Cargo shipping giant Maersk announced on Tuesday a pause of transits through the Red Sea &#8220;until further notice&#8221; after one of its container vessels <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-forces-sink-houthi-boats-in-red-sea-pentagon-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">got attacked</a> over the weekend by what the United States identified as Iranian-backed <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/houthis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Houthi</a> boats.
In a <a href="https://www.maersk.com/news/articles/2023/12/15/maersk-operations-through-red-sea-gulf-of-aden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>, the Danish company noted trips through the nearby Gulf of Aden would also be suspended and said vessels would be rerouted to travel around the Cape of Good Hope in &#8220;cases where it makes most sense for our customers.&#8221;
The ship that was ambushed, the Maersk Hangzhou, was hit by an &#8220;unknown object&#8221; after it passed through the Bab al-Mandab Strait en route from Singapore to Port Suez, Egypt, Maersk said in a prior <a href="https://www.maersk.com/news/articles/2023/12/15/maersk-operations-through-red-sea-gulf-of-aden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> announcing a temporary pause until January 2.
Following the initial attack, four boats approached the Maersk Hangzhou and opened fire in an attempt to board the ship, according to the company. The Maersk Hangzhou&#8217;s security team and a helicopter deployed from a nearby navy vessel &#8220;successfully thwarted the attempt,&#8221; the company added. The crew aboard the merchant ship were reported to be safe.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-forces-sink-houthi-boats-in-red-sea-pentagon-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> on Sunday that U.S. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-considers-deploying-second-aircraft-carrier-group-near-israel-following-deadly-hamas-attacks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Navy</a> helicopters destroyed three of four <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/houthis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Houthi</a> small boats that were attacking the container vessel after the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier and USS Gravely guided missile destroyer responded to a distress call. The helicopters returned fire in self-defense after the Houthi boats fired upon the U.S. aircraft with crew-served weapons and small arms, CENTCOM said. No damage to U.S. personnel or equipment was reported.
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The Houthis <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/yemens-houthis-say-they-will-target-ships-red-sea-en-route-israel-2023-12-09/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have warned</a> ships not to head toward Israel in what the group claims is a show of solidarity with the Palestinians as Israel fights Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Other major shipping carriers, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/15/shipping-giants-hapag-lloyd-and-maersk-pause-red-sea-travel.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MSC and Hapag-Lloyd</a>, said they would pause transits through the Red Sea as Houthi militants wreak havoc.
Maersk said the Maersk Hangzhou was one of the first ships to travel through the Red Sea after &#8220;confirmation&#8221; that ships from the multi-national Operation Prosperity Guardian, meant to protect vessels in the Red Sea, had deployed in the area. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3621110/statement-from-secretary-of-defense-lloyd-j-austin-iii-on-ensuring-freedom-of-n/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> the operation in mid-December with a statement citing an &#8220;escalation&#8221; in Houthi attacks coming from Yemen in recent weeks.
In its latest statement, Maersk said an investigation into the December 30 incident is &#8220;ongoing and we will continue to pause all cargo movement through the area while we further assess the constantly evolving situation.&#8221; The company added, &#8220;We remain committed to minimising the impact on our customers’ supply chains and will continue to keep you updated on the situation.&#8221;

Maersk container ship

Shipping Giant Maersk Suspends Red Sea Transits ‘Until Further Notice’ After Houthi Attack

Shipping Giant Maersk Suspends Red Sea Transits 'Until Further Notice' After Houthi Attack

Business

Free Trade

Houthis

Iran

Israel

Middle East

National Security

Pentagon

Terrorism

Transportation

The Biden administration announced several initiatives on Wednesday intended to bolster economic relations with Taiwan.
The Chinese Communist Party has long held that Taiwan, which is democratically governed, belongs to the mainland. The White House’s move to strengthen ties with Taipei occurs as China heightens threats of military aggression against the island.
The new U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade includes plans to increase agricultural cooperation, embark on climate action, coordinate on anti-corruption laws, and fulfill other arrangements to “promote our shared values” and “address our shared challenges and opportunities,” according to a press release from the <a href="https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2022/june/united-states-and-taiwan-announce-launch-us-taiwan-initiative-21st-century-trade">Office of the U.S. Trade Representative</a>.
The arrangement also “serves as a bulwark against China,” Cato Institute research fellow Clark Packard told The Daily Wire.
Beijing, however, made clear that it opposes the new trade initiative. The People&#8217;s Liberation Army <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/chinese-military-says-it-conducted-readiness-patrol-around-island-taiwan-2022-06-01/">announced</a> that it sent a “readiness patrol” around Taiwanese sea and airspace this week as a response to the “collusion” between Taiwan and the United States. In February of this year — as Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine — China <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/taiwan-scrambles-air-force-after-chinese-aircraft-spotted-nearby">sent aircraft</a> into Taiwan’s airspace following a similar incursion one month earlier.
&#8220;The United States should prudently handle trade and economic ties with Taiwan to avoid sending a wrong message to Taiwan separatists,&#8221; Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china-says-opposes-us-taiwan-trade-initiative-2022-06-02/">asserted</a> on Thursday. Last summer, a state-controlled Chinese magazine published a three-stage <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chinese-state-media-publishes-three-stage-battle-plan-for-taiwan-invasion-as-president-xi-calls-for-complete-reunification">battle plan</a> depicting the potential invasion of Taiwan.
Hudson Institute senior fellow Thomas Duesterberg doubts that the trade deal will succeed in combating Chinese aggression. “There are much more important factors that will affect whatever China decides to do,” he told The Daily Wire in reference to whether the American military would intervene if China invades. “And that’s different from deeper economic integration.”
“If China decides it wants to take Taiwan,” Packard added, “it’s not going to be deterred by the fact that the U.S. has heightened trade and investment with Taiwan.”
Beyond foreign policy, the United States has clear economic motives for pursuing the trade agreement. Taiwanese manufacturers accounted for more than 60% of international semiconductor outsourcing revenue as of 2020, according to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/16/2-charts-show-how-much-the-world-depends-on-taiwan-for-semiconductors.html">CNBC</a>.
“The U.S. buys a ton of those products, and obviously we’re facing a semiconductor shortage,” Packard said.
Indeed, the low availability of semiconductors — a key component of computer chips — has limited automobile output in the United States. Ford <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/ford-suspend-or-cut-output-8-its-factories-due-chip-shortage-2022-02-05/">suspended and cut</a> production at eight of its North American factories in February due to chip supply issues, while General Motors <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/599760-indiana-gm-plant-pausing-production-amid-computer-chip-shortage/">paused</a> production at an Indiana pickup truck factory the following month.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/never-seen-anything-like-it-elon-musk-reacts-to-global-supply-chain-issues">commented</a> last year that he has “never seen anything like” the semiconductor shortage. “Our biggest challenge is supply chain, especially microcontroller chips.”
China is experiencing its own economic woes. The nation’s expansion in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had averaged nearly 10% per year since free market reforms in 1978 — but low labor force growth, slowing productivity, and lackluster returns to investment are dampening the Chinese economy, according to the <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/china/overview#1">World Bank</a>. After real GDP increased by 8.1% in 2021, economic expansion is forecasted to fall to 5.0% in 2022.

069C3EDA-38DD-4A09-97FD-3B549FF28202_1_201_a

China Lashes Out As U.S. And Taiwan Forge Trade Agreement

As China Threat Looms, U.S. Strengthens Economic Ties With Taiwan

China

Communist China

Taiwan

Some of America&#8217;s favorite items may be a bit harder &#8212; or more expensive &#8212; to get this winter because of issues with agricultural trade and tariffs on European goods.
That&#8217;s right, Americans must brace for a shortage of French cheese, French wine and, yes, even French fries (though that last one isn&#8217;t exactly related to the first two).
The United States has threatened to levy a 100% tariff on many European goods as a way of forcing the European Union into a more beneficial trade deal with the United States. The Trump Administration plays hardball on issues of international exchange and the Trump White House, currently hamstrung in its efforts to re-ink trade contracts with China, is looking to change the dynamics of its trade relationship with the EU.
The move comes in response to a recent memo listing a handful of new &#8220;technology taxes&#8221; levied against American companies like Facebook and Google, which threaten to stifle the growth of both platforms in Europe.
&#8220;The list of proposed US tariffs covers dozens of products,&#8221; CNN reports, &#8220;including cheeses, beauty products, handbags and sparkling wines such as champagne. The move risks escalating transatlantic trade tensions after the United States already hit $7.5 billion worth of European goods — including French wine, Italian parmesan cheese and Scotch whisky — in October over subsidies to planemaker Airbus (EADSF).&#8221;
Trump told repoters in London, where he&#8217;s attending a meeting of NATO, that while he has no love for either Facebook or Google, he feels compelled to defend American interests, according to CNN.
&#8220;I&#8217;m not going to let people take advantage of American companies,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;If anyone is going to take advantage of the American companies, it&#8217;s going to be us, it&#8217;s not going to be France.&#8221;
It likely helps that Trump has put French President Emmanuel Macron in his crosshairs after Macron pushed back on Trump&#8217;s suggestion that the United States should be allowed to provide less in the way of financial support for NATO forces. Trump pointed out, rightly, that the United States is called upon to subsidize NATO&#8217;s operations but is rarely given the authority to direct missions. Macron fired back in an tense exchange, suggesting that the collaborative contract that created NATO made all participants equal and that member nations rarely parse responsibility or consider it.
The plan worked for Trump, though. CNN reports that the European Union is looking for &#8220;immediate discussions with the United States on how to resolve the dispute and avoid a confrontation.&#8221;
Meanwhile, some domestic products are proving difficult to keep on store shelves. Because of issues with the potato crop in both the United States and Canada, <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/french-fry-squeeze-hits-north-120000666.html">Yahoo News reports</a>, Americans might find it more difficult &#8212; or, at least, more expensive &#8212; to &#8220;super size&#8221; their fast food meals.
&#8220;Potato processors are rushing to buy supplies and ship them across North America in order to keep French fries on the menu after cold, wet weather damaged crops in key producers in the U.S. and Canada,&#8221; according to Yahoo and MSN. &#8220;Cool conditions started to hit growing regions in October, lashing potatoes with frost. Farmers in Alberta and Idaho were able to dig up some damaged crops for storage. But growers in Manitoba, North Dakota and Minnesota received snow and rain, forcing them to abandon some supplies in fields.&#8221;
French fry production, therefore, won&#8217;t be able to keep up with French fry demand, which producers say has been &#8220;outstanding.&#8221;

Wine

America Braces For French Fry, Wine Shortage As Winter Closes In

France

Writing recently in The Wall Street Journal, Iain Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute declared that free-marketeers have taken social conservatives for granted. &#8220;The free-market coalition is in urgent need of repair. If enough conservatives join progressives in seeing free trade as a threat to their values, America could end up with protectionist policies for the foreseeable future,&#8221; he noted.
I share his embrace of the free market. But I am sympathetic to right-leaning concerns about corporate America. While I think free market supporters should not cheer on &#8220;creative destruction&#8221; when local businesses collapse due to free trade, I think they do have a case to sell social conservatives on the benefits of free market creative destruction.
The chief problem, from my vantage point as someone active in evangelical circles and the social conservative movement, centers less on worries about job loss and more on progressives using corporations to censor and punish conservatives. Banks, technology companies and other major corporations seem complicit in censoring conservatives, Christians, gun manufacturers and other groups progressives hate. Conservatives routinely see, for example, Twitter use its power to punish conservatives in ways it never uses its power against progressives.
Conservatives see banks refusing to do business with gun manufacturers and intuitively understand banks should be free to do business with whichever companies they choose, and they also understand banks are doing this because of progressive concerns and would never bend so easily for conservatives. Should banks that refuse to do business with lawful enterprises be given protections by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.?
Conservatives see Fortune 500 companies threaten states such as Georgia and Texas for advancing religious liberty legislation and protections for faith-based adoption agencies. Corporations have free speech rights, too, but when they reliably advance left-wing causes, even in conservative states, it is not hard to understand why conservatives might no longer be faithfully attached to a free market that benefits those companies. If corporations are going to reliably side with the left, they can hardly expect conservatives to defend the system that enriches these corporations into powerhouses that can use their influence to steer social policy leftward.
There is the other issue for which I have no answer but think conservatives must give consideration. American antitrust law is premised on the idea that giving consumers cheaper prices is a good thing. The government loathes breaking up companies that drive down prices. But is it really a good thing that Amazon can drive down prices to such an extent that it prohibits innovation and competition? Cheapest is not always best, but Amazon&#8217;s marketplace — and its willful habit of turning a blind eye to cheap counterfeits on its website — prevents creative destruction in the free market. To the extent the average consumer benefits from cheap products delivered in 24 hours, he loses out on access to superior quality and innovation.
In the supply and demand curve of the digital age, tech companies who profit from clicks can use their leverage to create ceilings on prices because of their size. They do so by limiting innovative competitors through patent laws and keeping prices exceedingly low, as well as through venture capital and size. Consumers benefit in the digital stores in which they shop but potentially lose as employees or entrepreneurs of businesses that directly — or even tangentially — come into conflict with a digital behemoth.
Lastly, the free-marketeers need to point out creative destruction can never happen if tech giants and other corporations are allowed to draft the laws and rules. Congress, in trying to regulate Facebook, will draft laws and rules focused on Facebook. But the very laws designed to regulate Facebook necessarily consider Facebook the default. That will make it harder for competitors to even have a chance to become a default social media platform. Free-marketeers and social conservatives can find common ground opposing companies carving out exceptions for themselves in the tax code, laws and other regulations.
All that said, however, if corporations continue to embrace wokeness, then nothing else will matter. Leveraging their capital, lobbyists and access against conservative values and interests will just cause more conservatives to abandon their support of free markets in favor of legislative and regulatory revenge.
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

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ERICKSON: Free Market Wokeness

Conservatism

Economy

On Tuesday&#8217;s episode of &#8220;The Michael Knowles Show,&#8221; the host discusses President Donald Trump&#8217;s successful trade tactics that brought the Mexican government to agree to help with immigration.
President Trump just secured a very good deal with Mexico over immigration and walking back the threat of tariffs. This has been in the news for three weeks, non-stop. The Trump trade war, it&#8217;s going to destroy the whole world everything&#8217;s going to hell in a handbasket. So on Friday, President Trump secures the deal with Mexico. I go to try to figure out the specifics of this deal. None of the mainstream media articles actually cover the specifics. I could not find the text of this deal anywhere, eventually, I just had to go to the White House website to read the joint statement from the United States and Mexico.
What were the headlines over this deal? Washington Post, &#8220;The Dubious Art of Trump&#8217;s Deal with Mexico.&#8221; It&#8217;s &#8220;dubious.&#8221; USA Today, &#8220;Donald Trump claims there is more to migrant deal with Mexico than he announced but offers no specifics.&#8221; What did he announce? You haven&#8217;t told me. CNN, &#8220;Trump fights back against skeptics of his new Mexico deal.&#8221; Against the &#8220;skeptics&#8221;: who are the skeptics? CNN, that&#8217;s who. But that&#8217;s the story. It&#8217;s not that President Trump secures a good deal, and not what is in the actual deal. No, it&#8217;s fighting back against the skeptics, by which they mean, of course, CNN.
What actually happened? President Trump has been threatening tariffs on Mexico if Mexico does not help us to stop illegal immigration into the United States. You have to remember, if you&#8217;re going across the southern border into America you&#8217;ve got to cross into Mexico first. The vast majority of these illegal aliens coming into America are not Mexicans. They come from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, other places in Central and South America. Then they cross into Mexico, and then they come to America. President Trump said, listen Mexico, you&#8217;ve got to put some security along your southern border and stop this before it becomes a problem for us. Mexico hasn&#8217;t done it because it&#8217;s mostly a failed state and because Mexico has a huge economic incentive to continue to allow illegal immigration.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c-7ef9Zv2fE" width="560"></iframe></div>
When these illegal aliens are pouring through Mexico&#8217;s southern border on their way into America this brings a lot of money to Mexico&#8217;s economy. Most of that money is going to the cartels, but then those cartels are spending all of that money within Mexico, in Mexico&#8217;s economy. We&#8217;re talking about over a billion dollars at least. Mexico has no normal economic incentive to stop illegal immigration and they have a lot of incentives to keep it going.
President Trump threatens tariffs, and everyone said this wasn&#8217;t going to work. &#8220;Oh no, the tariffs are going to hurt the American economy. Nobody takes Trump seriously. He doesn&#8217;t really mean it.&#8221; Well, President Trump has slapped tariffs on our foes and on our allies. So he said, listen I&#8217;m not joking about this, I will do it. It goes down to the final hour when they could be negotiating this deal and what happens?
Mexico agrees to beef up its immigration protection. That&#8217;s what happened. We were told the tariffs are going to destroy the economy; he&#8217;s not really going to get any concessions because of the tariffs; the tariffs aren&#8217;t even going to work. And all of those critics were proven totally wrong and President Trump&#8217;s strategy totally worked. This is a major win. I mean this is a basically unqualified win for Trump and an unqualified loss for his critics who said that tariffs weren&#8217;t going to work.
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-michael-knowles-show/id1266577963?mt=2">Listen to &#8220;The Michael Knowles Show&#8221; on iTunes.</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/show/michael-knowles-show">Subscribe to watch &#8220;The Michael Knowles Show&#8221; on-demand.</a>

KNOWLES: President Trump Had A Huge Victory On Trade; Here’s How The Media Covered It

Donald Trump

Mexico

Michael Knowles

Mike Pence

Republican Party

Trump Administration

China announced Monday that it will raise tariffs on more than $60 billion in American goods in response to a threat from the Trump White House to dramatically increase tariffs on Chinese products entering the United States from 10% to 25%.
President Donald Trump promised major changes in trade with China as part of his 2016 presidential campaign platform, and the administration has been working on those changes for several years now, hoping to &#8220;even the playing field&#8221; for Americans &#8212; particularly American farmers &#8212; who pay for Chinese goods, but whose goods don&#8217;t command the same high prices in China.
President Trump&#8217;s idea, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/13/china-is-raising-tariffs-on-60-billion-of-us-goods-starting-june-1.html">CNBC reports</a>, was to threaten a dramatic tariff increase on Chinese goods &#8212; a hike from 10% to 25% on $200 billion in Chinese products. Sensing that the Chinese would prefer not to see American demand for their products drop, Trump assumed that the Chinese would rush to the bargaining table to save the relationship.
For a time, that worked, but late last week, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/05/10/donald-trump-says-trade-talks-china-continue-despite-tariff-hike/1162002001/">trade negotiations broke apart</a>, and both countries walked away from the bargaining table without inking a new deal.
The White House claims that the trade relationship between the two countries remains warm and that the break in negotiations is only temporary, but neither country has agreed to restart trade talks.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump tweeted that he was officially imposing the new tariffs and, in a series of social media missives that were later deleted, explained why he felt that tariffs were an even more appropriate economic result than a renegotiated trade partnership.
&#8220;[T]ariffs will bring in FAR MORE wealth to our country than even a phenomenal deal of the traditional kind,&#8221; the president tweeted.
China, apparently, didn&#8217;t see it that way. Monday morning, China announced a series of tariff increases, in turn raising prices on &#8220;a wide range of U.S. products, including coffee, beef, salmon, flowers and some fruits and vegetables,&#8221; <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/05/13/tariffs-china-slaps-duties-60-billion-us-goods/1187110001/">according to USA Today</a>.
Things immediately got rough for the United States&#8217; economy.
&#8220;The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 566 points, or 2.2%, to 25,372 in early trading, while the Standard &amp; Poor&#8217;s 500 index lost 67 points, or 2.3%, to 2,813. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, which has been the most vulnerable to trade tensions, plunged 243 points, or 3.1%, to 7,674 Monday morning,&#8221; USA Today continued.
And the Trump administration may not be done. There are, reportedly, plans in the works to introduce a second wave of 25% tariffs on around $325 billion in Chinese goods that currently go untaxed.
Despite the volatility, though, experts who spoke to both CNBC and USA Today believe that the tariff war is probably temporary and that it&#8217;s simply emblematic of the pains of an extended negotiation. Both sides, they say, intend to &#8220;hurt&#8217; for a prescribed period of time &#8212; a &#8220;quiet period&#8221; &#8212; before returning to the bargaining table in a few weeks.

China Retaliates For Trump Trade Plan, Hikes Tariffs On $60B In Goods

On Tuesday, the stock market plummeted in the wake of President Trump&#8217;s troubling tweets about the possibility of a renewed trade war with China. Despite Trump&#8217;s signals on Monday that he was backing off of a trade confrontation with China, he doubled down on Twitter on the supposed inherent good of tariffs themselves, going so far as to dub himself &#8220;a Tariff Man&#8221;:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
The negotiations with China have already started. Unless extended, they will end 90 days from the date of our wonderful and very warm dinner with President Xi in Argentina. Bob Lighthizer will be working closely with Steve Mnuchin, Larry Kudlow, Wilbur Ross and Peter Navarro&#8230;..
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1069962093301022720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 4, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8230;&#8230;on seeing whether or not a REAL deal with China is actually possible. If it is, we will get it done. China is supposed to start buying Agricultural product and more immediately. President Xi and I want this deal to happen, and it probably will. But if not remember,&#8230;&#8230;
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1069968462724980736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 4, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8230;.I am a Tariff Man. When people or countries come in to raid the great wealth of our Nation, I want them to pay for the privilege of doing so. It will always be the best way to max out our economic power. We are right now taking in $billions in Tariffs. MAKE AMERICA RICH AGAIN
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1069970500535902208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 4, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8230;..But if a fair deal is able to be made with China, one that does all of the many things we know must be finally done, I will happily sign. Let the negotiations begin. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1069972093301862406?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 4, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Trump&#8217;s economic team has spun his knee-jerk protectionism as a tactic designed to negotiate &#8220;better&#8221; trade deals &#8211; but so far, those better trade deals don&#8217;t seem to be stronger than the status quo ante. Greg Ip of The Wall Street Journal points out that Trumpian tariffs have not affected the broader American economy thus far, but that the markets fear that could change in 2019:
<blockquote>
The accumulating list of irritants and flashpoints between the U.S. and its trading partners could spill over through other, less obvious channels such as confidence, financial markets and investment, compounding other threats such as rising U.S. interest rates and capital flight from emerging markets&#8230; Chad Bown, a trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, estimates that 12% of U.S. imports were covered by tariffs in September. Assuming Mr. Trump goes ahead and hits the remainder of Chinese imports, that will top 20%.
</blockquote>
While tariffs alone shouldn&#8217;t destroy the economy, they certainly add weight to the burden of other problems: falling oil prices, slowing real estate markets, the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-03/asian-stocks-set-for-muted-open-curve-flattens-markets-wrap?srnd=premium">flattening of the yield curve</a> thanks to &#8220;hawkish&#8221; comments from the Federal Reserve, and the sinking stock market. None of this is a recipe for economic health. We are now nearly a full decade into economic recovery. Investors are obviously wary that that recovery may slowly be turning in a negative direction. President Trump&#8217;s economically illiterate trade commentary won&#8217;t help &#8211; and is driving American allies to ramp up their own trade barriers to retaliate.

Stock Market Drops 700+ Points As Trump Declares Himself ‘Tariff Man’

General Motors says it&#8217;s going to scale back production, closing plants and cutting up to 15% of salaried jobs nationwide in a move they say will help decrease production costs and keep the company &#8220;lean&#8221; and &#8220;agile,&#8221; though they stopped short of blaming Trump administration steel tariffs for an increase in production costs.
<a href="http://www.autonews.com/article/20181126/OEM01/181129806/gm-plans-production-cuts-north-america">Automotive News reports</a> that the Detroit-based automaker, which has been in and out of dire financial straits for nearly a decade, will end production on the Chevrolet Cruz, the Impala, and the all-electric Volt. The company will also end sales of Cadillac XTS and Buick LaCrosse, but only in the United States. Cadillacs, while not entirely popular in the United States, are among GM&#8217;s biggest sellers worldwide, particularly in China.
GM will shutter at least three production plants, Oshawa Assembly in Canada, Lordstown Assembly in Ohio, and Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly in Michigan. Automotive News reports that two additional plants &#8212; a pair of propulsion plants in Michigan and Maryland &#8212; will also grind to a halt by the end of 2019.
<a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/autos/news/general-motors-gm-could-close-north-american-factories-article-1.4044710">The New York Daily News</a> adds that, &#8220;[i]n terms of workforce reduction, GM also plans to cut 15 percent of its 54,000 salaried employees, and even slashing global executive positions by 25 percent. That adds up to more than 8,000 jobs, after nearly 18,000 salaried employees were offered buyout packages last week.&#8221;
Around 6,700 line workers in the United States and Canada will be &#8220;at risk&#8221; of losing their jobs, but the United Auto Workers (UAW) union suggested Monday that layoffs and furloughs would be discussed in upcoming contract meetings. The UAW&#8217;s large-scale contract with GM expires next year and negotiations will begin soon.
Early reports indicated that GM&#8217;s layoffs are the result of steel tariffs levied by the Trump administration in its fledgling trade wars with China, Canada, and the European Union, but GM says that no one factor led to the layoffs. The company, which came out of bankruptcy only a few short years ago, has to take steps to remain &#8220;lean&#8221; and &#8220;agile,&#8221; according to its CEO.
&#8220;The actions we are taking today continue our transformation to be highly agile, resilient and profitable, while giving us the flexibility to invest in the future,&#8221; CEO Mary Barra wrote in a statement released Monday morning.
The move is expected to save GM a lot of money and to help make it competitive with companies like Amazon, Google, and Tesla, which aren&#8217;t traditional automakers, but are dipping their toes into the auto-making industry with fully electric, low-cost, and even self-driving options for consumers.
<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/26/business/gm-oshawa-plant/index.html">CNN reports that</a> the &#8220;company said the plan would make it more efficient, saving $6 billion a year by the end of 2020. GM said its slimmed down production plan would allow it to share technology across all of its vehicles and reduce the amount of time and workers it takes to build cars.&#8221;

General Motors Says It Plans To Cut Production, Close Plants, Lay Off Workers

Business Insider

Vice President Mike Pence left his audience stunned during a speech to the Hudson Institute Thursday morning accusing the Chinese government of an &#8220;unprecedented effort&#8221; to undermine American democracy by operating &#8220;front groups&#8221; and propaganda outlets.
&#8220;China has initiated an unprecedented effort to influence American public opinion, the 2018 elections, and the environment leading into the 2020 presidential elections,&#8221; Pence told the audience of mostly scholars, echoing claims made by President Donald Trump at the United Nations a week ago implying that China, in addition to Russia, was involved in efforts to undermine American elections.
&#8220;Beijing has mobilized covert actors, front groups, and propaganda outlets to shift Americans&#8217; perception of Chinese policies,&#8221; Pence added. The vice president said a senior American intelligence official told him &#8220;what the Russians are doing pales in comparison to what China is doing across this country.&#8221;
Pence pointed directly to news coming out about a burgeoning &#8220;trade war&#8221; between the United States and China. President Trump has proposed increased tariffs on Chinese goods &#8212; costing China perhaps billions in lost trade &#8212; in an effort to &#8220;equalize&#8221; trade between the two nations and reduce what Trump calls an untenable trade deficit.
&#8220;Our intelligence community says that &#8216;China is targeting U.S. state and local governments and officials to exploit any divisions between federal and local levels on policy&#8217;,&#8221; Pence said. &#8220;It&#8217;s using wedge issues, like trade tariffs, to advance Beijing&#8217;s political influence.&#8221;
&#8220;To put it bluntly, President Trump&#8217;s leadership is working; China wants a different American President,&#8221; Pence added.
Pence&#8217;s speech comes amid rumors that the U.S. military is proposing a &#8220;major show of force&#8221; near China&#8217;s territorial waters in November &#8212; &#8220;several missions&#8221; over the course of a week to demonstrate American naval and air superiority within striking distance of mainland China.
The Trump administration is walking a fine line with China; they need the world power&#8217;s support to enforce anti-nuclear proliferation agreements made with with North Korea, but they also need to talk a tough game on trade and defense. Pence&#8217;s speech marks a more aggressive line on China than the Trump administration has held previously, perhaps bolstered by Trump&#8217;s recent success with rewriting NAFTA.

VP Mike Pence LASHES OUT: China ‘Wants A Different American President’

On Saturday, Donald Trump for President Advisory Board member Dr. Gina Loudon appeared on Fox News to talk with anchor Leland Vittert about the president&#8217;s comments regarding NAFTA.
Vittert began the segment by reading the following tweet from President Trump:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. If we don&#8217;t make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out. Congress should not interfere w/ these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely &amp; we will be far better off&#8230;
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1035905988682018816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 1, 2018</a></blockquote>
&#8203;</div>
Vittert then asked Loudon: &#8220;Really? We would all be better off if we cancelled all of our bilateral trade agreements and trilateral trade agreements with Canada?&#8221;
Loudon and Vittert then had the following exchange:
<blockquote>
LOUDON: Well, I think the president&#8217;s interest is the same as the American people, Leland. You know, we lost thousands of businesses, don&#8217;t forget, through NAFTA; we lost millions of jobs. So the Americans out there who lost their jobs because they were sent overseas are much more concerned &#8211;
VITTERT: &#8230;There&#8217;s also tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of American jobs that rely on having NAFTA in place to trade with Canada. Those people lose their jobs just the same if you cancel NAFTA.
LOUDON: The president&#8217;s going to make sure just as he always has. This president ran on the subject of jobs and he has not forgotten that for one second. And I think even the stock market reflects America&#8217;s confidence right now in this president&#8217;s ability to lead on economics and job issues. He&#8217;s not gonna let those people down. I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s a concern of most Americans, and I don&#8217;t even think it&#8217;s a concern of many businesses. He wants to bring those jobs back to the United States.
VITTERT: I don&#8217;t know, ma&#8217;am. I&#8217;ve interviewed a lot of businesses that have been hurt by President Trump&#8217;s tariffs. I&#8217;ve interviewed a lot of people who say that President Trump&#8217;s tariffs are going to put them out of a job. Just go down to Missouri &#8211; a nail company [where] now it costs them more to buy steel from overseas than it does for a contractor to buy imported nails from China. There&#8217;s winners and losers in any trade war. There&#8217;s no such thing as a no-lose situation here.
LOUDON: Well, growth always requires a little bit of pain. So there&#8217;s going to be some short-term pain for some long-term gain, and I think that&#8217;s how the president has used this whole negotiating tactic. Now, let&#8217;s remember, this is the master negotiator; this president has negotiated his entire life.
VITTERT: Let me just try to understand something. Should we read these tweets where he&#8217;s saying, &#8220;I&#8217;m willing to cancel this. I&#8217;m willing to do that&#8221; &#8211; is this a tactic? Is this sort of staking out another one of the president&#8217;s extreme positions only to sort of come back to the middle to make a deal?
LOUDON: The president&#8217;s been clear that he wants to negotiate with everyone, and he doesn&#8217;t just look for America&#8217;s success, he looks for the whole world to be successful. But he looks to be the leader of America and for America to have absolutely fabulous success. That&#8217;s what he&#8217;s always said, and that&#8217;s what he&#8217;s fighting for &#8211; and I believe that. I think most Americans do, too.
</blockquote>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/RealDrGina?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RealDrGina</a>: &#8220;<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> ran on the subject of jobs and he has not forgotten that for one second.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/xkdBOuDG60">pic.twitter.com/xkdBOuDG60</a>
&#8212; Fox News (@FoxNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/1035983174688538626?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 1, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>

WATCH: Fox News’ Leland Vittert Corners Team Trump’s Gina Loudon On Tariffs And NAFTA Threats

In an attempt to retaliate against the United States for imposing sanctions on steel and aluminum, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Tuesday that his country would boycott electronic goods from the U.S.
Erdogan gave a televised speech on Tuesday in which he called for the boycott of iPhones. &#8220;If (the United States) has the iPhone, there&#8217;s Samsung on the other side,&#8221; said Erdogan, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/08/14/turkeys-president-erdogan-urges-iphone-boycott-amid-trump-dispute/984605002/">USA Today</a> reports. 
&#8220;We (also) have our Venus and Vestel,&#8221; he added, referring to Turkish smartphones. 
As a result of his speech, Vestel shares <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-14/erdogan-s-apple-boycott-ignores-fact-american-tech-is-everywhere?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=bd&amp;cmpId=google">reportedly rose</a> as much as 9%.
Apple, the first American company valued at a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/video/apple-becomes-first-american-company-to-hit-1-trillion-valuation/">trillion dollars</a>, makes a vast majority of <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/382175/quarterly-revenue-of-apple-by-geograhical-region/">its revenue</a> from America and Europe.
The call for boycotts come amid increasing tension between the two countries over Turkey&#8217;s refusal to release North Carolina Christian pastor Andrew Brunson, who Turkey claims supported PKK Kurdish militants and assisted a Turkish cleric based in Pennsylvania, a man allegedly responsible for the attempted 2016 coup against Erdogan.
In retaliation for the Trump administration&#8217;s sanctions, pro-Turkish lawyers also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/34449/after-trump-slams-turkish-government-turkish-kassy-dillon">called for</a> the shut down of flights departing from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, where the U.S. Air Force has a significant presence, and filed charges against U.S. military officers for allegedly having ties to terrorist organizations.

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Free Trade

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Stock Market Drops 700+ Points As Trump Declares Himself ‘Tariff Man’

General Motors Says It Plans To Cut Production, Close Plants, Lay Off Workers

VP Mike Pence LASHES OUT: China ‘Wants A Different American President’

WATCH: Fox News’ Leland Vittert Corners Team Trump’s Gina Loudon On Tariffs And NAFTA Threats

After U.S. Imposes Sanctions On Turkey, Turkish President Calls For iPhone Boycott