There is something stinky about this entire China-Trump debacle. China holds most of the US debt. It manufactures 80% of America's drugs. It doesnt need US pork. With its vast land and people it has pig farms forever. It manufactures most of the world's textiles. There is no one in the WH who is capable of doing the math of billions and billions in calculations of tariffs on so many thousands of products. What the Democrats and Americans need to realize is that China is willing and able to meddle in our elections for Trump and is most likely already onboard. What are Americans doing about it?
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This is nothing but one more lever of power the Chinese have over Failed 45. No telling what he promised them in return...
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Times needs improve its research. Any Chinese person in the world or anyone who does business in China knows that China only lowered those tariffs as it needs those food items. They aren’t weakening their position. They are waiting for Trump to implode; and, in the meantime establishing new trade routes, green energy products, AI, high tech... by the time USA wakes up they will be the biggest global economy and leading in most industries, the RMB will be the de facto global currency, the military will control the Pacific and Space, and then they will walk into USA and buy it piece by piece... they will only be stopped by a global catastrophe like war or when sea level rise wipes out the East coast.
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Pearls before swine.
The idea that China will make any meaningful deal with this administration is laughable. As if China is going to reward the United States after being consistently, publicly shamed and debased on twitter, like a dog having its nose rubbed in it's own mess.
Though this administration says it has been working on getting a deal, they have no deal, so the plan is to make an interim deal to have no deal while working on a deal.
This is not moving forward. It is more of the same.
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This China demonizing is a re-run of the Japanese demonizing of the 80s. It would be laughable, if it weren't so sad. Notably, it is American hypocrisy at its best. We all know the American multinationals moved to China to exploit cheap labor and, as a result, many Americans lost their jobs. So when America blames China, it is equivalent to a prostitute complaining about the indecent behavior of her clients. If Trump forced the American MNCs out of China, they would move to other cheap labor countries like Vietnam, Thailand or Cambodia. The final result is the same. The parties to be penalized are the US multinationals, not the host countries! Instead Trump gives them tax breaks so they buy back shares! If anything, a credible art of the deal master's tax breaks would have only been granted to those MNCs repatriating production to the US and creating jobs. It is a big joke as it also highlights the self-destructive instincts of Anglo-Saxon capitalism in contrast with Rhenish capitalism. It is easy to predict that it will, once again, end dramatically.
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@Viking 1 - Demonization is not good for anybody. Looking back the relationship with Japan was stabilized after a currency exchange rate change which changed the dynamics greatly. I believe what is required is something similar with China, but instead the current strategy is to adopt policy which pushes the yuan down - ultimately damaging US exports even more.
I was really hoping some Dem candidates would offer strategic perspective on this issue by there is nothing. There is of course criticism, but no replacement plan.
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China lowers tarrifs on things it needs. Trump didn't win anything.
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The worst part of this is evidence that Trump is making headway after 20+ years of abdication by Obama, Bush and Clinton. Not great for the next election.
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Farmers shouldn't become to dependent on China. Political issues other than trade are roiling. Is trade wealth worth helping a communist dictatorship increase in power...they have huge reeducation camps have almost total control of what may be discussed on media people disappear.. south china sea neighbors,Taiwan even Hong Kong have this fatein store for them.
Trump calling out China on trade/tariffs has exposed flaws in their economy and shortages which is likey to help keep Hong Kongors and others cause alive.
Freedoms of others ?or trade profits?
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Does it feels like FOX dumped their comment section rejects and they all ended up here? What’s with the comments praising Trump for trade war, insinuating China have food riots and someone blinked first?
As far as I know, there are always people from both sides working behind the scene to ease tension and get more trade talks scheduled. Thursday afternoon in the US is Friday morning in China so the ease of tension was simultaneous. Both side must have reached an agreement before we hear about this.
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@AmateurHistorian
NY Times readers are generally intelligent. Most of them are smart enough to separate their contempt for Trump from the much larger problem of 20 years of Chinese economic warfare.
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Its too late for many farm bankruptcies across flyover country and the suicides that followed.
Hopefully farmers will think twice about supporting Trump who could change his mind about tariffs or anything else in a Tweet and send them into bankruptcy or worse.
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@Jacquie, What? I haven't read of any, this isn't India. If China relaxed the tariffs then they needed the product.
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@Ryan Bingham
They didn't relax them. They just aren't raising them further, just as trump delayed raising them first.
An yes, companies in the United States that export goods overseas are seeing massive losses, and bankruptcy's are ramping up.
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You don't suppose it's because they need the food. Only the Chinese are punished by tariffs on food. And we are punished by the tariffs trumpboy puts on products we want.
Hmm. Are farmers buying pork and serving soybeans? I guess it so they can buy cheap pork and serve cheap soybeans and turn around and make profits on them because they can’t grow their own, no?
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Let’s not forget Smithfood Foods the largest park producer in the US is owned by a Chinese CO. Paying tariffs on products produced by a company based in China must be galling.
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They don’t produce, they are meat packers. They buy from farmers and turn hogs into products. Yes paying tariffs on your own company’s products hurts but they are not breeding hogs and buying feed and cleaning slop. Our farmers are.
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And China caves. They couldn't keep holding out or imposing higher prices on their subjects forever. They're way too dependent on our soybeans. There's only so much arable land to feed that country. They've poisoned theirs and South America can't keep up. And at the same time, there are plenty of other countries that can manufacture the junk we get from China, and they are less likely to be human-rights abusers or powerful hostile countries working against our interests.
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China can’t feed itself yet and infected farms have diminished its pork output. Their pork reserves were said to be 50 grams per 4 days. That’s a whopping 1 2/3 oz per person for 4 days. They stopped Canadian pork also over the arrest of an executive wanted in the US. If they learned anything from Hong Kong they’re not ready for food riots on the mainland. So, let’s talk they say before lunch.
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I think this is all relatively temporary. As China grows - its economy becomes the size of the U.S. or larger- it will renegotiate with significantly worse terms.
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Another win for the president it will be entertaining to see how the fake news spins this victory.
The the real disaster has always been a 350 billion dollar deficit and the export of millions of American jobs.
The president's policies are working and soon a fair trade deal will result in massive American gains.
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Don't know if what your saying is true. Just returned from China after a month. The economy seems robust. Prices are rising but so are wages. Have friends that tell me jobs are plentiful especially in service economy.
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@Obumma "The president's policies are working and soon a fair trade deal will result in massive American gains."
All empires fail in time. Trump et al are greasing the skids on the USA`s fall. Trump`s sanctions and tariffs on China are like shouting at the incoming tide to try to stop it. That is not winning. That is not even a game. That is inevitable.
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It's not easing trade tension but a mere compulsion after severe pork shortage and social unrest due to that was growing there.
Better not to get into such tricks by countries like China, North Korea etc.
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You have to give Trump credit for standing up to China, and to everyone’s amazement China is the first to blink.
There is much that we can fault Trump, but he has been outstanding, when it came to areas where the United States have been carrying the ball & losing yards.Such as Nato, and now with China.Some might call it collusion, but we have never been as close to Russia as we are today.We are talking to North Korea, and although we have not stopped their nuclear adventures , we still have peace.No matter what the Liberal Media critics Trump, there is no smoking gun. The Democrat light weights at the debate yesterday are no match for Trump.Trump wins in 2020.
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@Independent1776
What difference does it make who "blinked first" in this trade war? But since you mention, Trump delayed the tariffs by two weeks and China responded in kind.
For a change, and for a brief moment, sensible actions have taken hold. We can use more of this, instead of Trump's wild gyrating feats of worthless strength.
How long will this last in the world of Trump?
Sadly his supporters believe "blinking" is the most important aspect defining Trump's Presidency.
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I don't know who will be the next president. Neithller do you. A lot depends on the economy especially employment and confidence in income gains. People forget that N Korea behavior is greatly influenced by China and not Trump. It would be negative for Trump's reelection is he backs down on all demands which he usually does. That's the Trump put. I'm still awaiting his wall.
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@David There is no scenario where Trump is not reelected. That I know. Same happened with George W Bush. The media called him names for four years and then was shocked when he was reelected.
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Like the weather was not enough, now farmers need to grow crops which can survive the political breeze and heat.
Climate change every day.
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