THE BIDEN INVASION - Health inspections for foreign nationals entering our country illegally have gone out the window. That's enabled the importation of many diseases which affect livestock and other agricultural output, and already these things are happening. Legal immigrants and even returning U.S. citizens must pass these inspections to protect the U.S. food supply. But under Joe Biden's catch-and-release, illegals are exempt from such cumbersome requirements. MONICA SHOWALTER
Sunday, May 5, 2019
TRUMP SAYS HE WILL HIKE TARIFFS ON $200 BILLION OF CHINESE GOODS - The end of the days whereupon China sucks the blood out of America?
Religious Freedom Activists to Patton Boggs: Stop Lobbying for China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar
(CNSNews.com) — On May 1, a religious freedom coalition called Save the Persecuted Christians held a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. to announce that it has sent a letter to the Squire Patton Boggs law firm urging it to cease its lobbying efforts for the religiously repressive regimes in Communist China, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
“We write to you as advocates for religious freedom out of a shared concern that foreign governments represented by your firm are among the world’s most aggressive persecutors of people of faith,” states the letter, signed by 46 religious freedom advocates.
“It is deeply troubling to us that your prestigious firm and the many good people it employs are currently associated with and providing legal counsel, representation, and other services to such nations,” they state, adding that some of the firm's attorneys and advisers include former House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).
“As advocates for suffering religious communities globally, we are determined to hold accountable those responsible,” reads the letter. “We respectfully call upon your firm to promptly and fully disassociate itself from and cease all work on behalf of the governments of the People’s Republic of China, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.”
The letter details some of the religious persecution in each of those regimes. Communist China, for instance, “is engaged in systematic repression of every religious minority, including by controlling access to information via the Internet,” states the letter.
Also, over one million Uyghur Muslims are currently being held in Communist Chinese reeducation/concentration camps.
In Saudi Arabia, women are repressed and “Christians and other faith communities in the Kingdom risk imprisonment and gruesome corporal punishments, including decapitation,” reads the letter.
A victim of the anti-Christian bombing in Sri Lanka. (Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images)
The letter also documents payments made to Squire Patton Boggs from China, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar for different reporting periods during the last few years.
Former Congressman Frank Wolf, who signed letter and spoke at the press conference, said, “During the Carter and Reagan administrations, no law firm or public relations firm in this [region, Washington, D.C.] would represent the Soviet Union. There’s been a shift.”
Some of the other letter-signers included Frank Gaffney, president of Save the Persecuted Christians; Pastor Bob Fu, founder and president of ChinaAid; Archbishop Foley Beach, Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church in North America; and Omer Kanat, the director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project.
Trump Says He Will Hike Tariffs to 25% on $200 Billion of Chinese Goods
President Donald Trump said Sunday that he will hike the tariffs on $200 billion of imports from China to 25 percent from 10 percent on Friday.
“The Trade Deal with China continues, but too slowly, as they attempt to renegotiate. No!” the president tweeted.
The U.S. currently charges a 10 percent duty on those goods. The U.S. charges a 25 percent tariff on a $50 basket of mostly high-tech goods made in China.
Trump also said that he would soon impose a 25 percent tariff on an additional $325 billion of Chinese goods that have not yet been subject to the higher duties.
For 10 months, China has been paying Tariffs to the USA of 25% on 50 Billion Dollars of High Tech, and 10% on 200 Billion Dollars of other goods. These payments are partially responsible for our great economic results. The 10% will go up to 25% on Friday. 325 Billions Dollars....
....of additional goods sent to us by China remain untaxed, but will be shortly, at a rate of 25%. The Tariffs paid to the USA have had little impact on product cost, mostly borne by China. The Trade Deal with China continues, but too slowly, as they attempt to renegotiate. No!
Trump’s tweets essentially end the so-called trade truce that has been in effect since December, when the president agreed with his Chinese counterpart to hold off on higher tariffs while the two nations negotiated a trade deal. The U.S. has sought a number of reforms from China, including some that demand fundamental changes to the way the Chinese government manages its economy, such as the end of subsidies to Chinese ‘national champions’ and ending the requirements that U.S. companies partner with Chinese companies when they do business in the Asian nation.
Negotiators from both the U.S. and China have been meeting for months, both in Washington, DC, and Beijing. Recently, officials from both nations have said that the talks are in their final stages. U.S. officials, including the president, have often said that while the talks have been going well it was still possible a deal would not be struck.
Several sticking points have emerged in recent talks, the most recent of which concluded last week in Beijing. China has demanded that the U.S. immediately remove the current tariffs, while U.S. officials have insisted that the tariffs must remain in place while they monitor Chinese reforms. Instead, U.S. officials would strike a deal that would prevent tariffs from going higher.
Chinese officials have surprised U.S. negotiators by appearing to backtrack on several points that the U.S. thought had already been agreed to, including steps to crack down on cyber-hacking and state-subsidies to companies owned partly or wholly by the Chinese government, according to people familiar with the matter. Trump administration officials believe that China’s own nationalists have pushed back on some of the terms agreed by its trade negotiators, arguing that they would be humiliating to China and its leader, Xi Jinping.
China’s nationalists are also pushing back against the basic enforcement mechanism that was proposed by U.S. officials and that several U.S. officials had thought China was close to agreeing to. Under this plan, the U.S. would be able to impose tariffs unilaterally if it found China was not complying with the terms of the deal and China would not be able to retaliate or file complaints with the World Trade Organization. China’s nationalists view this as an unacceptable surrender of Chinese sovereignty.
Trump’s announcement of the higher tariffs comes at a crucial time, just before what had been billed as a penultimate round of talks between the U.S. and are set to resume Wednesday in Washington, DC.
No comments:
Post a Comment