deal with China through the lens of impeachment. According to Anita Kumar on Wednesday, the trade deal, which she labeled as "modest," is merely a distraction from impeachment. In fact, that is exactly what the title of her article says, "Trump hypes modest China deal, distracting from impeachment." If you still didn't get the Politico message that the trade deal is supposedly about diverting attention away from impeachment, Kumar emphasizes that talking point in the very first sentence:

Not only has the “Phase One” trade deal now been signed by the United States and China, but official texts have now been released. And my initial read indicates that the Trump administration just might have come up with an effective enforcement regime – though success here will depend on U.S. governments (including this one) displaying nerves of steel. At the same time, the enforcement terms raise the question of why the President felt the need to reach this point via a treaty, rather than simply punish China unilaterally for economic transgressions – as his tariffs on hundreds of...

The numbers: The trade deficit fell sharply in November for the second month in a row and sank to the lowest level in three years, reflecting a decline in Chinese imports and the reemergence of the U.S. as an energy superpower. The trade gap dropped 8.2% to $43.1 billion in November, the government said Tuesday, basically matching the MarketWatch forecast. It’s the smallest deficit since October 2016.Most of the decline recently has been tied to a shrinking deficit with China, whose imports have fallen in the face off stiff U.S. tariffs. Surging U.S. oil exports were another contributor.If the gap...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will not increase its annual low-tariff import quotas for corn, wheat and rice to accommodate stepped-up purchases of farm goods from the United States, local media group Caixin quoted senior agriculture official Han Jun as saying on Tuesday. The report underlines China’s desire to protect its farmers at a time when it is under pressure to buy billions of dollars more of U.S. agricultural goods to calm a prolonged trade war, although its grain imports have been well below quota levels in recent years. Traders and analysts said the announcement appeared to be aimed at local...

Does the US and China have an interim agreement to retreat from its bruising trade war? Earlier this week, Donald Trump declared a diplomatic victory, and pledged a signing ceremony at the White House to nail it down. I will be signing our very large and comprehensive Phase One Trade Deal with China on January 15. The ceremony will take place at the White House. High level representatives of China will be present. At a later date I will be going to Beijing where talks will begin on Phase Two!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2019 The later...

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, that nation’s top trade negotiator, will visit Washington this week to sign the “phase one” trade deal with the U.S., the South China Morning Post reported Monday. The newspaper, citing a source briefed on the matter, said Beijing has accepted the U.S. invitation for a deal signing in Washington, and the Chinese delegation will stay in the U.S. for a few days until the middle of next week. The South China Morning Post is run by Alibaba but is often criticized for being biased in favor of the state. The two countries have been working...

The U.S. and China have such different economic and political systems and different sets of values. We may have to settle our differences through other means, beyond a trade agreement. Last Friday, U.S. and Chinese officials confirmed that that two nations reached a “phase one” trade deal. After more than two years of uncertainty, this is welcome news for many. Yet it is concerning because so few details of the agreement have been made public, and a deal-signing date has yet to be announced.What’s in the Trade Deal? According to the Wall Street Journal, the United States agreed not to...

Donald J. Trump ‏ Verified account @realDonaldTrump 7m7 minutes ago More We have agreed to a very large Phase One Deal with China. They have agreed to many structural changes and massive purchases of Agricultural Product, Energy, and Manufactured Goods, plus much more. The 25% Tariffs will remain as is, with 7 1/2% put on much of the remainder.... 1,041 replies2,432 retweets7,240 likes Reply 1.0K Retweet 2.4K Like 7.2K ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Donald J. Trump ‏ Verified account @realDonaldTrump 8m8 minutes ago More .....The Penalty Tariffs set for December 15th will not be charged because of the fact that we made the...