Harley-Davidson to shift production out of U.S. to avoid Trump’s trade war

President Donald Trump’s trade war with the European Union is undermining Harley-Davidson Inc., a manufacturer he embraced soon after taking office, by costing the company as much as US$100 million a year and spurring a shift in motorcycle production out of the U.S.

http://business.financialpost.com/transportation/autos/harley-to-shift-production-out-of-u-s-to-avoid-eus-tariffs-2

The first layoffs from Trump's tariffs are here

Mid-Continent Nail, America's largest nail manufacturer, says all 500 of its employees could lose their jobs by Labor Day. The Missouri company blames the layoffs on President Trump's tariffs.

The trouble for the company started at the end of May when Trump put a hefty 25 percent tariff on steel imports from Mexico and Canada. Mid-Continent had been importing steel from Mexico that American workers would then turn into nails.

After the tariff, the company was forced to hike its prices and customers fled. Orders are a mere 30 percent of what they were a year ago, said George Skarich, the vice president of sales. He suspects many customers are now buying Chinese nails.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-mid-continent-nail-tariff-layoffs-20180626-story.html

Swamp Creature Alert: US Trade Warrior Wilbur Ross made billions on tariffs & flipping failed companies!

Fox News host calls out Wilbur Ross over conflicts of interest on investments

( Wilbur) Ross is currently involved in tariff negotiations.“He’s negotiating over South Korean steel imports while making money from importing South Korean steel,”

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/391646-fox-news-host-calls-out-wilbur-ross-over-conflicts-of-interest-on-investments

The Bottom-Feeder King

Never mind hedge funds. Wilbur Ross gets rich the unfashionable way—in steel plants, textile mills, and other stuff nobody wants.

http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/bizfinance/columns/moneyandmind/10279/index1.html#print

Does the US Have Any Leverage on China?

.... the idea that the country (China) can’t get by without the U.S. market doesn’t fit the data. At the most basic level, China exported a bit more than $500 billion in goods and services to the United States last year. This comes to a bit more than 4.0 percent of its GDP, measured on a dollar exchange rate basis.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/09/does-the-us-have-any-leverage-on-china/

Tesla will build a factory in China that can produce 500,000 cars a year

Tesla follows Harley-Davidson Inc. in charting plans to expand outside the U.S. to circumvent tariffs under Trump’s escalating trade disputes.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-10/tesla-is-said-to-plan-china-plant-with-500-000-vehicle-capacity

China Ebay & Amazon: Hello customer! We will mark your purchase as gift made in Brooklyn USA! Item value $1 USD :)

The United States will impose large sanctions on Turkey for their long time detainment of Pastor Andrew Brunson, a great Christian, family man and wonderful human being.

You can always find reason if it is necessary :-)

Erdogan had previously linked Brunson’s return to the US to the extradition of cleric Fethullah Gulen, the cleric Turkey’s government holds responsible for a failed military coup. Gulen, who denies orchestrating the coup attempt, lives in Pennsylvania. Turkish requests for his arrest and extradition have not been granted.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-us-asked-israel-to-free-terror-suspect-in-deal-for-pastor-held-in-turkey/

The Trump administration will propose more than doubling its planned tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports, ratcheting up pressure on Beijing to return to the negotiating table, three people familiar with the internal deliberations said.

The U.S. imposed 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese products in early July, and the review period on another $16 billion of imports ends Wednesday. President Donald Trump had threatened an additional $200 billion with levies of 10 percent, a level the administration may raise to 25 percent in a Federal Register notice in coming days, one of the people said.

Well, there might have been a time in history when Germans regretted their voting too…

More Turkey thing development

The Office of the United States Trade Representative announced today that it is reviewing the eligibility of Turkey to participate in the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program based on concerns related to its compliance with the GSP market access criterion.

“The Trump Administration has concerns with Turkey’s compliance with GSP’s market access criterion,” said Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish. “We hope that Turkey will work with us to address the concerns that led to this new review of their duty-free access to the United States.”

Turkey has imposed additional tariffs on $1.78 billion of U.S. imports only and not to other trading partners. USTR is launching a self-initiated GSP eligibility review of Turkey based on concerns related to its compliance with the GSP market access criterion.

The United States imported $1.66 billion in 2017 from Turkey under the GSP program, representing 17.7 percent of total U.S. imports from Turkey. The leading GSP import categories were vehicles and vehicle parts, jewelry and precious metals, and stone articles.

Turkish currency situation

U.S. President Donald Trump said he had authorised higher tariffs on imports from Turkey, imposing a 20 percent duty on aluminium and 50 percent one on steel.

Trump noted on Twitter that the lira “slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar!”

I can only rephrase - "So this is how global trade dies . . . with thunderous applause."

And we entered in the last phase of imperialism, dark and bloody one, as it wants to take many people into his grave.

Western news

Turkey’s currency lost more than 40 percent against the dollar this year.

This is largely due to Erdogan’s influence over the economy, his calls for lower interest rates and worsening ties with the US.

How amazing you can turn all around. It is not US sanctions that lead to currency drop and rates increase, and as soon as president said stop to further (already very high!) rates increase it was another round of attack.

Can't say that Turkey is all perfect (actually it is lot of issues that made it all possible to do!), but at least it is more or less honest and doing real stuff.

On August 7th, the administration announced that it will be placing a 25 percent tariff on $16 billion in Chinese goods.

On the proposed list of affected goods, sandwiched between special purpose motor vehicles and refrigerated vessels, is HTS code 8711.60.00, described as “Motorcycles (incl. mopeds) and cycles, w/electric motor for propulsion.” In other words, electric bicycles and scooters.

The US will start enforcing the tariff on August 23rd. And the timing isn’t exactly ideal. The taxes are coming at a moment when the fledgling industry already has a lot to handle.

Life will be clearly improving.