Tag Archives: US protectionism

US trade policy's attention is now turning towards China, with a threat of new tariffs. But we see here a lot of political rhetoric.After the tariffs on steel and aluminium, the Trump Administration’s attention now seems to be focused on China as the US’s merchandise trade deficit with China rose to a new high of USD 375bn in 2017. The trade hawks close to Trump – Ross, Lighthizer and Navarro – seem to be having an increasing influence on Trump, and they seem eager to reach a new deal with...

CEO sentiment reaches a record high, but protectionist tendencies could impact confidence down the road.US businesses are feeling good – in fact, they are borderline euphoric. The latest evidence comes from the quarterly Business Roundtable CEO economic outlook index, a survey of 137 CEOs, conducted in February, which rose to its highest level since the survey began 15 years ago. All three sub-indices (capex, employment, sales) rose to fresh highs.Particularly encouraging was the sharp rise...

Trump’s speech to Congress proved short on detail when it came to his main economic policy proposals. However, we believe a potentially significant fiscal package will eventually be approved.In his first speech to Congress yesterday, President Trump sounded more presidential but was short of specifics on many of his main policy proposals. He once again complained that US companies are facing higher barriers than their foreign counterparts, but didn’t elaborate on how specifically he intended...