While an Atlantic Council scholar doesn't expect tariffs on Chinese goods to be lifted in the next six months, he said a resolution next year may be coming. "I don't believe there's any incentive for the administration to back down, certainly before the mid-terms," said Bart Oosterveld, the director of the Atlantic Council Global Business and Economics program. But, he added, he doesn't think the administration is interested in waging a trade war with China through the election in 2020. He also said the Chinese are willing to compromise.
President Donald Trump will appoint some new members to the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations for four-year terms, the White House said in a notice. New members include Robert DeMartini, CEO of New Balance; Charles Rivkin, CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America; and Gary Jones, president of United Automobile Workers. The other appointees are:
President Donald Trump and the president of South Korea signed the revised U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (see 1809040039) during a ceremony on the sidelines of the United Nations meeting in New York Sept. 24. The change from tariffs to quotas on steel that was part of the KORUS renegotiation has already taken effect. No other immediate changes to duties on South Korean goods is expected from the FTA signing. The White House also released a fact sheet on the deal and trade with South Korea.
President Donald Trump is in favor of moving forward with proposed Section 301 tariffs on a broad group of products from China, according to a report from Bloomberg. The proposed tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports (see 1808010070) could come soon after the comment period on the proposal ends on Sept. 6, the report said. Asked to confirm the report during an interview, Trump called it "not totally wrong."
A "second-level" delegation from China is coming to the U.S. next week for talks, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Fox News Aug. 16, but what he said next suggested they would not be doing substantive negotiations to roll back the trade war. "Maybe they'll re-open those talks," he said. Kudlow quickly pivoted to talking about other trade negotiations. "We're making great headway in Europe, making headway in Mexico," he said, and added that he thinks what comes out of those talks is "going to be reassuring."
President Donald Trump said in an Aug. 15 tweet that tariffs are leading to great new trade deals. "Our Country was built on Tariffs," he said. "Other Countries should not be allowed to come in and [steal] the wealth of our great U.S.A. No longer!" So far, no new trade deal has been finalized during the Trump administration, though South Korea agreed to steel quotas and a longer period of high tariffs on imported trucks as part of a revised U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS). KORUS has not been signed, however. Canada, Mexico and the U.S. have been discussing a new NAFTA for a year; Canada is insistent that the U.S. will not use the leverage of Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs in NAFTA negotiations (see 1804260010).
In a series of tweets before a campaign rally in suburban Columbus, Ohio, and again on Aug. 5, President Donald Trump said tariffs "are working big time," and "foolish people scream" when his government imposes them. He said because of tariffs, America is winning, and China is "doing poorly against us" for the first time, and other countries' economies are hurting, too. Trump's preferred metric, the trade deficit, is still growing, through June and is up 7 percent compared to the first half of 2017. He said China is spending a fortune trying to convince "our politicians to fight me on tariffs."
The White House said that sanctions on Iranian gold and other precious metals, graphite, aluminum, steel, coal and software used in industrial processes, as well as the country's automotive sector, will go into effect Aug. 7. The announcement came Aug. 6, 90 days after the U.S. withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal.
The Coalition for a Prosperous America, whose chairman is Donald Trump ally Dan DiMicco, said the president should consider vetoing the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill, the group said in a news release. The Senate unanimously last month (see 1807270003) and passed the House of Representatives 402-0 before that (see 1801170012). The MTB "has flown beneath the radar and is a holdover from the past," said DiMicco, who was a trade adviser to Trump during his presidential campaign, and is a former CEO of steel producer Nucor. "At precisely the moment when the president is tackling foreign trade cheating and trying to create leverage, Congress is again engaging in unilateral trade disarmament. This bill fails to consider that many of the products included could be manufactured in the US.”
Rwandan apparel won't be eligible for African Growth and Opportunity Act benefits as of July 31, the White House announced July 30, because Rwanda continues to block imports of used clothing from the West. Some African countries feel that very cheap used clothing has undermined their domestic clothing manufacturers. The imposition of tariffs on Rwandan apparel was first announced in March but did not take effect immediately (see 1803290034).