President Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced Wednesday that they will open negotiations to, as Trump put it, “work toward zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers and zero subsidies,” and hold off on any further tariffs unless either side terminates the negotiations. This signals efforts to resume broad trade negotiations suspended since the Obama administration.
The trade war appears to be on hold, at least on the European front. However, importantly, Trump said the path toward “zero tariffs” applied to “all non-auto industrial goods.” Trump has been mulling auto tariffs that could hit EU countries like Germany hard. Juncker struck an optimistic tone, saying “I had the intention to make a deal today and we made a deal today.”
Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act
Congress passed a bipartisan overhaul of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act on Wednesday and sent it for signature to President Donald Trump, who has made career and technical education, or CTE, a priority for his administration.
The $1.1 billion program, which has been languishing since 2006, provides funding for job training and related programs for high school students, many of whom may be seeking postsecondary options other than a four-year college degree, as well as for students in higher education. The Senate bill to revamp Perkins was co-authored by Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and is called the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act. The House, which passed its own version of a Perkins reauthorization last year, approved CTE reauthorization as amended by the Senate version. The legislation passed via voice vote.
Momentum behind the Perkins legislation has grown in recent weeks, after a lobbying effort by the Trump administration on Capitol Hill that included presidential senior adviser Ivanka Trump, who is Trump’s daughter. The legislation sailed through the Senate education committee last month and was lavished with praise by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Here are a few highlights of the legislation that we mentioned last month when the bill was introduced:
- The secretary of education would be barred from dictating states’ CTE assessments or standards. States would also set their own goals under the legislation.
- States would have to make “meaningful progress” toward meeting their own goals under the proposed bill.
- The legislation creates “core indicators” for the performance of students concentrating in CTE, including their graduation rate and the percentage who continue on to either postsecondary education or advanced training within a certain time frame.
- It also requires schools to align career and technical education programs with the needs of the state or local communities.
In the meantime, back on the ranch:
The U.S. has made little progress in resolving its trade dispute with China, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The two sides have agreed that their initial offers weren’t a solid base for further negotiations, the report said, citing a U.S. business member tracking the talks.
Talks between Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese envoy Liu He remain at a very early stage, the report said.
The administration believes it strengthened its hand last week with a tentative trade accord with the European Union, the report added.
– Marketwatch, “U.S. has made little progress in China talks: WSJ” by Steve Goldstein published July 31, 2018
And this is a story that still has legs, at least according to the Marketwatch story “Manufacturers encounter roadblocks as ISM index declines in July” by Jeffry Bartash published Aug. 1, 2018, as follows:
American manufacturers grew somewhat less rapidly in July, held back by shortages of skilled labor, higher costs for raw materials due to tariffs and difficulty getting enough transportation.
The ISM’s new-orders index slid 3.3 percentage points to 60.2.
Production fell 3.8 points to 58.5%.
“The steel tariffs are a concern to us.”
“We have already seen steel prices increase due to the threat of the tariffs and are seeing kickback from our customers due to the higher prices,” said an executive at a maker of fabricated-metal products.
end quotes
And what about Trump’s response to any of that?
Well, for that, we have a Wall Street Journal article entitled “Trump seeks 25% tariffs on $200 billion of goods imported from China” by Bob Davis and Lingling Wei published Aug. 1, 2018, where we learn as follows, to wit:
The White House, seeking to ratchet up pressure on Beijing and prod China into further negotiations, said it would consider more than doubling its proposed tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25%.
The move Wednesday came as talks between Beijing and Washington have stalled, and Washington is looking for additional leverage.
In a Monday White House meeting, Trump dismissed a proposed 10% China tariff as weak, said people familiar with the discussions, and had them bump up the levy to 25%.
U.S. officials are confident that they have the upper hand in the trade fight with China because the U.S. economy is gathering strength while the Chinese economy shows signs of weakening and is more dependent on trade than the U.S.
end quotes
Trump is the same dude who wrote the brilliant tome “The Art of the Deal,” where he firmly established his reputation as the Master of the Deal, so these Chinese don’t stand a chance, which is something Trump’s man Larry “Kuddles” Kudlow told the world in an on-air interview on Bloomberg entitled “NEC’s Kudlow Warns China ‘Do Not Underestimate’ Trump on Trade” on August 3rd, 2018, 11:32 AM EDT.
And how are the Chinese reacting to that very, very tough talk from “Kuddles” Kudlow?
Will they stand and fight, or will they run away?
Let’s take a look and see what we can see from this Marketwatch article “China threatens new tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. products” by Robert Schroeder published Aug. 3, 2018, to wit:
China threatened Friday to slap tariffs on $60 billion of American goods if the White House goes ahead with its plans to impose new levies on Chinese products.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said tariffs would range from 5% to 25% and cover more than 5,200 American products.
The list reportedly includes meat, chemicals, leather products, auto parts and many other goods.
The threat comes after Wednesday’s announcement from the White House that it would consider more than doubling its proposed tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25%.
In a statement in reaction to China’s latest move, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said, “Instead of retaliating, China should address the longstanding concerns about its unfair trading practices, many of which are laid out in USTR’s 301 report.”
The moves by the Trump administration and Beijing come as talks between the two have stalled.
The two sides have already imposed tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of each others’ goods.
“In the 3 weeks since the U.S. published the $200 billion list, there have been spotty reports of U.S.-China dialogue and economic actions from China that our economists call ‘defensive easing,’ partly in response to trade concerns,” wrote Michael Zezas and Meredith Pickett of Morgan Stanley in a note on Friday.
“One might conclude from this pattern that tensions are abating.”
“Today’s action suggests this is not the case,” they said.
end quotes
So that is where that all stands, for the moment, anyway, since this story is far from over now that Sarah Sanders has got her mouth into the fray.
With her entry into the battle, surely the Chinese will finally see some sense and cry uncle before she flays the skin off of them with the sharp side of her tongue, so stay tuned is all I can say.