Tag: Donald Trump

Missile Wars: Trump warns Russia; Dow Futures drop

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Dow Futures dropped on Wednesday after US president Donald Trump warned Russia of ‘nice, new and smart’ missiles coming Syria’s way.

Around 7:20 a.m. ET, Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 251 points, indicating a drop of 276 points at the open. Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 futures also indicated a negative start to Wednesday’s session for their respective markets,  CNBC said in a report.

Trump tweeted, “Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!'”

Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and “smart!” You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 11, 2018

The tweet exchange between Trump and Russia was a result of an alleged chemical attack by the Bashar Assad’s Syrian government against its citizen. Syria denied the accusation.

Trump has suggested that he has little doubt that Syrian government forces are to blame for what he says was a chemical attack, but neither he nor other administration officials have produced hard evidence.

Russian lawmakers have warned the US that Moscow would view an airstrike on Syria as a war crime, saying it could trigger a direct military clash.

Trump didn’t mention whether he was referring to a US military strike. But he has threatened military action in response to Syria’s suspected chemical attack, which activists and rescuers say killed at least 40 people. The Syrian government and its ally Russia have denied that such an attack ever happened.

Trump administration discussed a possible join military attack on Syria with France and Britain.

US officials told The Associated Press that the allies have weighed launching a military strike as early as the end of this week.

In the past Trump has vowed to stand up to Syrian President Assad.

(Developing story)

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

US, Russia clash at UN over chemical weapons attacks in Syria

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Russia and the United States tangled on Tuesday at the United Nations over the use of chemical weapons in Syria as Washington and its allies considered whether to strike at President Bashar al-Assad’s forces over a suspected poison gas attack last weekend.

Moscow and Washington halted attempts by each other in the UN Security Council to set up international investigations into chemical weapons attacks in Syria, which is in the throes of a seven-year-old civil war.

US President Donald Trump and Western allies are discussing possible military action to punish Assad for a suspected poison gas attack on Saturday on a rebel-held town that long had held out against government forces.

Trump on Tuesday cancelled a planned trip to Latin America later this week to focus instead on responding to the Syria incident, the White House said.

Trump warned of a quick, forceful response on Monday, once responsibility for the Syria attack was established.

Pan-European air traffic control agency Eurocontrol warned airlines to exercise caution in the eastern Mediterranean due to the possible launch of air strikes into Syria in next 72 hours.

On the diplomatic front, the United Nations Security Council failed to approve three draft resolutions on chemical weapons attacks in Syria. Russia vetoed a US text, while two Russian-drafted resolutions failed to get a minimum nine votes to pass.

Moscow opposes any Western strike on its close ally Assad and has vetoed Security Council action on Syria 12 times since the conflict started.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the Security Council that adopting the US-drafted resolution was the least that member nations could do.

“History will record that, on this day, Russia chose to protect a monster over the lives of the Syrian people,” Haley said, referring to Assad.

At least 60 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in Saturday’s suspected chemical weapons attack on the town of Douma, according to a Syrian relief group.

Doctors and witnesses have said victims showed symptoms of poisoning, possibly by a nerve agent, and reported the smell of chlorine gas.

RUSSIA ACCUSES

Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Washington’s decision to put forward its resolution could be a prelude to a Western strike on Syria.

“I would once again ask you, once again beseech you, to refrain from the plans that you’re currently developing for Syria,” he said after the council failed to approve a third draft resolution on chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

International chemical weapons experts are expected to go to Douma to investigate the suspected poison gas attack.

France and Britain discussed with the Trump administration how to respond to the Douma attack. Both stressed that the culprit still needed to be confirmed.

The Douma incident has thrust Syria’s conflict back to the forefront of the international stage, pitting Washington and Moscow against each other once again.

Trump said that he would make a decision about how to respond within a few days, adding that the United States had “a lot of options militarily” on Syria.

Assad’s government and Russia have said there was no evidence a gas attack had taken place and that the claim was bogus.

Any US strike is likely to involve naval assets, given the risk to aircraft from Russian and Syrian air defence systems. A US Navy guided-missile destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, is in the Mediterranean.

A key issue being considered by US defense and intelligence agencies and war planners is the effectiveness of Syrian air defenses and the extent to which Russia is helping to organize, and ultimately, direct Syrian air defense operations, according to two US government sources.

Last year, the United States launched strikes from two Navy destroyers against a Syrian air base.

US military action similar to last year’s would likely not cause a shift in the direction of the war that has gone Assad’s way since 2015 with massive aid from Iran and Russia.

There was little expectation that members of Congress would object if Trump launched an attack on Syria, despite some calls for lawmakers to exert their power to authorize military action. Most members of Congress – Democrats as well as his fellow Republicans – praised Trump after the strike last year.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that any strikes would not target the Syrian government’s allies or anybody in particular, but would be aimed at the Syrian government’s chemical facilities.

CHEMICAL WEAPONS PROBE

The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said Syria had been asked to make the necessary arrangements for the deployment of an investigation team.

“The team is preparing to deploy to Syria shortly,” it said in a statement.

The mission will aim to determine whether banned munitions were used but will not assign blame.

The Assad government and Russia both urged the OPCW to investigate the allegations of chemical weapons use in Douma, a move by the two countries that was apparently aimed at averting any US-led action.

“Syria is keen on cooperating with the OPCW to uncover the truth behind the allegations that some Western sides have been advertising to justify their aggressive intentions,” Syria’s state news agency SANA said.

A European source said European governments were waiting for the OPCW to carry out its investigation and for more solid forensic evidence from the attack to emerge. Any plan by Washington and its allies to take military action was likely to be on hold until then, the source said.

In Syria, thousands of militants and their families arrived in rebel-held parts of the country’s northwest after surrendering Douma to government forces.

Their evacuation restored Assad’s control over eastern Ghouta, formerly the biggest rebel bastion near Damascus, and gave him his biggest battlefield victory since 2016, when he took back Aleppo.

Aggravating the volatile situation in the region, Iran – Assad’s other main ally – threatened to respond to an air strike on a Syrian military base on Monday that Tehran, Damascus and Moscow have blamed on Israel.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, meanwhile, said there was no threat of the situation in Syria resulting in a military clash between Russia and the United States. TASS news agency quoted him as saying he believed common sense would prevail.

A Russian warplane flew over a French warship at low altitude in the eastern Mediterranean this weekend, a deliberate breach of international regulations, a French naval source said on Tuesday.

The weekly magazine Le Point said the Russian plane had flown over the frigate Aquitaine and was fully armed. The Aquitaine is equipped with 16 cruise missiles and 16 surface-to-air missiles. It is currently operating off Lebanon alongside US ships as part of France’s military contingent fighting Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.

Despite the international revulsion over chemical weapons attacks, the death toll from such incidents in Syria is only a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of combatants and civilians killed since the war began in 2011.

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Amid trade fight, Trump says he’ll ‘make it up’ to farmers

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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President Donald Trump acknowledged Monday that farmers could be adversely affected by the escalating tariff dispute with China, but promised to make it up to them, saying they “will be better off than they ever were.”

Speaking at a Cabinet meeting, Trump addressed the Chinese threat to slap tariffs on soybeans and other agriculture staples grown in rural America, a move that could hit Midwestern farmers, many of whom are strong supporters of the president.

“If during the course of the negotiation they want to hit the farmers because they think that hits me. I wouldn’t say that’s nice, but I tell you our farmers are great patriots,” Trump said. “They understand that they’re doing this for the country. We’ll make it up to them. In the end they’re going to be much stronger than they are right now.”

China is threatening the tariffs in response to Trump moving to enact protectionist measures as punishment for Chinese theft of U.S. intellectual property. The U.S. bought more than $500 billion in goods from China last year and now is planning or considering penalties on some $150 billion of those imports. The U.S. sold about $130 billion in goods to China in 2017 and faces a potentially devastating hit if China responds in kind.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump was working with his team “to determine how best to respond to China’s attack on American farmers” and had asked the Agriculture Department to provide him with a plan to protect U.S. farmers.

As the economic saber-rattling shakes global markets, Trump said Monday he had a good relationship with China and with President Xi Jinping, but repeated his claim that China has been “taking advantage of the United States for many years.” He added that he doesn’t blame China, but American leaders for creating a “lopsided” set of trade rules.

Earlier in the day, Trump tweeted about the “STUPID TRADE” with China, saying that when a Chinese-made vehicle is sent to the U.S., the tariff is only 2.5 percent, while American cars exported to China are slapped with a 25 percent tariff.

China charges total duties of 25 percent on most imported cars — a 10 percent customs tariff plus a 15 percent auto tax. Since December 2016, Beijing also has charged an additional 10 percent on “super-luxury” vehicles priced above 1.3 million yuan ($200,000).

The president made fixing the trade imbalance with China a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, where he frequently used incendiary language to describe how Beijing would “rape” the U.S. economically. But even as Trump cozied up to Xi and pressed China for help with derailing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, he has ratcheted up the economic pressure and threatened tariffs, a move opposed by many fellow Republicans.

China has pledged to “counterattack with great strength” if Trump decides to follow through on his latest threat to impose tariffs on an additional $100 billion in Chinese goods — after an earlier announcement that targeted $50 billion. Beijing also declared that the current rhetoric made negotiations impossible, even as the White House suggested that the tariff talk was a way to spur China to the bargaining table.

The new White House economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said Sunday that a “coalition of the willing” — including Canada, much of Europe and Australia — was being formed to pressure China and that the U.S. would demand that the World Trade Organization, an arbiter of trade disputes, be stricter on Beijing. And he said that although the U.S. hoped to avoid taking action, Trump “was not bluffing.”

“This is a problem caused by China, not a problem caused by President Trump,” Kudlow said on “Fox News Sunday.”

But he also downplayed the tariff threat as “part of the process,” suggesting on CNN that the impact would be “benign” and said he was hopeful that China would enter negotiations. Kudlow, who started his job a week ago after his predecessor, Gary Cohn, quit over the tariff plan, brushed aside the possibility of economic repercussions.

“I don’t think there’s any trade war in sight,” Kudlow told Fox.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he didn’t expect the tariffs to have a “meaningful impact on the economy” even as he left the door open for disruption. He allowed that there “could be” a trade war but said he didn’t anticipate one.

Trump’s latest proposal intensified what was already shaping up to be the biggest trade battle in more than a half century.

Trump told advisers last week that he was unhappy with China’s decision to tax $50 billion in American products, including soybeans and small aircraft, in response to a U.S. move to impose tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods. Rather than waiting weeks for the U.S. tariffs to be implemented, Trump backed a plan by Robert Lighthizer, his trade representative, to seek the enhanced tariffs.

Further escalation could be in the offing. The U.S. Treasury Department is working on plans to restrict Chinese technology investments in the U.S. And there is talk that the U.S. could also put limits on visas for Chinese who want to visit or study in this country.

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Trump seeks to ease fears of trade fight with China

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Investors across the globe are bracing for uncertain markets as President Donald Trump tries to downplay fears of a trade dispute between the US and China, suggesting that Beijing will ease trade barriers “because it is the right thing to do” and that the economic superpowers can settle the escalating conflict.

But as Trump tried to project confidence that a dispute that has rattled financial markets, consumers and businesses can be resolved soon, his top economic advisers offered mixed messages as to the best approach with China. Beijing has threatened to retaliate if Washington follows through with its proposed tariffs, even as Trump emphasized his bond with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“President Xi and I will always be friends, no matter what happens with our dispute on trade,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “China will take down its Trade Barriers because it is the right thing to do. Taxes will become Reciprocal & a deal will be made on Intellectual Property. Great future for both countries!”

But Trump did not explain why, amid a week of economic saber-rattling between the two countries that shook global markets, he felt confident a deal could be made.

The president made fixing the trade imbalance with China a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, where he frequently used incendiary language to describe how Beijing would “rape” the US economically. But even as Trump cozied up to Xi and pressed China for help with derailing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, he has ratcheted up the economic pressure and threatened tariffs, a move opposed by many fellow Republicans.

The Trump administration has said it is taking action as a crackdown on China’s theft of US intellectual property. The US bought more than $500 billion in goods from China last year and now is planning or considering penalties on some $150 billion of those imports. The US sold about $130 billion in goods to China in 2017 and faces a potentially devastating hit to its market there if China responds in kind.

China has pledged to “counterattack with great strength” if Trump decides to follow through on his latest threat to impose tariffs on an additional $100 billion in Chinese goods — after an earlier announcement that targeted $50 billion. Beijing also declared that the current rhetoric made negotiations impossible, even as the White House suggested that the tariff talk was a way to spur China to the bargaining table.

The new White House economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said Sunday that a “coalition of the willing” — including Canada, much of Europe and Australia — was being formed to pressure China and that the US would demand that the World Trade Organization, an arbiter of trade disputes, be stricter on Beijing. And he said that although the US hoped to avoid taking action, Trump “was not bluffing.”

“This is a problem caused by China, not a problem caused by President Trump,” Kudlow said on “Fox News Sunday.”

But he also downplayed the tariff threat as “part of the process,” suggesting on CNN that the impact would be “benign” and said he was hopeful that China would enter negotiations. Kudlow, who started his job a week ago after his predecessor, Gary Cohn, quit over the tariff plan, brushed aside the possibility of economic repercussions.

“I don’t think there’s any trade war in sight,” Kudlow told Fox.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he didn’t expect the tariffs to have a “meaningful impact on the economy” even as he left the door open for disruption. He allowed that there “could be” a trade war but said he didn’t anticipate one.

Another top White House economic adviser, Peter Navarro, took a tougher tack, declaring that China’s behavior was “a wakeup call to Americans.”

“They are in competition with us over economic prosperity and national defense,” Navarro said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” ”Every day of the week China comes into our homes, our business and our government agencies. … This country is losing its strength even as China has grown its economy.”

Trump’s latest proposal intensified what was already shaping up to be the biggest trade battle in more than a half century.

Trump told advisers last week that he was unhappy with China’s decision to tax $50 billion in American products, including soybeans and small aircraft, in response to a U.S. move to impose tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods. Rather than waiting weeks for the US tariffs to be implemented, Trump backed a plan by Robert Lighthizer, his trade representative, to seek the enhanced tariffs.

The rising economic tensions pose a test to what has become Trump’s frequent dual-track foreign policy strategy: to establish close personal ties with another head of state even as his administration takes a harder line. The president has long talked up his friendship with Xi, whom he has praised for consolidating power in China despite its limits on democratic reforms.

Further escalation could be in the offing. The US Treasury Department is working on plans to restrict Chinese technology investments in the US And there is talk that the US could also put limits on visas for Chinese who want to visit or study in this country.

For Trump, the dispute runs the risk of blunting the economic benefits of his tax overhaul, which is at the center of congressional Republicans’ case for voters to keep them in power in the 2018 elections. China’s retaliation so far has targeted Midwest farmers, many of whom were bedrock Trump supporters.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

China blames US for trade frictions, says negotiations currently impossible

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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China stepped up its attacks on the Trump administration over billions of dollars worth of threatened tariffs, saying Washington is to blame for frictions and repeating that it was impossible to negotiate under “current circumstances”.

The comments come after US President Donald Trump on Sunday predicted China would take down its trade barriers, and expressed optimism that both sides could resolve the issue through talks.

Chinese state researchers and media talked down the likely impact of US trade measures on the world’s second largest economy and described the Trump administration’s posturing on trade as the product of an “anxiety disorder”.

“Under the current circumstances, both sides even more cannot have talks on these issues, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters at a regular news briefing.

“The United States with one hand wields the threat of sanctions, and at the same time says they are willing to talk. I’m not sure who the United States is putting on this act for,” Geng said.

The trade frictions were “entirely at the provocation of the United States”, he added.

Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Qian Keming said at the Boao Forum for Asia in the southern province of Hainan, that Beijing did not want to fight a trade war, but was not afraid of one.

Focus this week will be on the forum, with President Xi Jinping and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde delivering speeches on Tuesday.

“GREAT WALL OF DENIAL”

The US move last week to threaten China with tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods was aimed at forcing Beijing to address what Washington says is deeply entrenched theft of US intellectual property and forced technology transfer from US companies.

Beijing’s claims that Washington is the aggressor and is spurring global protectionism, though China’s trading partners for years have complained that it abuses World Trade Organization rules, and practices unfair industrial policies at home that lock foreign companies out of crucial sectors with the intent of creating domestic champions.

After repeated pledges to open up sectors such as financial services, Trump has said in speeches that the United States will no longer let China take advantage of it on trade.

“China’s reaction to Mr. Trump’s legitimate defence of the American homeland has been a Great Wall of denial — despite incontrovertible evidence of Beijing’s illicit and protectionist behaviours,” White House trade advisor Peter Navarro said in a commentary in the Financial Times on Monday.

“Nothing less than the US’s economic future is at risk from China’s assault on American technology and IP, and its mercantilist bid to capture emerging high-tech industries,” he said.

Chinese officials deny such charges, and responded within hours of Trump’s announcement of tariffs with their own proposed commensurate duties. The move prompted Trump to threaten duties on an additional $100 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods.

None of the measures have yet gone into effect.

China’s ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai said in an interview in China’s Securities Daily newspaper that the United States should “adopt a more responsible attitude” on trade or it would harm itself with its own policies.

“Some people in the United States are still accustomed to being the world leader, and haven’t adapted to the change in the global situation,” Cui said.

The Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper described US trade policies as a populist tilt by Trump ahead of the US mid-term elections, but that the steps would ultimately end up hurting US households through higher consumer prices.

“In the world’s perception, the US is overshadowed by an anxiety disorder and is very keen to show its anxiety,” the newspaper said.

“IMPACT WILL BE LIMITED”

A researcher with China’s state planning agency said China’s economy will see little impact from the trade dispute, as the country’s vast domestic market can compensate for any external impact.

“As China’s economy is stable and improving … the China-US trade friction will impact our economy, but the impact will be limited,” Wang Changlin, a researcher at the National Development and Reform Commission, wrote in a post on the commission’s official microblog account.

Even with the US tariffs, China can still reach its 2018 GDP growth target of around 6.5 percent and the impact on employment will be limited, Wang wrote.

Fan Gang, an influential economist and adviser to China’s central bank, on Sunday flagged the possibility of a US trade war as the US economy faces pressure from China’s rapid development.

Discussion of the trade dispute also touched on the possibility of China leveraging its massive holdings of US government debt, which has been dubbed the “nuclear option”.

Zhang Yuyan, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think-tank, said China was unlikely to sell off its holdings of US Treasury bonds as a tactic in its trade dispute with the United States.

“On whether China will reduce its foreign exchange reserves, how policymakers think, I don’t know. I personally believe this possibility is very small,” Zhang said on Sunday in Boao.

China is evaluating the potential impact of a gradual yuan depreciation as a tool in the trade dispute, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter, though it said the analysis doesn’t mean officials will carry out the move.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Trump predicts trade concessions by China, despite rising tensions

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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U.S. President Donald Trump predicted on Sunday that China would take down its trade barriers, expressing optimism despite escalating trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies that have roiled global markets in the past week.

The two countries have threatened each other with tens of billions of dollars’ worth of tariffs in recent days and Chinese officials have said this is not the time for negotiations.

But Trump administration officials have stressed that the tariffs are not yet in place and the dispute could be resolved through talks.

In a Twitter post on Sunday, Trump echoed this, saying “China will take down its trade barriers because it is the right thing to do. Taxes will become reciprocal and a deal will be made on intellectual property.”

He referred to his personal relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping and said the two men would always be friends, adding, “Great future for both countries!”

There has been no indication that Trump and Xi have had any conversations since the trade conflict erupted last week and no formal trade talks between the United States and China have been scheduled yet.

On Tuesday, Washington unveiled some $50 billion worth of proposed tariffs on Chinese imports and on Thursday Trump upped the ante, directing U.S. trade officials to identify tariffs on another $100 billion of Chinese imports. He said this was “in light of China’s unfair retaliation” against the earlier U.S. trade action.

China responded by saying it was fully prepared to respond with a “fierce counter strike” if the United States followed through on the new threat.

China’s Commerce Ministry spokesman, Gao Feng, said on Friday that Trump’s threat of another package of tariffs was “extremely mistaken” and unjustified, adding no negotiations were likely in the current circumstances.

Crude oil and global equity markets tumbled on Friday on investor worries about the impact a tariff war could have on the world economy.

‘FIRMLY ATTACKED’

China’s state media has sharply criticized the United States, saying its trade protectionism actions will end in defeat. “If the U.S. says that it will pay any price, it must be firmly attacked,” China’s official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

On Sunday, the state People’s Daily newspaper sought to tap into concern among some U.S. business leaders over the impact of Washington’s planned tariffs.

“We call on the international business community including the United States industrial and commercial circles to take prompt and effective measures and urge the U.S. government to correct its errors,” it said.

Trump’s chief economic adviser, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow, has repeatedly sought in recent days to soothe concerns about a trade war, stressing that no tariffs have yet been implemented.

He reiterated that in an interview on CNN’s State of the Union show on Sunday, saying, “This process might turn out to be very benign … Maybe China will want to come round and talk in earnest – so far it hasn’t, I hope it does.”

The United States, charging China with unfair trade practices and theft of intellectual property, proposed some $50 billion in tariffs on Tuesday – 25 percent tariffs on more than 1,300 Chinese industrial and other products from flat-panel televisions to electronic components.

China shot back within hours with its own list of proposed duties on $50 billion of American imports, including soybeans, aircraft, cars, beef and chemicals.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on the CBS program Face The Nation there was a risk of a trade war between the United States and China but that he did not expect one.

He added that Trump and Xi have a “very close relationship” and that the United States and China would continue to discuss trade issues

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

China’s state media says US tariff action will be defeated

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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China’s state media has rallied against the United States warning its trade protectionism actions would end in defeat and that the only option now was to hit the United States hard enough so it will “remember the pain”.

“If the US says that it will pay any price, it must be firmly attacked,” China’s official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

China warned on Friday it was ready with a “fierce counter strike” of fresh trade measures if the United States follows through on US President Donald Trump’s threat to slap tariffs on an additional $100 billion of Chinese goods.

On Wednesday, China imposed $3 billion of tariffs on US fruits, nuts, wine and pork, just hours after the Trump administration proposed duties on some 1,300 Chinese industrial, technology, transport and medical products.

Also read: US-China trade rift could squeeze growth and hurt consumers

Rising trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies follow the US finding that China was engaging in unfair trade practices in connection with intellectual property protections. China rejects the charge.

China’s media, which is strictly controlled by the government, has come out in defence of the country, painting the country as a victim of an overly aggressive United States bent on taking illegitimate unilateral action.

“The White House has completely lost its sense of reality!,” said the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper in a Friday commentary, alleging the United States is acting unilaterally and engaging in trade protectionism.

Meanwhile, the nationalist Global Times said in an editorial published late on Thursday that the “Chinese are aware that the only option now is to hit the US hard enough so that it will remember the pain.”

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Trump to mull US biofuels policy options in Monday’s cabinet meeting

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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US President Donald Trump will review a list of potential changes to the nation’s renewable fuel laws at a meeting with members of his cabinet on Monday, two sources said, as biofuels groups warned against any action that would weaken ethanol demand.

Trump in recent months has waded deep into the controversial issue of reforming the US Renewable Fuel Standard, a 2005 law requiring refiners to blend increasing amounts of biofuels into their fuel pool each year or buy credits from those who do.

Merchant refiners like Valero and PBF Energy pulled Trump into the debate, arguing that complying with the regulation has grown too costly and will kill off the types of blue-collar jobs Trump had promised to defend.

But Trump’s efforts to reform the law have been met by fierce opposition from corn farmers and ethanol producers who are quick to remind the president that he also vowed to preserve the RFS during corn-belt campaign stops.

Monday’s meeting will include Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt and Agricultural Secretary Sonny Perdue. Pruitt heads into the meeting under pressure from lawmakers to resign over allegations he broke ethics rules by renting a room in a Washington condo owned by the wife of an energy industry lobbyist.

Pruitt and Perdue have spent the last several weeks compiling a list of options for Trump to consider on the RFS, ranging from more aggressive tactics like capping the prices of blending credits, called RINs, to lifting seasonal restrictions on high-ethanol gasoline sales.

“A waiver or cap on RIN prices would fundamentally undermine the Renewable Fuel Standard and deal a massive blow to rural America,” Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said in a statement on Friday.

In recent weeks, advisers have urged Trump to let lawmakers tackle the issue, and only use the threat of executive action to coerce them to make it a priority.

Iowa farmers and biofuel groups sent a letter to Grassley and fellow Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst on Friday, urging them to reach out to Trump to express their anger.

“Any Administration action to waive or cap RINs will be viewed as nothing less than a declaration of war on rural America and a complete abdication of his repeated promises to protect the RFS,” said the letter, orchestrated by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association.

Biofuel groups are also frustrated with the administration over reports that the EPA was exempting small refineries from the program, including three owned by one of the nation’s largest refining companies, Andeavor.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

US-China trade rift could squeeze growth and hurt consumers

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Higher prices. Slower growth. Farmers losing access to their biggest foreign market.

Even US President Donald Trump is warning that Americans might have to accept “a little pain” before they enjoy the fruits of his escalating trade fight with China.

On the pain part, if not necessarily on the “little” part, most economists agree with the president: The tariffs the United States and China are preparing to slap on each other’s goods would take an economic toll.

For now, optimists are clinging to tentative signals from the Trump administration that it may be prepared to negotiate with Beijing and avert a trade war.

But Wall Street is getting increasingly nervous. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 572 points Friday after being down as much as 767.

“There are no winners in trade wars,” said Nathan Sheets, chief economist at PGIM Fixed Income. “There are only losers.”

On Thursday, Trump ordered the US trade representative to consider imposing tariffs on up to $100 billion worth of Chinese products. Those duties would come on top of the $50 billion in products the US has already targeted in a dispute over Beijing’s sharp-elbowed drive to supplant America’s technological supremacy.

China has proposed tariffs of $50 billion on US products that will squeeze apple growers in Washington, soybean farmers in Indiana and winemakers in California. And Beijing warned Friday that it will “counterattack with great strength” if the United States ups the ante.

Of course, it may not come to that.

“We’re absolutely willing to negotiate,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday on CNBC, adding, “I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ll be able to work this out.”

At the same time, Mnuchin warned, “There is the potential of a trade war.”

Economists are already calculating the potential damage if talks collapse and give way to the biggest trade dispute since World War II.

The duelling tariffs could shave 0.3 percentage points off both US and Chinese annual economic growth, according to estimates by Gregory Daco, head of US economics for the research firm Oxford Economics.

In the United States, Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said the dispute could wipe out half the economic benefits of the tax cut Trump signed into law with great fanfare in December.

“There are lots of different channels through which this hurts the economy,” Zandi said. “The most obvious is, it raises import prices. If American consumers have to spend more on Chinese imports, they have less to spend on everything else.”

In the first $50 billion in planned tariffs, the Trump administration was careful to limit the impact on American consumers, sticking mostly to industrial products such as robots and engine parts.

But if the administration tries to triple the tariffs, they will be more likely to hit the low-priced Chinese products that American households have come to rely on, namely electronics, toys and clothing.

The administration appears to be betting that China will back down because it has more to lose. It sent $375 billion in goods to the US last year, while the United States sent only $130 billion worth of products to China.

But China has other ways to retaliate. It could cancel aircraft orders from Boeing. It could meddle with US supply chains by disrupting shipments from Chinese factories to American companies. Or it could raise US interest rates by selling Treasury bonds or buying fewer of them.

The Chinese appear confident they can withstand more pain than Americans can. In a democracy like the US, “if people start to hurt, they’re going to complain,” said Sheets, who was undersecretary for international affairs in the Obama administration Treasury Department.

They’re complaining already.

Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation lobbying group, warned that the dispute has “placed farmers and ranchers in a precarious position.”

“We have bills to pay and debts we must settle, and cannot afford to lose any market, much less one as important as China,” Duvall said.

Last year, the United States sold $12.4 billion in soybeans to China — nearly 60 percent of all US soybean exports.

Trump, who received overwhelming support in rural America in the 2016 presidential election, has directed Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue “to implement a plan to protect our farmers and agricultural interests.” But a move to support American farmers could widen the trade dispute.

“Farmers in countries like Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Canada and Europe would now find it difficult to compete with newly subsidized US agriculture,” said Chad Bown, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “As a result, they might demand retaliation against US exports or subsidies of their own.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Facebook’s struggles with user privacy: A timeline

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Earlier this week, Facebook Inc said personal data of about 87 million users may have been leaked to British political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica, up from an earlier media estimate of 50 million.

While the social media giant has not seen “any meaningful impact” on ad sales or usage, CEO Mark Zuckerberg conceded that “it’s not good” if people are unhappy with the company.

The Cupertino-based company is no stranger to issues with user privacy. The company faced its first major public outcry two years after its launch, in 2016, when it debuted its news feed feature.

The feed, which has since become synonymous with our facebook  experience, had created a storm as it let users gather a tremendous amount of information about the people they cared, without having to check their profiles individually.

Since then, the company has faced a lawsuit over privacy, has admitted that a scientist on its payroll manipulated the newsfeed of half a million people in a ‘mood manipulation’ experiment, and finally, admitted to knowing about the massive data leak.

While Zuckerberg, who is set to face two congressional hearings next week, has apologized for the leak and announced sweeping changes to Facebook’s privacy policy, questions about why the company kept silent about a data leak of this magnitude remain.

Also read: We made mistakes, admits Zuckerberg in his Facebook post

Here, we list out Facebook’s major issues with user privacy over the years:

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow