Aug. 2, 2019
Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.
Trump increases pressure on China for trade deal with new 10 percent tariff on the other $300 billion of goods while Chinese economy reels
China has proven
itself to be an unreliable trade partner in its negotiations, says President
Donald Trump, and now he is levying another 10 percent tariff on the remaining
$300 billion of Chinese goods that were untaxed. This comes atop the 25 percent
tariff on another $250 billion of goods, which is expecting to raise more than
$50 billion in revenue this year. Trump
cited failure by Chinese President Xi Jinping to follow through on its
commitments to fentanyl shipments, import more U.S. agricultural products and
the failure to conclude a trade deal. With China’s economy taking a hit, is the
pressure starting to pay off?
Cartoon: Above the Law
Democrats say no
one is above the law.
Video: With Chinese and European devaluations, plus low inflation, Fed's rate cut makes sense
With Chinese and
European monetary devaluations and low inflation, the dollar was getting too
strong and the Fed was wise to cut its key interest rate.
Warren opposition to patents and intellectual property in USMCA puts live-saving treatments at risk
Americans for
Limited Government President Rick Manning: “Elizabeth Warren was dead wrong
when she chose to attack the intellectual property protections contained within
the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
Her focus on the intellectual property rights of those who develop
life-saving drugs and biologics should concern every person in America who is
hoping to see an end to Alzheimer’s disease, various cancers and other lesser
known diseases like dengue fever in our lifetimes. Intellectual property protection is the
simple concept that drives innovation as it guarantees that those who take the
risks get to recoup a profit from taking those risks. Unfortunately, Elizabeth Warren and those of
her ilk, reject this fundamental concept, and as a result would tear away the
incentive to invest in new drug development.”
Michael
Brendan Dougherty: Hong Kong Understands the Uncommon Value of the Common Law
“As a fan of Lok
Cheung’s videos, and a well-wisher for Hong Kong, I also feel compelled to say
something. The assumptions that have undergirded the West’s relationship with
mainland China for the past 25 years were wrong, and have contributed to his
recent sleepless nights. The belief — once common, during the 1997 handover of
Hong Kong from the U.K. to China — that open trade with China, and the examples
of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, and Japan, would inevitably draw
China to become more liberal and democratic was wrong. And like Cheung and his
compatriots in the streets, we need an important interruption to business as
usual. In Asia-Pacific, we need to reassert the fundamental values that make
men free.”
Trump increases pressure on China for trade deal with new 10 percent tariff on the other $300 billion of goods while Chinese economy reels
By Robert Romano
China has proven itself to be an unreliable trade partner in its negotiations, says President Donald Trump, and now he is levying another 10 percent tariff on $300 billion of Chinese goods that were untaxed.
This comes atop the 25 percent tariff on another $250 billion of goods that was hiked in May, which is expected to raise more than $50 billion in revenue this year to the U.S. Treasury.
Trump cited failure by Chinese President Xi Jinping to follow through on commitments he has made, stating on Twitter, “Our representatives have just returned from China where they had constructive talks having to do with a future Trade Deal. We thought we had a deal with China three months ago, but sadly, China decided to re-negotiate the deal prior to signing. More recently, China agreed to... buy agricultural product from the U.S. in large quantities, but did not do so. Additionally, my friend President Xi said that he would stop the sale of Fentanyl to the United States — this never happened, and many Americans continue to die!”
The President still held out hope that a deal could be reached, with the tariffs being a bit of additional incentive, writing, “Trade talks are continuing, and... during the talks the U.S. will start, on September 1st, putting a small additional Tariff of 10% on the remaining 300 Billion Dollars of goods and products coming from China into our Country. This does not include the 250 Billion Dollars already Tariffed at 25%... We look forward to continuing our positive dialogue with China on a comprehensive Trade Deal, and feel that the future between our two countries will be a very bright one!”
The breakdown of trade talks in May led directly to Trump putting the 25 percent tariff on $200 billion of goods — it had been at 10 percent — in addition to the 25 percent that had been levied on another $50 billion of goods.
The trade deal was said to have been in its final stages, but at the eleventh hour, Beijing changed the terms of the deal and promptly walked back prior concessions. According to a May 8 Reuters report, “In each of the seven chapters of the draft trade deal, China had deleted its commitments to change laws to resolve core complaints that caused the United States to launch a trade war: Theft of U.S. intellectual property and trade secrets; forced technology transfers; competition policy; access to financial services; and currency manipulation.”
Adding to the mix, the trade in goods deficit with China hit a record high in 2018 at $419.1 billion according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And that was with some of the tariffs in place.
Ostensibly, the only reason China had come to the table in the first place was President Trump’s threat of further tariffs and an attempt string along negotiators in the hopes of avoiding them. It appears to have been designed to test Trump, betting that perhaps he would not follow through on the tariffs.
Which, it’s hard to blame China for miscalculating. It’s used to just getting its way with the U.S. without consequence or blowback. Since China entered the World Trade Organization in 2001, U.S. manufacturing market share has dropped from 13.4 percent to 7.5 percent in 2017, according to World Bank data. China has risen from 5.3 percent to 16.6 percent in 2017, although their percent of global manufacturing market share has peaked in 2015 at 18.8 percent. During that time, the U.S. economy has not grown above 4 percent since 2000, and not above 3 percent since 2005 on an annual basis.
What they didn’t plan on was Trump. Now, there’s tariffs on $550 billion of goods. Either way, the decision to end the deal may have been so it could wait Trump out with 2020 right around the corner. If Trump loses his bid for reelection, their problem is solved.
For Trump’s part, he seems to be betting China has more to lose in a trade war than the U.S. According to data by the U.S. Trade Representative. China’s $539.5 billion of goods exports to the U.S. comprised almost 4.1 percent of its $13.28 trillion Gross Domestic Product in 2018 and about 22.5 percent of its $2.4 trillion of goods exports. In contrast, American goods exports to China were $120.3 billion, comprising 0.58 percent of the 2018 annual GDP of $20.5 trillion, and comparatively 7.2 percent of its $1.66 trillion of goods exports.
And Trump may be right.
On June 17, “The Coming Collapse of China” author Gordon Chang on Fox Business reported to host Neil Cavuto, “China right now has an economy which is crumbling, could have been contracting last month. We saw that with bellwether car sales down 16.4 percent, the eleventh straight month of decline, the worst monthly decline eves. And imports were down 8.5 percent year on year, a real indication of declining domestic demand.”
Chang added, “This is an economy that is in severe trouble. They need the U.S. market desperately.”
So, maybe the tariffs are working. In this confrontation, Trump does not need a deal as much as China does, for he can inflict damage merely by encouraging manufacturers to move their business elsewhere, whether back to the U.S. or somewhere else. In “The Art of Deal,” Trump wrote, “Use your leverage.” That’s exactly what he’s doing — and it’s about time.
Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.
Cartoon: Above the Law
By A.F. Branco
Click here for a higher level resolution version.
Video: With Chinese and European devaluations, plus low inflation, Fed's rate cut makes sense
To view online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm-VZISO3js
Warren opposition to patents and intellectual property in USMCA puts live-saving treatments at risk
Aug. 1, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for opposing patents and intellectual property for life-saving pharmaceuticals in the Democratic debate:
“Elizabeth Warren was dead wrong when she chose to attack the intellectual property protections contained within the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. Her focus on the intellectual property rights of those who develop life-saving drugs and biologics should concern every person in America who is hoping to see an end to Alzheimer’s disease, various cancers and other lesser known diseases like dengue fever in our lifetimes. Intellectual property protection is the simple concept that drives innovation as it guarantees that those who take the risks get to recoup a profit from taking those risks. Unfortunately, Elizabeth Warren and those of her ilk, reject this fundamental concept, and as a result would tear away the incentive to invest in new drug development.
“The future of medicine is rapidly changing with innovations in nano-technology, robotics and biologics poised to change many of today’s assumptions about longevity and treatment. It would be foolish to follow the rearview mirror focused approach of those like Warren who would stifle this bright future for human wellness by denying the financial incentives to make it a reality.”
To view online: https://getliberty.org/2019/08/warren-opposition-to-patents-and-intellectual-property-in-usmca-puts-live-saving-treatments-at-risk/
ALG Editor’s Note: In the following featured column from the National Review’s Michael Brendan Dougherty, the anti-extradition protests in Hong Kong demonstrate that freedom under common law is not something residents of Hong Kong are going to give up on easily:
Hong Kong Understands the Uncommon Value of the Common Law
By Michael Brendan Dougherty
When conservatives in England and America talk about their civilization as an inheritance, they often talk about the genius of the common-law tradition. By that they mean the body of legal thought and practice that grows from the bottom up. Our expectations about due process, evidence, and presumed innocence grow from this tradition. We usually contrast this with the law tradition on Continental Europe that has roots in the top-down approach of the Roman Empire. Thomas Jefferson talked about the American form of liberty as the sum of this common-law tradition of freedom, one that stretched back into the Middle Ages.
I’m sure that even for many of the conservatives audiences that endure these talks by pundits, academics, and philosophers, this topic can seem boring, abstract, and gaseous. It seems that way because we take it too much for granted. Most people in America probably never hear about the common law apart from the phrase “common-law marriage.”
In Hong Kong people are not lucky enough to be forgetful. Hong Kong is not in a neighborhood that lets its people forget. Most media stories note that the incredibly large protests that have rocked Hong Kong recently are against an extradition law that has been proposed by the government. It’s called the Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill. It would allow the authorities in Hong Kong to extradite criminal offenders to China. In other words, it would facilitate the authorities’ ferrying people away from the common-law courts and jurisprudence of Hong Kong, a holdover from its days under British colonial government, to the politically controlled courts of China.
This isn’t conserva-splaining the dispute from afar. These are exactly the terms in which citizens of Hong Kong see their conflict. And it is their shock of recognition at their dire situation that is so moving. Lok Cheung is a YouTuber from Hong Kong. He is Internet-famous among photographers and videographer enthusiasts for the videos he makes reviewing the latest cameras and lenses. He’s been doing this work for the better part of the last decade, and the persona he’s developed on camera is usually one that is gently befuddled, amused by the expensive gear he uses, and almost embarrassed by his honest assessments.
But this week, in a halting and moving interruption to his own channel, he decided to speak about the extradition law, the protests, and the incidence of crime in Hong Kong that is attributed to Chinese triads. He tries to explain the common law to an audience that hasn’t been conditioned — as readers of National Review are — to apprehend what it means.
Lok Cheung has not been a highly political person. As a member of Hong Kong’s remarkable society, he has ambitions that have not normally run into or conflicted with those of Hong Kong’s rulers. His whole life — the type of enterprise he runs, his free communication across borders within a free Internet, even his normally bemused persona — were all able to flourish precisely because he is protected by this tradition that was implanted on his island. “Freedom of speech, freedom of press is done” if the law passes, he says, and “Hong Kong won’t be Hong Kong anymore.”
The increasing influence of the mainland government has changed the character of Hong Kong’s police force and lowered the esteem of Hong Kong’s citizens for those who guard and defend this orderly but free society.
As a fan of Lok Cheung’s videos, and a well-wisher for Hong Kong, I also feel compelled to say something. The assumptions that have undergirded the West’s relationship with mainland China for the past 25 years were wrong, and have contributed to his recent sleepless nights. The belief — once common, during the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from the U.K. to China — that open trade with China, and the examples of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, and Japan, would inevitably draw China to become more liberal and democratic was wrong. And like Cheung and his compatriots in the streets, we need an important interruption to business as usual. In Asia-Pacific, we need to reassert the fundamental values that make men free.
