Members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate have introduced bills that would order the President to impose export bans on Chinese telecoms found to violate US export and sanctions laws. Companies like Huawei and ZTE are a "growing threat to American national security," according to co-sponsor Rep. Mike Gallagher.

Of course, as they are especially threat to large telecoms equipment manufacturers.

Foxconn Freezes Plans for $10 Billion Wisconsin LCD Campus

Foxconn has scrambled the picture on its plans to build a $10 billion LCD campus in Wisconsin. Reuters reports that the plans — announced amid great fanfare by Donald Trump in 2017 — have recently been scaled back and altered.

While Foxconn originally said it would create a 20-million square foot operation for building the LCD screens, creating 3,000 jobs — with plans for another 10,000 at a later date — it now intends to mostly hire engineers and researchers rather than a manufacturing workforce. One Reuters source estimated that it would probably hire closer to 1,000 workers.

“If Foxconn can’t be competitive making electronics in the U.S., nobody can… Now that Foxconn is acknowledging the truth about manufacturing in America, it might be time for the country to face that same reality.”

http://fortune.com/2019/01/30/foxconn-freezes-plans-wisconsin/

Next tweet storm by MAGA

Looking for China to open their Markets not only to Financial Services, which they are now doing, but also to our Manufacturing, Farmers and other U.S. businesses and industries. Without this a deal would be unacceptable!

Derek Scissors, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said before the talks began that a short-term deal on China’s substantial purchase of US goods was likely, but played down the possibility of substantial progress China could make structural reforms.

“I do not believe that the real problems in the US-China relationship can be solved because the Chinese development model under Xi Jinping is directly contradictory to what the US wants,” he said.

As the talks began, the tension between the parties was palpable, said body language expert Rebecca Klein, reviewing video footage showing Lighthizer breaking the silence with a joke about how one end of the table would get far more TV exposure than the other.

“Their body language is one of overcompensation with forced smiles and posturing,” said Klein of Baltimore-based TALLsmall Productions, referring to Lighthizer and another US negotiator, Peter Navarro. She added that they presented the body language of “nervous freshmen in an upper-level classroom.”

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2184388/us-china-trade-war-talks-begin-vp-liu-he-sitting-opposite-us?fbclid=IwAR31DlU_LPH2MfKmTDnlmDxOURY6OVfK_E6D_ZyRw8DYWevi-R33lHmjIis

It Looks Like Trump Has New Trade War Foes: India and Turkey

In the latest maneuver in his war on trade deficits, President Donald Trump announced Monday his intentions to end preferential treatment for India and Turkey that allows billions of dollars’ worth of exports to enter the U.S. duty-free.

The biggest beneficiary of the so-called Generalized System of Preferences, India exported $5.6 billion of products to the U.S. duty-free in 2017 thanks to the program, and Turkey was No. 5 on the list, importing $1.7 billion of products duty-free.

Trump has frequently taken India to task for its tariffs on U.S. imports. “I am taking this step because, after intensive engagement between the United States and the government of India, I have determined that India has not assured the United States that it will provide equitable and reasonable access to the markets of India,” Trump told congressional leaders in a letter.

http://fortune.com/2019/03/05/trump-trade-war-india-turkey/

Japan is set to review its academic guidelines to prevent leaks of advanced U.S. technologies when universities conduct research with China as well as other countries.

A growing number of Japanese schools are partnering with universities and companies in the U.S., China and elsewhere. Washington intends to impose tight restrictions on the disclosure of advanced technology originating in the U.S. to third countries, and Japan's trade ministry has determined that additional measures will be needed to ensure compliance.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will set specific guidelines for Japanese universities that do research with multiple countries or accept students from abroad. As the U.S. plans to restrict exports of advanced technologies in 14 areas -- including artificial intelligence, biotech, positioning technology, microprocessors, robotics, data analysis, quantum computing, transportation and 3D printers -- to China and other countries, METI may include these fields in the new guidelines.

A joint venture between U.S. smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm Inc and China’s Guizhou province will shut down by the end of the month, The Information reported on Friday, citing employees at the venture.

It seems like real trade war is very near.

As Amazon is going out of China, last week we also saw sudden changes on 5G market where Apple and Qualcomm suddenly made total piece and almost same day Intel ceased development of 5G modems and will stop current production. Most probably we have around 2-4 weeks left before total 20-25% fees.

Stung by Trump’s Trade Wars, Wisconsin’s Milk Farmers Face Extinction

Over the past two years, nearly 1,200 of the state’s dairy farms have stopped milking cows and so far this year, another 212 have disappeared, with many shifting production to beef or vegetables. The total number of herds in Wisconsin is now below 8,000 — about half as many as 15 years ago. In 2018, 49 Wisconsin farms filed for bankruptcy — the highest of any state in the country, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.

But Mr. Trump’s trade approach has pushed many of Wisconsin’s already struggling dairy farmers to the edge. Milk prices have fallen nearly 40 percent over the past five years, the byproduct of economic and technological forces that have made milk easier to produce and state policies that ramped up production and sent prices tumbling.

That has coincided with Mr. Trump’s sweeping tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum, which were intended to help American manufacturers but have set off retaliatory tariffs from Mexico, Canada, Europe and China on American dairy products. Most painful for Wisconsin’s dairy farmers has been a 25 percent tariff that Mexico placed on American cheese, which is made with a significant volume of the state’s milk production.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/26/us/politics/trump-trade-war-wisconsin-dairy.html

The diplomatic cable from Beijing arrived in Washington late on Friday night, with systematic edits to a nearly 150-page draft trade agreement that would blow up months of negotiations between the world’s two largest economies, according to three U.S. government sources and three private sector sources briefed on the talks.

The document was riddled with reversals by China that undermined core U.S. demands, the sources told Reuters.

In each of the seven chapters of the draft trade deal, China had deleted its commitments to change laws to resolve core complaints that caused the United States to launch a trade war: theft of U.S. intellectual property and trade secrets; forced technology transfers; competition policy; access to financial services; and currency manipulation.

Did not work out, it seems. Idealism is no match for materialism :-)

Oracle will shut down its research and development (R&D) arm in China, resulting in the layoffs of more than 900 people.

Serious stuff coming, so all vulnerable things are pulling out.

The tariffs - levies paid by consumers and companies, not China -- could cost an average family of four $767 a year, one study from a group called the Trade Partnership estimated in February. The group also forecast the tariffs would cut U.S. employment by 934,000 people and subtract roughly 0.4 percentage points from U.S. GDP.

Real MAGA.

Chinese response - new rates will take effect at the beginning of next month:

• 2,493 items to be subjected to 25% tariffs.
• 1,078 items to be subject to 20% of tariffs
• 974 items subject to 10% of tariffs
• 595 items continue to be levied at 5% tariffs