In January, the U.S. and China agreed to a trade deal that cut some U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods in exchange for Chinese pledges to purchase more American farm, energy and manufactured goods and address U.S. complaints about intellectual property practices.
WASHINGTON, D.C — President Donald Trump last Wednesday signed into law a major rewrite of the rules of trade with Canada and Mexico that will soon replace the Clinton-era North American Free Trade Agreement.
Incredibly, the decade has ended with a moment of bipartisanship. On Dec. 10, after more than a year of deadlock, Democrats and Republicans agreed to revisions in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that should enable the trade pact to win approval from Congress and get signed into law by the president.
MILWAUKEE—There are a lot of good reasons for Harley-Davidson to open an assembly plant in Thailand, and few, mostly jingoistic, ones against it, but the irony is that the quintessential American motorcycle maker is going abroad because it is being punished by the same sort of trade rules it once championed.
WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump signed an executive order April 29 establishing a new White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy (OTMP). The mission of the OTMP is to defend and serve American workers and domestic manufacturers while advising the president on policies to increase economic growth, decrease the trade deficit, and strengthen the U.S. manufacturing and defense industrial bases.
WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump ordered on Friday a comprehensive study to identify every form of “trade abuse” that contributes to U.S. deficits with foreign countries. “The theft of American prosperity will end,” Trump said at an Oval Office ceremony announcing the study, along with another directive to step up enforcement of existing trade penalties.
Our government could do a lot more to level the playing field for manufacturing. While the Reshoring Initiative does not support individual candidates, we do recommend policies that will bring manufacturing back from offshore, and we try to document candidate positions on these issues.
Although I’m a fan of science fiction, I have to laugh at utopian predictions of global—even universal—unity and harmony. Clearly, these authors don’t read the news. In 2015, no less than 55 armed conflicts raged worldwide.
