We
hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness outside of the EUSSR.”
With
grateful thanks to the writers of the US Declaration of Independence.
She came she saw, she talked. She even
played the China card. The Donald
listened but trumped. But at the end of the day Chancellor Merkel failed; short
Germany. Germany now faces a trade war with America and losing access to Great
Britain, its largest trade partner in Europe. Thousands if not hundreds of
thousands of German jobs are now in jeopardy. A gloomy EUSSR future just got a
whole lot gloomier. And no one has yet solved the problems of Greece, Italy,
Spain, France and Deutsche Bank. Worst of all, no one in Europe seems to be
seriously trying to sort out their problems. Something will turn up, they hope.
Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to
hear.
George Orwell.
Trade Talk Shows Trump, Merkel Have Little Common Ground
by Patrick Donahue and Toluse Olorunnipa
17 March 2017, 22:21 GMT
Donald Trump’s and Angela Merkel’s rhetoric on global trade showed no sign
that the two leaders are anywhere close to finding common ground.In their first meeting at the White House since Trump’s inauguration as president, Trump reprised his complaints that the U.S. had been treated “very, very unfairly” and poured loaded praise over German trade officials for besting their American counterparts.
“The negotiators for Germany have done a far better job than the negotiators for the United States,” Trump told reporters in the East Room alongside Merkel Friday. “But hopefully we can even it out.”
Merkel, whose visit with her new U.S. counterpart was marked by cool distance in their public appearances, was left to explain that trade negotiations are the province of the European Union, not her government, and that there are no such German interlocutors.
“We’ve transferred competencies over to the European Union,” Merkel said. “That means the European Commission negotiates these free trade agreements.”
The gap in perception between a president in office for eight weeks and a German chancellor who has governed for almost 12 years may foreshadow the widening chasm across the Atlantic. Merkel had no illusion of the differences between her globally oriented view of geopolitics and the “America First” dictum with which Trump has unsettled traditional U.S. partners.
The two were left to talk, based on the premise that, in Merkel’s words, “it’s much better to speak with each other than past each other.”
----For her part, Merkel made clear that the two don’t see eye to eye -- and several times echoed the president’s language of pursuing “fair” treatment.
“Even if there are differences of opinion, it’s worth sitting down together,” Merkel said. The two sides should at least strive to find “compromises that are fair to both.”
Trump’s complaint on trade reflected comments by the head of his National Trade Council, Peter Navarro, who has laid into Germany’s trade surplus, accusing Europe’s biggest economy of exploiting its position within the euro area to gain advantage. He was among those in the audience for the news conference. Merkel and her government have rejected those accusations as absurd.
“I don’t believe in an isolationist policy, but I also believe that a policy of trade should be a fair policy,” Trump said.
More
In first Trump-Merkel meeting, awkward body language and a quip
The first face-to-face meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and German
Chancellor Angela Merkel started awkwardly on Friday and ended even more oddly,
with a quip by Trump about wiretapping that left the German leader visibly bewildered.
The two
leaders share different views on trade, Russia and immigration, leading to some
uncomfortable moments at a joint news conference on Friday in which they took
pains to downplay differences that were hard to mask.
Friday's
meeting was the first between the new U.S. president and the long-serving
stateswoman, who leads Europe's largest economy. It was seen as one that could
help determine the future of the transatlantic alliance and shape their working
relationship.
----Near the start of the news conference, Trump pressed Merkel for Germany to meet NATO's military spending target, and Merkel reiterated her country's commitment to the 2 percent military spending goal.
"I
reiterated to Chancellor Merkel my strong support for NATO as well as the need for
our NATO allies to pay their fair share for the cost of defense. Many nations
owe vast sums of money from past years, and it is very unfair to the United
States. These nations must pay what they owe."
Trump
also stood by unproven claims that the Obama administration tapped his phones,
and expressed solidarity with a surprised Merkel, whose government charged
Washington in 2013 may have been spying on her.
“As far
as wiretapping, I guess, by this past administration, at least we have
something in common perhaps,” Trump said to Merkel, who looked bewildered as
she stared back at him from her podium.
In 2013
the German government said it had information that the United States may have
monitored Merkel's mobile phone, prompting her to call Obama to demand immediate
clarification.
More
Berlin: Merkel's call with Chinese president not linked to her U.S. trip
German
Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone call with the Chinese president, in which they
agreed to work for free trade, had no connection to her visit to Washington
that is overshadowed by trade issues, a
German government spokesman said on Friday.
Merkel
had been due to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Tuesday but
had to postpone the meeting until Friday due to bad weather.
On
Merkel's call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, German government spokesman
Georg Streiter said: "This phone call had been planned for a long time and
was in no way connected to Merkel's trip to Washington."
Germany, U.S. risk worsening trade ties: business chamber
Germany
and the United States must work hard to prevent a deterioration of trade relations between the two countries, the
head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany said on Friday.
AmCham
Germany President Bernhard Mattes made the comments ahead of a meeting between
U.S. President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel later on
Friday, which is expected to be overshadowed by Trump's plan to impose a border
tax on German cars.
"Even
though we currently see the likelihood of a trade war between the United States
and Europe as small, the topic is still present and not completely off the
table," Mattes wrote in a column in the Handelsblatt business daily.
"We
call on those responsible to do everything possible to avoid a standstill or
even a worsening of our trade relations. In a trade war, there can be no
winners as the global economy is too networked and our supply chains too
international."
Mattes
noted that the United States has had a trade deficit for much of the last 35
years with the deficit growing tenfold during the fastest period of U.S. growth
of the last 50 years, from 1983 to 1987.
"Protectionist
measures like punitive customs, import taxes or the termination of
international trade treaties would therefore only help the U.S. economy
temporarily," he wrote.
Germany's
50 billion euro trade surplus with the United States has been a source of
tension between Washington and Berlin.
Trump has
warned that the United States will impose a border tax of 35 percent on cars
that German carmaker BMW plans to build at a new plant in Mexico and export to
the U.S. market.
That
could prompt Germany to file a suit against the United States at the World
Trade Organization, Economy Minister Brigitte Zypries told Deutschlandfunk
radio.
“We all
know what to do, but we don’t know how to get re-elected once we have done it.”
Jean-Claude Juncker. Failed
Luxembourg Prime Minister and ex-president of the Euro Group of Finance
Ministers. Confessed liar. EC President.
"If the EU cannot resolve a small problem the size of Greece, what is the point of Europe?"
Romano Prodi, former President of the European Commission, former Italy Prime Minister.
As
usual most weekends we leave the final update to Jason in California and an
American perspective.
Wrangling Over Budget
Proposal & “TrumpCare” Highlights Ideological Splits in Within U.S.
Republican Party That Make Governing a Challenge
N. Jason
Jencka March 18th, 2017 3:15 am ET
While the trans-Atlantic
political punditry has been journalistically occupied today with chronicling
the awkward non-handshake between President Trump & Chancellor Merkel, Washington
itself was locked in contentious negotiation over Mr. Trump’s domestic agenda.
Debate was most acutely focused on the “American Healthcare Act”, a proposed
piece of legislation that would replace the Affordable Care Act (commonly known
as Obamacare) enacted by the previous administration. While reactions to the
bill itself have been roundly negative what is most striking are the exposed
divisions within the Republican Party. While moderates have taken issue with
projected increases in premiums for through scrapping of the individual mandate
to participate in exchanges, staunch conservatives have expressed displeasure
with how the bill retains a material Federal role in regulating the healthcare
marketplace. Given that the legislation must pass both houses of Congress to
become law, garnering the requisite votes for passage represents a
delicate-to-borderline impossible balancing act for Republican Congressional
leadership. The present situation is one wherein garnering additional votes
from strict Conservatives such as those in the Freedom Caucus in the house
comes at the expense of making the legislation yet more unattractive to Senate
moderates such as Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
Given nearly
assured unified Democratic opposition and a razor thin Senate majority of
52-48, the Trump Administration can ill afford defections from within its own
party on the contentious legislation. Further, lest it be believed that the
issue is as binary as a conservative House and moderate Senate lacking harmony
on the bill, ultraconservative Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has gone as far as to
declare the bill “dead on arrival” in the Senate, predicting opposition from
Ted Cruz of Texas among others. While following through on campaign promises to
“repeal and replace Obamacare” remains a key Trump administration priority it’s
finding that Mr. Trump’s February comment that “nobody knew healthcare could be
so complicated” was rather prophetic.
Sources:
Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/video/2017/02/27/nobody-knew-healthcare-could-be-so-compl?videoId=371200584
Mathew
Nussbaum & Jennifer Habercorn Politico
March 8th, 2017: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/trump-branding-obamacare-repeal-235831
Fox News: March 10th, 2017 http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/03/10/rand-paul-house-gops-obamacare-replacement-is-dead-on-arrival.html
N. Jason Jencka is presently studying Finance and
Economics at Sierra Nevada College, located near the shores of Lake Tahoe on
the border of California and Nevada. His interests include the interplay
between world markets and the global political sphere, with a focus on
developments of both sides of the Atlantic in North America and Europe. In his
leisure time he enjoys connecting with those people that have an interesting
story to tell and a genuine desire to make an impact in the world.
“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory
beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”
George Orwell. 1984.
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