Bill introduced in US Congress to stop predatory acquisitions by China

The legislation will prevent companies with ties to China from owning more than 51 per cent of shares in the critical infrastructure

An influential American Congressman on Wednesday introduced a legislation in the House of Representatives that would prevent predatory investments of American companies by the Chinese government. Introduced by Congressman Jim Banks, member of the House Armed Services Committee, the Restricting Predatory Acquisition During Covid-19 Act would expand the scope of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to review purchases by companies with ties to the Chinese Communist Party during the Covid-19 pandemic, news agency PTI reported.

“Our job is to ensure the Chinese Communist Party does not profit off a pandemic of their own making. President Trump won an election vowing to stop China from taking advantage of Americans. I am glad to be working with him now to stop Chinese predation,” Banks said in a statement. The bill proposes to increase the scope of cases the CFIUS reviews and sends to the president prior to a financial transaction…

ALSO READ: Will cancel trade deal if China fails to buy goods worth $200 bn : Trump

Congressman Sharice Davids on Wednesday introduced a legislation to rapidly increase the supply of equipment like face masks, hospital gowns, ventilators and testing materials needed to fight the coronavirus and keep the frontline workers safe. The bill would also promote manufacturing these goods in the United States. “We have seen first hand that relying on China to produce the vast majority of medical equipment we use in the US is a big problem,” Davids said….Click Here

Trump’s trade wars expose an abiding truth on the bluff of free trade

The protectionist impulse behind the trade war remains as ineradicable as ever

As the year ends, a partial and brief ceasefire seems imminent in Donald Trump’s trade war on the world. The United States and China may sign a deal as early as next month. But make no mistake: The protectionist impulse behind the trade war remains as ineradicable as ever.

Nor should it be forgotten that economic nationalism has guided the destiny of all major nations since the 19th century. According to the ideological prejudices of the present, built up over nearly four decades of globalization, Trade War and deregulation represent the natural order of things. History, however, tells us that the United States was a protectionist power for much of its existence, and the tariff was a crucial factor in its dethronement of Britain as global economic leader by the early 20th century.

As William McKinley put it in 1890: “We lead all nations in agriculture; we lead all nations in mining; we lead all nations in manufacturing. These are the trophies which we bring after twenty-nine years of a protective tariff.”

The argument for economic nationalism against a manufacturing giant such as Britain was simple. British free-traders claimed that their ideology was best placed to bring prosperity and peace to the world. Their critics in countries less economically advanced than Britain, such as Germany’s Friedrich List, the 19th century’s most influential economic theorist, argued that free trade could only be a goal rather than the starting point of modern development.

China fumes over US law backing Hong Kong, says retaliation inevitable

China fumes over US law backing Hong Kong, says retaliation inevitable

International News: Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. China is making a habit of issuing vague retaliation threats. So far, however, it hasn’t actually done much. The foreign ministry gave another warning on Thursday after President Donald Trump signed bills backing Hong Kong’s protesters, using language that mirrored a statement last week.

China issued similar threats earlier this year after the U.S. approved arms sales to Taiwan, sanctioned companies over human-rights abuses in Xinjiang and put Huawei Technologies Co. on a blacklist. “We suggest that the U.S. stops sticking obstinately to its course or China will take resolute countermeasures,” the foreign ministry said. “The U.S. side will bear all responsibility for the consequences.” Later, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang dodged questions on when China would reply or whether it would impact trade talks, telling reporters to “stay tuned.”

“What will come will come,” he said. The failure to flesh out the details despite having weeks to prepare shows the difficulties China faces in hitting the U.S. without also hurting its own economy, which is growing at the slowest pace in almost three decades. Apart from implementing retaliatory tariffs against the U.S., China has largely stuck to a policy of “strategic composure” when it comes to other aspects of the relationship.

Trade Talks Impact

Mei Xinyu, a researcher at a think tank under China’s Commerce Ministry, said that the Hong Kong issue will definitely be discussed at the trade negotiation table and China will likely ask the U.S. side to clarify its stance, or even make some promises on refraining from using the bill. He added that China will prepare some countermeasures at the same time, echoing the Foreign Ministry’s remarks earlier, without elaborating on what specific measures will be taken..

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‘A perfect storm’: Trump, Xi make big bets in trade war that may backfire

For Trump, the bet is that a hard-line stance on China will help him win another four years; the political calculations for Xi are harder to grasp, given the secretive nature of the Communist Party

International News: When Xi Jinping first met Donald Trump back in 2017, the Chinese leader said they had “a thousand reasons to make the China-US relationship a success, and not a single reason to break it.”

Two years on, ties are at their lowest point in decades — and they appear to be worsening by the day. Trump’s threat to raise tariffs on all Chinese goods last week shattered a truce reached with Xi just weeks earlier, unleashing tit-for-tat actions on trade and currency policy that risk accelerating a wider geopolitical fight between the world’s biggest economies.

A big part of the problem is that neither leader believes the other is serious about making a deal: China sees Donal Trump as posturing ahead of the 2020 election, while US officials think Xi is looking to wait him out for a better deal. Either way, the political space for compromise is diminishing as hardliners take center stage, prompting investors to weigh the potential economic fallout.

“We are looking at a situation now that is a bit of a perfect storm,” said Dennis Wilder, former senior director for Asia on the National Security Council who is now at Georgetown University. “Both have a great deal to lose in this high-stakes poker.”

For Trump, the bet is that a hard-line stance on China will help him win another four years in the Oval Office. His administration has proudly trumpeted what it calls the most robust response in decades to a rising China, and most Democratic candidates agree with the need to stay tough on Beijing even if they don’t agree with Trump’s tariffs..

Trump hits China with more tariffs, says Xi moving too slow on trade

Moody’s said the new tariffs would weigh on the global economy at a time when growth is already slowing in the United States, China and the euro zone

International News: US President Donald Trump said he plans to impose a 10 per cent tariff on $300 billion of Chinese imports from September 1 and could raise tariffs further if China’s President Xi Jinping fails to move more quickly to strike a trade deal.

The announcement on Thursday extends Trump’s trade tariffs to nearly all China’s imports into the United States and marks an abrupt end to a temporary truce in a trade war that has disrupted global supply chains and roiled financial markets. “I think President Xi … wants to make a deal, but frankly, he’s not going fast enough,” Trump said.

Trump made the announcement in a series of Twitter posts after his top trade negotiators briefed him on a lack of progress in US-China trade war talks in Shanghai this week. Trump later said if trade negotiations fail to progress he could raise tariffs further – even beyond the 25 per cent levy he has already imposed on $250 billion of imports from China. The news hit US financial markets hard.

Oil prices plummeted 7 per cent, with Brent crude registering the biggest daily percentage drop since February 2016. The benchmark S&P 500, which had been in solidly positive territory on Thursday afternoon, closed down 0.9 per cent. Benchmark US Treasury yields also fell. Retail associations predicted a spike in consumer prices. Target Corp tumbled 4.2 per cent, Macy’s Inc fell 6 per cent and Nordstrom Inc was down 6.2 per cent.

Trade war can’t bring China down; it’ll make us stronger: Chinese media

Pressures intensified for the current week after the Trump organization formally included China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd to an exchange boycott

The exchange war with the United States will just make China more grounded and will never push the nation to the brink of collapse, the Communist Party’s People’s Daily wrote in a first page critique that evoked the devoted soul of past The world’s two biggest economies are secured an undeniably rancorous exchange debate that has seen them level levies on one another’s imports.

Pressures intensified for this present week after the Trump organization formally included China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd to an exchange boycott, quickly establishing limitations that will make it very hard for the telecom mammoth to work with US organizations.

In a stridently nationalistic analysis, the decision gathering’s legitimate paper portrayed China’s assurance to ensure it national interests and poise as being as “firm as a boulder”. “The exchange war can’t cut China down. It will just solidify us to develop more grounded,” it said.

“What sort of tempests have not been seen, what knocks have not experienced for China, with its over 5,000 years of human progress? Despite sea tempests, the about 1.4 billion Chinese individuals have certainty and stamina.” China’s certainty originates from the soul of its kin’s constancy and perpetual battle, it included, refering to serious catastrophes like floods, SARS and 2008’s enormous Sichuan seismic tremor…