Deal with China?

[Ajay]

It's only an agreement in principle, meaning the two countries agree on main points. The details still need to be worked out, if Trump can manage not blowing it up over some stupid tweet tantrum. If a distraction is needed, he’ll blow it up in a New York minute to pursue his own personal agenda over that of the nation's.

 

[K1052]

What do you do when your gambit almost entirely fails and you're left worse off than where you started? Declare victory and try to talk about something else.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/15/mnu...nly-phase-one-deal.html?__source=twitter|main

Mnuchin says China trade war ‘absolutely’ worth it even if a phase one deal is all the US gets

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin believes the U.S. trade war with China will have been worth it even if an incomplete deal is all that is reached.

“Absolutely,” Mnuchin said, in response to being asked on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday whether he thought the “phase one” agreement was enough to make the protracted dispute valuable to the U.S.

Mnuchin has been one of President Donald Trump’s lead negotiators during talks with the Chinese. He described the administration’s view of economic policy to explain why he thinks the phase one deal is good enough to have been worth the trade war.
“Look at the President’s economic plan: The economy is performing because it was all about tax cuts, regulatory relief and trade. We now have USMCA that’s going to pass the Senate this week, we have China phase one, there’s a deal with Japan, a deal with Korea – these are all going to have significantly positive effects on the 2020 economy,” Mnuchin said.

The reality here is that the agreement is ambiguous, fragile, and rather limited. None of the real goals of the trade war have been accomplished. Tariffs appear to remain on many goods long term. As a bonus nobody can figure out how China could possibly meet their purchase pledges given that its 2 or 3 times the most we've ever sold them. The emerging consensus seems to be that they won't.

 

[ShookKnight]

Trump is going to have this paper signed by China;

THE GREATEST DEAL MAKER OF ALL TIME FOLKS! Some say, there is no one better than him!!

 

[cytg111]

Arh the pigeon move... to be fair its the only move he knows

 

[UNCjigga]

You know the Administration is totally behind this awesome “Phase One” Trade Deal when they refuse to release the actual text until it’s signed.

 

[Lanyap]

I thought I was watching the Grammys when Trump was making his announcement.
'I want to thank everyone who made this historic event possible...'

 

[K1052]

preposterous

 

[MomentsofSanity]

Looks like the "Phase One" deal is absolutely nothing but a restatement of China's commitments they have already made to IMF/G-20 and reporting they already do.

 

[Gabe323]

An hour of patting themselves on the back at the event for barely enough to cover the welfare already spent on the farmers?

 

[ch33zw1z]

You know the Administration is totally behind this awesome “Phase One” Trade Deal when they refuse to release the actual text until it’s signed.

You don't like the total transparency?

 

[zzyzxroad]

I thought I was watching the Grammys when Trump was making his announcement.
'I want to thank everyone who made this historic event possible...'

I tuned in late and though he was just naming everyone in the room.

 

[zzyzxroad]

Historic trade deal that not even foxnews.com is hyping up.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1217610329821237248

 

[imported_tajmahal]

Yes, on the news of this horrible trade deal with China the Dow Jones industrials plummeted to 29,030.22

 

[zzyzxroad]

Yes, on the news of this horrible trade deal with China the Dow Jones industrials plummeted to 29,030.22

Who said horrible? More like nothing deal. For sure not historic.

 

[fskimospy]

Gee, who ever could have guessed this would be the result.

 

[Muse]

Well, my first thought was that Trump, being dismayed about being dragged toward the coals of a protracted Senate trial concerning his mis-steps wants to appear a hero any way he can, either by blasting his detractors (par for the course) or letting up on the gas pedal on his campaigns that are hurting people, i.e. in this case the trade war with China. Of course, once it's clear he's not kicked out the White House in the year 2020, he can and probably will put on his nasty mask again because he likes looking nasty. He does not have a strategy, he's a reactionary.

 

[K1052]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...duct-than-thought-new-usda-estimate-suggests/

China could purchase much less U.S. farm product than thought, new USDA estimate suggests

President Trump’s promise in January that China would purchase roughly $40 billion in U.S. agriculture products this year faced new questions on Thursday when a top government economist suggested a much smaller haul could occur, adding uncertainty to a key part of a partial trade deal.

U.S. Department of Agriculture chief economist Robert Johansson projected that agricultural exports to China would reach roughly $14 billion in the year that ends Sept. 30, a $4 billion increase from one year ago.

But that amount would still fall far short of what White House officials said would take place based on the recently announced “Phase One” trade deal with Chinese leaders. White House officials have said agricultural exports to China would be between $40 billion and $50 billion in each of the next two years. Last year, when he was promising the trade deal would lead to a huge increase in purchases, Trump told farmers to buy “more land” and “bigger tractors.”

Who could ever have foreseen this? Also with China in the grip of an economy melting disease outbreak I think $14B is probably a stretch.

As a reminder before Trumpy fucked everything up the US exported over $21B in ag products to China in 2016.

 

[ivwshane]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...duct-than-thought-new-usda-estimate-suggests/

China could purchase much less U.S. farm product than thought, new USDA estimate suggests



Who could ever have foreseen this? Also with China in the grip of an economy melting disease outbreak I think $14B is probably a stretch.

As a reminder before Trumpy fucked everything up the US exported over $21B in ag products to China in 2016.

Where are we at now?

 

[K1052]

Where are we at now?

2019 was $9.2B.

Additionally China has been canceling a lot of contracts with South America because demand has imploded due to COVID-19.

My guess is they (the WH) sees that it's not going to get anywhere remotely close to what they promised and are starting to lower expectations.

 

[zzyzxroad]

Well at least trump got our troops out of the middle east and straitened north korea out.

 

[TheVrolok]

Well at least trump got our troops out of the middle east and straitened north korea out.

Promises made, promises kept. I, for one, also love my big beautiful healthcare.

 

[fskimospy]

Wait, I heard China was going to capitulate to us.

Did that not happen?

 

[Muse]

Gee, who ever could have guessed this would be the result.

I asked my neighbor what he thought about Trump. His simple reply was "he hasn't done anything." I think that's an interesting perspective. About 8 months ago.

 

[K1052]

Wait, I heard China was going to capitulate to us.

Did that not happen?

It happened so well that Trump is going to re-up the farm bailout that Americans are paying for.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

It happened so well that Trump is going to re-up the farm bailout that Americans are paying for.


View attachment 17325

Yeah, this guy gets it...