It's not a good thing for me to bag on the President all the time. I have some very good friends and clients who support him and it's bad for both friendship and business. So when prominent United States Senators go after him, like happened today, stalwart Republicans like Orrin Hatch, Bob Corker, Pat Toomey and Ben Sasse as well as Speaker Paul Ryan and the United States Chamber of Commerce, I get to just sit back and chill.
You folks carry the water for a while. He's your guy.
American farmers and businesses should feel this one right in their solar plexus. Bye bye, soybeans. And people may not realize it but when you slap a tariff on something, the foreign country doesn't pay the cost, an American importer does. This thing is designed to hurt Americans. But since we are now talking protectionism, guess what Mercedes, we don't want you to sell any more luxury cars around here. Auf viedersehn.
Funny that Ross went after the EU today on the new privacy regulations. What great timing. Anybody remember irony?
“We in the US are deeply concerned about the way the EU’s new privacy guidelines, which came into effect last week, will force big changes in the way US and European companies do business,” Ross wrote in the Financial Times.The Trump administration is known to like discord and disruption, likes pushing its weight around. Tries to start big and little wars all the time. Unfortunately most people that get an elbow in the mouth from a bully remember it for a long time and don't take kindly to the gesture. Paybacks can be a bitch.
“We must find a way to implement GDPR without creating undue barriers... EU authorities must provide clearer rules and a more predictable regulatory environment to support investment and innovation.”
Ross, the one time vulture capitalist recently goaded by his boss for being past his prime, doesn't see the big deal and get all the fuss. Why can't our allies react like China did?
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross delivered a harsh message during the annual Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development trade forum in Paris on Wednesday, saying negotiations can continue even with the tariffs in place.Wars of any kind, trade or otherwise, are easy to start and hard to extricate from. You don't start them with your friends. Prudent people use them as measures of last resort.
"There can be negotiations with or without tariffs, it’s not that you can’t talk with tariffs,” Ross said, the Financial Times reported.
“China is an interesting case in point. They are paying the tariffs; they came into effect in March and they haven't used this as an excuse not to talk. It’s only the EU insisting we can’t negotiate if there are tariffs."
"Trump is playing with fire here and he doesn’t quite get it. And I think we are about to go over the cliff. The boil must be lanced. The fever needs to break. History is no longer persuasive. We need fresh evidence that trade wars cause economic contraction and job loss. The rubes who delivered us Trump will bear the brunt. That’s a just outcome.”
Dan Ikenson - Cato Institute