New Trump Orders Take Aim at Trade
March 30 2017 - 10:29PM
Dow Jones News
By Peter Nicholas and Jacob M. Schlesinger
President Donald Trump plans to sign a pair of executive orders
Friday aimed at curbing what he sees as unfair trade practices that
have damaged the U.S. economy and wiped out jobs while adding to
the nation's trade deficit, administration officials said.
The orders are modest compared with the dramatic changes in
trade policy that Mr. Trump promised on the campaign trail. But
administration officials said they underscore the president's
determination to reset trade relations so that American employers
can compete on more equitable terms.
One of the orders calls for a study that will examine past trade
agreements and measure whether they delivered the promised
benefits. The report, due in 90 days, will also attempt to tally
various trade abuses country-by-country so that the White House has
an accurate picture of trade practices that Trump officials
conclude are putting the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage,
officials said in a briefing at the White House.
Peter Navarro, who heads the White House's National Trade
Council, said that "for the first time we're looking
comprehensively at the source of what has been a large and
persistent trade deficit that has contributed to job losses, a loss
of our manufacturing base and other things."
The second order aims to improve collection of financial
penalties against countries that dump products into the U.S. below
production costs or illegally subsidize companies exporting
products to the U.S. At present, about $2.8 billion in such duties
have gone uncollected, administration officials said. The order
seeks to improve collections through "every tool" under U.S. and
international law.
Most importers in the U.S. are required to post a security --
usually in the form of a customs bond --as a kind of insurance
against default on any obligations in the U.S. The order would
toughen the requirements on those bonds to make it easier to
collect duties imposed on importers accused of dumping.
"We will deter the cheaters," Mr. Navarro said.
The relatively small actions were striking because they were
announced by two men seen as trade hard-liners in the
administration: Mr. Navarro and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross .
Both have advocated more aggressive trade actions than some of Mr.
Trump's other advisers, like National Economic Council director
Gary Cohn, who was formerly president of Goldman Sachs Group
Inc.
Officials suggested the orders could lead to bigger actions down
the line -- especially after the study is completed in 90 days.
Administration officials played down the notion that China is a
special target of the orders. But in describing the measures, they
made clear that the U.S. trade deficit with China is the largest,
at $347 billion in 2016.
Mr. Trump is to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping next week at
his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Fla. The meeting figures to be
tense, with trade an issue that divides the world's two largest
economies.
In a pair of tweets Thursday, Mr. Trump wrote: "The meeting next
week with China will be a very difficult one in that we can no
longer have massive trade deficits and job losses. American
companies must be prepared to look at other alternatives."
Write to Peter Nicholas at peter.nicholas@wsj.com and Jacob M.
Schlesinger at jacob.schlesinger@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 30, 2017 23:14 ET (03:14 GMT)
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