The fascination of shooting as a sport depends
almost wholly on whether you are at the right or wrong end of the gun.
P. G.
Wodehouse.
Today, Mothering Sunday in GB and sky high prices for
flowers, and while we await the actual start of the Great Global Trump Trade
War, the EUSSR seems to have already failed the Trump “exemption” test. China
doesn’t want a trade war but preps for one. US farmers in the front line. The
GGTTW that nobody wants is just over a week away. One week left to save the
global economy from retrenchment. Bunker Time.
Trump ‘Clarity’ on Tariff Conditions Not What EU Was Looking For
ByMarine Strauss
Updated on 10 March 2018, 22:07 GMT
Hours after European Union trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom said she had “no
immediate clarity” on whether the bloc will be let off the hook from planned
U.S. tariffs, President Donald Trump laid down his conditions and repeated a
threat if they’re not met.“The European Union, wonderful countries who treat the U.S. very badly on trade, are complaining about the tariffs on Steel & Aluminum,” he wrote on Twitter. “If they drop their horrific barriers & tariffs on U.S. products going in, we will likewise drop ours. Big Deficit. If not, we Tax Cars etc. FAIR!"
Trump’s response came after Malmstrom on Twitter described what she called “frank” but fruitless talks with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Brussels on Saturday.
There was still “no immediate clarity on the exact U.S. procedure on exemption,” Malmstrom, the 28-nation bloc’s trade commissioner, said after the meeting that also included Japanese Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko. “As a close security and trade partner of the U.S. the EU must be excluded from the announced measures,” she said.
Canada, Mexico and Australia have secured exemptions from the tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum announced by Trump, though Canada’s and Mexico’s were conditioned on progress renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull heralded his nation’s exemption on Saturday morning following a phone call with Trump, which he described as “a very good and productive discussion.”
Trump has called the tariffs a matter of national security while threatening to tax European car imports and impose “reciprocal taxes” on countries that charge higher duties on U.S. goods than the U.S. now charges on their products.
Malmstrom, Lighthizer and Reko are set to meet on the margins of the OECD ministerial meeting in Paris next week to further discuss the issue, according to a joint statement after the talks.
March 11, 2018 / 2:43 AM / Updated 2 hours ago
China says trade war with U.S. will only bring disaster to global economy
BEIJING
(Reuters) - Any trade war with the United States will only bring disaster to
the world economy, Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan said on Sunday, as
Beijing stepped up its criticism on proposed metals tariffs by Washington amid
fears it could shatter global growth.
After
pressure from allies, the United States has opened the way for more exemptions
from tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminium that
U.S. President Donald Trump set last week.
On Saturday,
the European Union and Japan urged the United States to grant them exemptions
from metal import tariffs, with Tokyo calling for “calm-headed behaviour.”
But the
target of Trump’s ire is China, whose capacity expansions have helped add to
global surpluses of steel. China has repeatedly vowed to defend its “legitimate
rights and interests” if targeted by U.S. trade actions.
Zhong,
speaking on the sidelines of China’s annual session of parliament, said China
does not want a trade war and will not initiate one.
“There are
no winners in a trade war,” Zhong said. “It will only bring disaster to China
and the United States and the world.”
China can
handle any challenges and will resolutely protect its interests, but the two
countries will continue to talk, he said.
“Nobody
wants to fight a trade war, and everyone knows fighting one harms others and
does not benefit oneself.”
Trump’s
announcement on tariffs underlined concerns about rising U.S. protectionism,
which has sparked bouts of turmoil in global financial markets over the past
year as investors feared a damaging trade spat will shatter a synchronized
uptick in world growth.
China’s metals
industry issued the country’s most explicit threat yet in the row, urging on
Friday for the government to retaliate by targeting U.S. coal - a sector that
is central to Trump’s political base and his election pledge to restore
American industries and blue-collar jobs.
The U.S. is
the world’s biggest importer of steel, purchasing 35 million tonnes of raw
material in 2017. Of those imports, South Korea, Japan, China and India
accounted for 6.6 million tonnes.
Trade
tensions between China and United States have risen since Trump took office.
China accounts for only a small fraction of U.S. steel imports, but its massive
industrial expansion has helped create a global glut of steel that has driven
down prices.
The dispute
has fuelled concerns that soybeans, the United States’ most valuable export to
the world’s second largest economy, might be caught up in the trade actions
after Beijing launched a probe into imports of U.S. sorghum, a grain used in
animal feed and liquor.
More
It was
a confusion of ideas between him and one of the lions he was hunting in Kenya
that had caused A. B. Spottsworth to make the obituary column. He thought the
lion was dead, and the lion thought it wasn't
P. G.
Wodehouse.
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