Trade correspondent L.C. reports: Chinese Vice Premier Liu He came to Washington on January 30-31 and met with President Trump the second day. According to US sources and the public comments of US officials, no specific agreements were reached and the two sides remain far apart on the US’s structural issues of key concern: forced […]
WTO members launch E-commerce talks
Trade correspondent L.C. reports: The World Trade Organization (WTO) has been battered with troubles in the past two years, but it just had a rare taste of success. Fifty WTO members – nearly half its membership –agreed to launch talks for a plurilateral agreement on e-commerce/digital trade. The agreement came at a January 25 meeting of trade ministers […]
China offers $1 trillion but US wants reforms
Trade correspondent L.C. writes: China is reportedly prepared to offer to boost imports from the US by one trillion dollars. This would supposedly correct the entire bilateral trade imbalance by 2024 . Is China’s offer to be taken seriously? Any pledge by Beijing to increase imports runs up against a tough reality — the slowing […]
President’s bid for more trade power likely to fail
Trade correspondent L.C. reports: The White House has drafted a “US Reciprocal Trade Act” that would give the president authority to impose tariffs unilaterally on specific products and countries. The president wants to promote it in his January 29th State of the Union address and would like it to be introduced in Congress before then. […]
Do Section 232 tariffs violate the Constitution?
Trade correspondent L.C. reports: The Court of International Trade in New York heard oral arguments on December 19th against President Trump’s use of the Section 232 (national-defense related) provisions of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. At issue are the tariffs imposed on steel and aluminum and pending decisions on automotive imports and uranium. Both […]
