[CTC] ‘America First’ in Davos || Ross says US won’t be a ‘sucker’ on trade

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Two articles below…


Washington Trade Daily
 Thursday, January 25, 2018
 
‘America First’ in Davos
 
A day after President Trump slapped significant punitive duties on imports of residential washing machines – mostly from South Korea – and solar panels primarily from China, two senior officials here said Washington intends to aggressively pursue an “America First” trade agenda, WTD has learned (WTD, 1/24/18).
 
President Trump delivers a similar message today to the assembly of government officials, business executives and academics at the World Economic Forum annual meeting.
 
Setting the stage for Mr. Trump’s visit, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross made it clear in a press conference that Washington will not withdraw from its “America First” agenda. 
 
America First, the Treasury Secretary stated, means working with the rest of the world. “What is good for the US is what’s good for the rest of the world given we are one of the largest trading partners for the world, one of the largest investment opportunities.” Mr. Mnuchin emphasized President Trump’s message that the United States is “is open for business.”
 
The size of the US delegation here – a dozen ranking officials – is testament to the scale of the President’s work over the past year, Mr. Mnuchin added. Aside from the President and secretaries Mnuchin and Ross, also on the US delegation are – Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Thomas Bossert, Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor Jared Kushner, Administrator of the Agency for International Development Mark Green and Commissioner of Food and Drugs Scott Gottlieb. 
 
An Uncompetitive Economic Model
 
Prior to the 2016 Presidential election the United States suffered from an uncompetitive economic model. Now it is a very competitive one, suggested Commerce Secretary Ross. In response to a question the secretary said he is not unduly worried about completion of the latest comprehensive and progressive transPacific partnership agreement struck by 11 countries – minus the United States – on Tuesday. Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the deal on Tuesday.
 
Mr. Ross commented – “We are fans of bilateral trading agreements. We believe in free and fair trade. Anyone who wants to do trade with us on a reciprocal basis is free to do it. We’re looking to increase exports.” But “protections are essential to having markets operate properly, to have everyone play by the rules,” Mr. Ross continued. “Trade wars are fought every single day,” he added. Unfortunately, he continued, every day there are also various parties violating rules and trying to take unfair advantage. “So trade wars have been in place for quite a little while. The difference is that US troops are now coming to the ramparts,” the Secretary argued.
 
The Commerce Secretary also criticized European finance ministers here who voiced concern over recent US corporate tax changes that they characterized as uncompetitive and against World Trade Organization rules. He called issues raised by the French and German finance ministers that the new corporate tax reductions amount to trade barriers “a funny concept.”
 
Mr. Mnuchin defended a weak dollar saying it is going help US exports. He explained that what has provoked a lot of recent trade actions is the inappropriate behavior of US trading partners. “Many countries are good at the rhetoric of free trade, but in fact actually practice extreme protectionism.”
 
The Treasury Secretary met here one-on-one yesterday with Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau, Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Argentina Treasury Minister Nicolas Dujovne

https://www.ft.com/content/cb18f700-011b-11e8-9650-9c0ad2d7c5b5 <https://www.ft.com/content/cb18f700-011b-11e8-9650-9c0ad2d7c5b5>
 
FINANCIAL TIMES
 
Davos 2018: Ross says US won’t be a ‘sucker’ on trade
 
US commerce secretary pushes panellists to ‘name a less protectionist country'
 
Cat Rutter Pooley in London 6 HOURS AGO
 
US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross held firm on the Trump administration’s tough line on international trade but reject suggestions that the US is taking a protectionist stance. During a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Ross pushed fellow panellists to name a “less protectionist country” than the US.
 
“We have the least tariffs”, he said. He added: “We don’t intend to abrogate leadership, but leading is different from being a sucker.” Mr Ross said that he could not imagine that the imposition of higher tariffs on washing machines and solar panels “came as a surprise to anybody”.
 
Echoing comments he made alongside US Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin earlier on Wednesday, Mr Ross denied that the US was starting a new trade war.
 
“Trade disagreements have been going on forever”, he said, speaking alongside the director-general of the World Trade Organization and chief executives of the banking group Standard Chartered, agricultural company Cargill and Italy’s Eni. 
 
But the commerce secretary pressed his case for a rethink of global trading practices, a changing role for the United States and expressed reservations about multilateral agreements. 
 
“The world has changed”, he said, adding there was “no need” for trade to be a “total free-for-all”.
 
“What was perfectly appropriate in 1945 is singularly inappropriate now. I don’t blame the WTO . . . for that: we screwed up. There’s no longer a need to subsidise China or Japan or Europe with our money.” 
 
Facing opposition from Cargill chief executive David MacLennan — who described US withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal as “not good” for Cargill’s business — Mr Ross said the country had not withdrawn because of President Trump. “There was no appetite“ in either the Republican or Democratic parties for the deal, he said.
 
But he repeated a willingness to revive negotiations on trade with the European Union.
 
“When we dropped out from TPP, we did not walk from the [Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership], and that was meant to be a message”, Mr Ross said. “It wasn’t an accident that we didn’t walk from TTIP.”
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20180125/f3de6648/attachment.html>