Ambassador Lighthizer comments on NAFTA prior to departing for China. In the auto sector, Mexico and Canada are still arguing for more Asian/Chinese parts for U.S. automobiles. The U.S. position is for higher North American content. Loggerheads.
I still find it stunning how many people cannot see the ridiculous side of the Mexican and Canadian position; and how that showcases the insanity of NAFTA. Can/Mex are not arguing for more Canada and Mexico content, they are holding out for more Asian content. Their economic models are nothing more than brokering the assembly of cheap Asian goods through their NAFTA access to the U.S. market. Ridiculous.
WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said on Tuesday that if a deal to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement cannot be reached with Canada and Mexico in about three weeks, its approval by the U.S. Congress could be in jeopardy.
Lighthizer said at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event that a deal to update NAFTA was needed quickly because of the lengthy notification process for congressional approval of trade deals.
If a deal takes too long, he said approval by the current Republican-controlled Congress may be on “thin ice” without sufficient time for a vote before November elections put a new Congress in control in January 2019.
Lighthizer is traveling to Beijing for trade talks with Chinese officials on Thursday and Friday, but will resume intensive negotiations with Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo on May 7.
“We’re going to meet again on Monday, and we’ll see,” Lighthizer said. “If we can get a good agreement, I’d like to get it done a week or two after that. If not, then you start having a problem.” (read more)
Regarding China, Lighthizer expanded his comments drawing attention to the inherent differences between a communist “controlled” state policies, and the free market:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s chief trade negotiator said on Tuesday he was not looking to negotiate changes to China’s state-driven economic system in trade talks in Beijing this week but would seek to expose it to more foreign competition.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce he viewed the talks with top Chinese officials on Thursday and Friday as the start of a long learning process for Washington and Beijing to better manage their trade differences.
“It is not my objective to change the Chinese system,” Lighthizer said. “It seems to work for them. … But I have to be in a position where the United States can deal with it, where the United States isn’t the victim of it; and that’s where our role is.”
Lighthizer will be part of a Trump administration delegation that includes U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, White House trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro and new White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow.
Ross said earlier on Tuesday that Trump was prepared to levy tariffs on China if the delegation did not reach a negotiated settlement to reduce trade imbalances.
Speaking to CNBC television before traveling to China for the talks, Ross said he had “some hope” agreements could be reached to resolve the trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
But Ross and Navarro, who spoke to steel company executives in Washington on Tuesday, both said any final decision would be made by Trump. (read more)
This whole crew we have doing trade, commerce and finance just exude confidence and sense of purpose. I can’t think of a time when we had such a talent pool.
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They are a mean lean fighting machine …. Wolverines!!!
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Fe, yes and they are working for us and thank God, not the Globals.
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I want out of NAFTA so badly. So tired of ‘made in China’ on everything. Cheap cr@pmthat doesn’t last. Tired of buying clothing that falls apart the minute I hang it up … well that is an exaggeration but not by much. I want ‘made in the USA’ on all the stuff I buy.
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No kidding Fe. No matter where I go & what I’m buying, there’s basically nothing made in the USA
It’s absolutely outrageous
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Fe,I want to see the label on the left sewn into our clothing again. It signified quality to me. There were adequate seams and the fabric didn’t start piling after a couple wearings.
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🎶Look for the Union label 🎵
⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Just remember to have a look at the history of that. It was used to keep blacks out of jobs. A lot of history there.
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Yes, but there’s a new sheriff in town 🦁
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Yes, but the Union Label was to keep blacks out of the workforce by the Democratic machine.
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WSB, yes you are correct but now it seems the unions have to change if they want to keep members (note how many of the membership voted for Trump) evidently they do not follow the party line when it comes to JOBS or NO Jobs. Times are changing and finally for the betterment of all Americans.
MAGA
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It will be an interesting evolution to watch as members start to move into leadership roles.
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https://cesspoolofhumanity.blogspot.com/2010/08/proud-racist-history-of-labor-unions.html
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Minnie – I worked for many union companies in manufacturing (factory work) in the 1970’s when I was just out of high school. I was paid well and paid my union dues.
But my union experiences left an overall bad taste in my mouth.
As an example:
While employed by Trane, making air handlers (heating units/air conditioners) I attended just one union meeting…A voice vote was called whether to accept or reject the companies’ new contract offer – rejection meant a strike.
The workers overwhelmingly voiced-voted to reject the offer.
The union leaders said the companies’ OFFER IS ACCEPTED.
There were calls for a written ballot re-vote but nothing came of it.
So much for the member’s having an input in union policy.
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A few years ago there was a German car maker in Tennessee who wanted their workers to join the union and they kept rejecting it.
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“….when you are buying that coat, dress or blouse. Remember somewhere our union’s sewing, our wages going to feed the kids and run the house…”
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Those unions are communist front organizations.
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Off topic much?
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No! He or she is right! Raising the cost of Labor is what drove companies to set up shop in places like Mexico and China! Besides NAFTA respectfully! China now has the same problem, rising middle class also means their labor cost are going up! Even though they don’t have unions per say, still basic economics apply. Agree though Unions are not a good idea and are another front for pushing Marxist ideologies!
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Total commie. People forget that unions make it easy for companies to go offshore. They do nothing but increase the already artificially increased cost of labor. People need to think and prepare like business owners instead of “labor”. Rejecting unions, especially in an industry like clothes, is the surest way to keep products made in usa.
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The ILGWU was a powerful anti-communist force for good in the 40s 50s 60s with great leaders like Dubinsky and Lovestone.
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ALL AMERICAN CLOTHING CO. https://www.allamericanclothing.com/
Our mission is to support USA families and jobs by producing high-quality clothing in the USA at an affordable price. By keeping our production in the USA we provide jobs and a tax base that supports our communities.
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Thano you 👍
Will check out that link in the morning.
Have a blessed night 🇺🇸
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highdezertgator, I checked out the ladies’ jeans and the majority of them were $139… far more than I am willing to spend. I would think if there are more American clothing manufacturers, they’d have to lower their prices to be competitive.
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Almost everything made in the U.S.A. costs more than those items with a made-in-China label. Think of the (slave) wages and deteriorating living conditions of Chinese workers. Buy fewer items; demand quality — just because something is made in America does not make it good without very close inspection — complain and refuse the company that does not do quality work return business, and develop a willingness to pay more for retail items.
Do you remember in the 1960s, I think it was, when many American made items were inferior to quality items made abroad? What were many American cars called? Lemons?
Might have been the beginning of propaganda, but I do remember some of the reality. Again, one had to pay more for quality products.
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pyromancer76, since I am (in my late 60’s) retired, my clothing needs are minimal, I’ve accumulated enough to get me by on a daily basis – casual clothing. I have retained a few of my suits/blouses (from my corporate working days). Doubt I would need to wear them but good to have – just in case. Slight problem is they are slightly larger than my current size which I have maintained for over 6+ years..
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That’s the imbalance. The US pays living wages, the Chinese pay very low wages or none at all using slave labor. They pay no workmen’s comp or other insurance. No safety regs. So how can American companies compete? Either remove all regulations…minimum wage, workmen’s comp, OSHA safety, benefits, etc or tariff Chinese made goods.
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When the clothing industry solves the automation challenge, production will return to America.
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Also http://madeinusaforever.com/ for all US made stuff.
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I recall a Hillary campaign commercial where the owner of the “New England Shirt Company” complained that the “Trump” line of dress shirts was made in Honduras (cut to a clip of an embarrassed Trump on the Letterman show being shown the label by a gleeful host).
So, I looked up the “New England Shirt Company”.
Holy s**t: Over $100 for a plain button down shirt? Some over $400? No wonder Trump went to Honduras.
For that price, the shirt had better be bulletproof or make me invisible.
http://www.newenglandshirtco.com/about/
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Janie, the only problem is that the unions are all run by communists.
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Devilbat, it seems that the attitude toward being unionized has evolved over the past decades, with fewer workers seeing its advantages. Perhaps, this will be true of the garment workers as well.
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The way to handle unions is to make working folk part of the “makers;” they should receive annual bonuses (profit incentives linked to the company’s profitability). Workers suffer along with the owners if it is not a good year. Everyone will pay much more attention to the company they work for in this way. No more national unions with dues required.
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Exactly. And the communists told the workers “sit down, shut up, and soon we’ll ALL be in China, and the world will be perfect!” YEAH, RIGHT!
Our VSG knew better. Appeal DIRECTLY to workers, and the top-down control of workers by their FAKE commie leadership would come crashing down on election night.
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I worked in a factory during the 80’s and 90’s but it was a small factory. we had our own union, and every year, like clockwork, the ILGW would come into our little shop and try to get us to join them. We never did. Our union president negotiated our contract, our piece rates and benefits and our union dues were $1.25 per week. There were all sorts of programs available–health insurance, life insurance, and pension plans–but nothing was forced upon you. It was a great little place to work till NAFTA–then we lost our jobs and the factory closed.
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Generalize much?
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Janie,
Clothing made from bad thread and with poor quality cloth and cheaply made substandard fasteners will not be better clothing.
Clothing made without regard to comfort of the wearer (stiff itchy nylon threads for seams in undies, and itchy elastic against the skin in same is an example you might know about intimately!) will not be improved until threads and elastics are made to USA specs.
Until our USA agriculturaltextile and chemicaltextile industry/industries, and plastics and metal fastener industries are rebuilt, the clothes made in America will continue to be made from dyes, chemical rayon/polyester, elastics, fasteners, cloth and thread that are NOT made in USA to USA’s once high standards.
If the seams don’t hold think about where the thread is made, or where the sewing machines are made, or where the machine-needles are made, not just at who sews the stuff.
If the fabric frays or the knit pills look at where the fiber is grown/made, or the cloth is being woven, not just who sews the stuff.
If the zipper breaks or the snaps bend and fail, or the buttons break off, look at where those are made not at the person who sewed them into the garment.
If the dye fast-fades, runs, stinks where was the dye made?
If the elastic frays or gives way in the wash, where was the elastic made?
If the garment shrinks in the first wash, it has little to do with the seamstress, and all to do with the quality of the fabric.
Etc.
The differences are most often in the materials-and in the quality standards and manufacturer-enforcement thereof, in whatever foreign nation these materials are coming from. Because the materials ARE NOT coming from USA, where competition and consumer demands once made quality a byword of US textile and clothing manufacturers. (Back when complaints and shoppers who refused to buy substandard products actually were very important to manufacturing bigshots.)
Unions originally were designed to aid workers to get fair pay and fair treatent, NOT designed to assure the quality of the materials, and certainly NOT to assure the growth of agri and chemical industries, much less textile industries that rely upon them. You do not get higher quality cloth, thread, fasteners ect. from Unions: that was not their baliwick.
I know. I was born in non-unionized textile country, where once upon a time, cotton flax & indigo crops were either local or in neighboring states. Where there were once small chemical plants where rayon and polyester and nylon was made/blended with home-grown cotton into fibers or thread and woven into cloth, where nylon, elastics, polyesters were made.
Many small factories in my area in my state made clothing as well: hosiery, socks, knits and knit clothing, baby clothes, ect. Bigger local factories (from the fibers to the threads to the woven finished products) created USA cloths, elastics, fasteners, then sheets towels blankets.
In high school I worked sewing and machineembroidering baby clothes, and then parttime and summers while in college. Especially those little zipup baby sleepers, onesies, made of knits and babysoft terrycloth and other fabrics which were also made locally. Zippers made of plastics, snaps made of metals, and the very cotton and chemical fibers (polyester and stretchy blends) and baby-safe dyes, and the machines we utilized and the very needles and scissors we used were ALL grown/made in the USA.
The union label means NOTHING to me about “quality of products.” It is not related to quality of product and was never meant to be. It was meant to be for the quality of life of the worker, not the quality of the manufacturers, nor their products.
The original purpose of unions ostensibly was to get more satisfaction and protection for workers: but over time Unions seemed to me, instead, to get more trouble for many workers and more big bucks and political power for Union (the worker’s party, they called themselves) bosses. Meanwhile UNION bosses were using (communistic/socialistic) political pressure to harm the very industries where the workers made their livings.
I invite you to look over the USA Workers Party page here:
http://www.workersparty.org/
You won’t see better made USA clothing until you see better grown USA agri-textiles, fasteners, chemicaltextiles, ect. That has not even been discussed yet AFIK. Long time to rebuild all that.
And state regs/laws for agri/chem/textiles/environmental, will have to be changed, also, not just Federal. Good luck with that.
Until this is fixed, we will remain dependent upon other nations to be clothed. Or go naked.
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That site you link to and your rant seem to support communist enemies of America, but maybe I didn’t read closely enough.
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You might want to read the post again, then. The link was supposed to show how BAD unions have gotten…
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The low quality clothing has gone up in price considerably too.
I’m sick of buying the same item in the same size I’ve bought before, to have the size be off, and the fabric be cheaper.
I’m also sick of buying a more expensive label, to find that two pairs of slacks in the same style will be different sizes depending on the color/print.
That’s because they use different $h!thole countries to manufacture different lots of clothing.
The clothing is similar to generic drugs in that it only has to meet requirements give or take a percentage.
There isn’t any business clothing for middle class women anymore.
Another thing, notice how environmental concerns fly out the window when it comes to the global economy?
Where does all that cheap clothing that can’t even make it to Salvation Army when it goes out of style after one season end up?
In a landfill somewhere. What a waste.
The consumer has been forgotten in these trade arrangements. The consumer and the worker.
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It seems the unions are happy to unionize in Mexico or wherever there is labor. I could care less about a union label. I want a “Made in the United States” label whether or not it’s union made. I’ve worked union, and also seen the vile things they’ve perpetuated as well, so I don’t see the unions as anything great. More than that, the unions demand “group think” from their members, and I don’t even want that from my faith.
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Tired of Mexico attacking our “sovereignty”… using illegal aliens, drugs, human trafficking, currency laundering, MS13 and cartel army attacking our citizens on our soil. No trade agreement until they take care of their “citizens”. Communist regime will be elected in months, followed by nationalization of all companies. End the stupid trade deals by Uni_CoC_Globuli$$$ts… We want “our country” back!
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I may be dating myself, but remember when TV’s, Refrigerators, washing machines, etc basically lasted forever! Now everything seems timed to crap out the minute the warranty expires!
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Yes, it is so very tough to find goods that last. These days most things are junk within a very short time. We need to turn back the clock and through out this crap and start making really good stuff that lasts and lasts!
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…throw out
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I have talked to appliance repairmen (a dying breed) and they unanimously tell me the EPA requirements for new appliances greatly contributed to poor appliances. The minimum on everything to meet energy requirements.
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The selling price of an asset is in part determined by its efficiency…without the “help” of an EPA mandate. In other words, without a manufacturing mandate to produce efficient units, manufacturers will naturally gravitate to that anyway due to purchasing power preference for lowest total cost. There will be luxury items that are not screaming lean, but hey, there’s that choice phenomenon again. Imagine that, a mandate-free market.
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Exactly, evergreen. The people for whom they were a better option were already seeking out the cheaper to run appliances.
Notice at the same time, HUD was pushing those high rise apartments in suburbia, as the most “efficient” way to live, when by modern standards those things require air conditioning.
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I had to replace several appliances in my kitchen recently. You are so correct on EPA requirements. They have significantly reduced the longevity of most of our appliances. The house was new and all of the appliances went ‘out’ about the same time only to be replaced with appliances that won’t last as long as the old ones.
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That whole “energy star” rebate program was a fraud, too. The appliances weren’t necessarily any more “efficient”.
My incandescent lightbulb was plenty efficient too, because I happen to welcome heat in my house 9 months of the year.
The months where I don’t use heat, it stays light out later, so I’m less likely to switch on a light.
Don’t get me started on washing machines that take two hours to wash your clothes, only to leave them dirty and smelling bad.
Pity the poor working mother who rushes home to fix dinner and get back out to some engagement for her kids, only to find someone forgot to run the washing machine or dishwasher, and there are no clean clothes or dishes.
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We recently went through this experience in having to replace our 20+-year-old Kenmore washer. The replacement, high-end LG washing machine, other than having a lot of unnecessary bells and whistles, could not get our clothes clean and took something like 60 minutes to run a single small wash load. After much frustration, we learned that SpeedQueen sells a residential version of their bullet-proof washers designed for laundromats. Made in the U.S., all stainless steel insides and metal gears. No bells & whistles. Runs a full load in something like 20 minutes. Had it for 3 years now and no problems whatsoever. Apparently, not sold through “normal” appliance retailers but only through commercial equipment distributors or internet. Highly recommend.
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I believe we call that planned obsolecence!
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Look up Vance Packard’s “The Wastemakers”, about planned obsolescence.
The kicker? It was written in the late 1950s… The problem has been around a long, long time. It’s just gotten exponentially worse in the last few decades (say, since Carter).
My pet peeve is watchdog timers in electronic devices (printers, etc.) that kill the device after a fixed period of time/pages printed/load cycles/etc. It’s become a bit of a sport for me finding and defeating these timers… It shouldn’t have to be that way.
You’d think the greens, with all their concern “for the planet” would encourage longer-lasting appliances and other devices. Oddly enough, they’re silent on the matter. Seems they enjoy having the latest and greatest (since they’re the elite and deserve it, dontcha know), so they never have anything long enough to see it time out…
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Back before the election I had an older gentleman tell me that he missed the Levi’s seconds store that used to be near his house, near the factory. He was ardently anti-Trump and didn’t see the irony at all.
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“Made in the USA” is on everything vintage, (produced prior to the mid-1980’s) – except for those items made in England, European nations, Japan, and Taiwan. Amazing how these vintage items, 30 years or more later, are still in better functional condition than most NEW items from China. Particularly if metal is used in the item’s construction – every bit of Chinese metal seems malleable and soft, and probably contaminated with lead.
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For some reason, consumers in America seem to believe lead is only a hazard in homes with young children, so they don’t get concerned with the number of toxic (if that’s the right word) dishware and so forth coming in.
I also wonder why no one has any concern that women are working in factories in China making this stuff, and there are babies in China being subjected to chemicals we try to screen out here.
If we weren’t buying this junk, they wouldn’t be making it.
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Number of dishware wasn’t the right way to say it. Wish I could edit.
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“Ambassador Lighthizer comments on NAFTA prior to departing for China.”
He gives a parting shot to Can/Mex as he’s leaving. Dumps it in their laps! Nothing will happen. Then they’ll get blamed when it doesn’t. Too funny.
NAFTA is long past it’s expiration date.
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You can take this to the bank fellow treepers. NAFTA is kaput.
Going, going, gone….
Some wolverines just slammed the back door! 🙂
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No one is going to be happier than me when this comes to pass! Can’t wait.
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Yes there’s a difference between capitalism and communism! Most importantly it’s about people having the freedom to pursue their goals and happiness without the heavy hand of government in their pockets, homes, and lives…
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Sounds like you are talking about many States here in the US. How far we have slid their way.
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“Can/Mex are not arguing for more Canada and Mexico content, they are holding out for more Asian content.”
If that is Canada’s and Mexico’s chosen position, there is no ice, is there? If that’s their position, what is there to talk about?
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Sharon: Unfortunately Truedope is more concerned about making pot legal this July! Besides Truedope is still working on the old model of corporate pay to play into his family trust just like Hillary and the CF!
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He should be concerned with pot. Canada needs to get its young people really apathetic, more than anything.
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But Ross and Navarro, who spoke to steel company executives in Washington on Tuesday, both said any final decision would be made by Trump.
Meaning we are going to China to talk and and put on a good show for the media. But the decisions have already been made.
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Trump is unpredictable, and that is the negotiation problem the Chinese have.The best strategy for the Chinese is to do the best they can and hope.
Europe will be watching what Trump does, so will India. South China Sea is part of what is going on too. Too complicated for me to know what will happen.
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There’s a saying for that…”We got ’em where we want ’em.”
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The sad thing about this is to realize how many steel companies are left in the U.S. that are American. Go look at a list of the top steel producers . The U.S. has only I in the top 20. Then take a gander at how many American steel companies total. I work in a foreign owned steel company and my biased opinion is that it is run on a socialistic philosophy par excellence.
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Bye Bye NAFTA.
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Mr. Big: Probably true if Truedope doesn’t wake up! Too busy with people kind!
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Robert Lighthizer is having fun with these two MORONS! The truth of the matter is that he and our President are rightfully concerned with our RINOs, not Democrats. That is why they developed a plan that is absolutely brilliant. IF NAFTA is worked out to our liking, they will kill the original NAFTA simultaneously to putting forth NAFTA 2.0. The RINOs wouldn’t vote on the 2.0 because their masters (CoC) want to keep the original. By killing it, the RINOs are screwed. Politically you can’t threaten to take the President to court for terminating NAFTA when a revised NAFTA is sitting around waiting for a vote. Especially when the new NAFTA is going to benefit our country and our people.
They will either approve 2.0 or there will no longer be NAFTA. Win win scenario! The November election has no baring on either approving 2.0 or seeing NAFTA go be the waste side. Mexico 🇲🇽 is the country operating under the gun! The Marxist is waiting to be elected in July which in turn means bye bye to NAFTA. The exodus out of Mexico will be spectacular. With that being said, we have ALL the leverage in the world with these two MORONS!
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The exodus out of Mexico will be spectacular.
I assume you mean businesses. But, there will be a flood of people too. Venazuela on steroids once the great marxists policies kick in.
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That is why the WALL will happen because our President will keep the government closed until the funding is approved! Democrats are truly screwed!
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It will be a big fight because Congress as a whole does not want the wall. Shutdown before the election is what the Dems want as an election issue. Popcorn time.
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It is a mistake for DhimmiRats to think a shutdown is bad for Trump. America wants that wall and DhimmiRats have done nothing but obstruct… everything. No immigration deal, no DACA deal. Trump taking a stand will be seen as fair, as necessary.
Dhimms will lose again.
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Not when the reason is No Wall and open borders. That is the issue that Democrats have to sell to the voters in this country.
Our President secured two years of funding for the military. The next budget is all about pork! Good luck fighting for pork and saying NO to WALL and continuing Open Borders.
Democrats will be destroyed in November!
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I agree Flepe, but it is so funny to see the commie media talk about this huge blue wave that is coming. Got news for them. It’ll be an itty bitty teensy weensy blue turd with hardly a splash!
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Their Blue Wave will be drowned by the Red Tsunami that will overwhelm them in November. Get the popcorn ready and enjoy the splodgy heads on the msm and Demoncraps side of the aisle, 😂
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Yep. Their little blue wave will be demolished by the STORM…
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A shutdown under any other admin was and would be a real problem at election time. I have no doubt at all that VSGPDJT has already worked up one or more contingency plans to show the USA that we don’t need so dayum much goobermint. Everything of any importance will run just fine, while BS gets furloughed. I might actually have a stroke from all the winning at that point–but it will be worth it!
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😆 you and several million of us.
Paging all medical staff – STAT!
🇺🇸🦁🇺🇸
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September Shutdown Scenario:
• Mexico’s Marxist President starts unleashing waves of illegals at the border.
• Congress hasn’t funded the Wall.
• President Trump shuts the government down.
• ALL of ICE in California are redeployed to the Unsecured Border (National Security 1st).
• California Ports are CLOSED until the Wall and all HSA Resources are fully funded.
• USCOC, Import Businesses and California PANIC to throw Congress Critters out.
• Trump gets the Wall PLUS a Lean Budget PLUS Nominee Approvals!
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Now that’s a MAGA PLAN! Send it to VSGPDJT!
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We don’t need so much government, especially when it isn’t even our Mexicans.
Hillary Clinton telling a little girl she was going to worry about her parents’ immigration status made me want to puke.
A candidate for President of the United States, acting as a low-level functionary for foreigners.
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rf121, Oh, the Dems will have it as an election issue all right!
The President will make sure people understand it was the Democrat’s fault!
And the President also, unlike ozero, will once again see to it that normies do not suffer too much.
I do so hope Trump puts in place a provision for paying our Military during a shut down.
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Here is why our President will win and Democrats will get crushed!
From the article linked above:
According to the latest poll by Rasmussen Reports, about 54 percent of likely voters said the Trump administration should stop the “hundreds of people from Central America who have come across Mexico in a highly publicized caravan” that are “threatening to enter the United States illegally any day now.”
Only about 37 percent of likely voters said the caravan of asylum-seekers and border-crossers should be allowed into the U.S. while they await their immigration and asylum hearings. Less than ten percent said they were not sure what to do with the caravan.
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I’ve been thinking the last 2 days (and yes, it hurts) but what immigration laws are we enforcing? Some of our legal immigrants come to the US after paying thousands of dollars, learning English, attending classes & eventually become Americans and within several years they bring in their family members (& they don’t have to do what their sponsoring family members had to do to come here). We have legal immigrants coming here under work visas with family members or eventually sponsoring family members AND none of these people have to learn English, stay off welfare, etc. Then we have people caught coming across the border. They get some sort of identification, a court date, and then they’re released & free to go about the country because there’s no facility to care for them when their court date is 3 or 4 yrs from when they’re caught.. And then we have people coming across illegally who are not caught and are free to go about the country.
Now we have a carivan group who’s upset because they can’t come in immediately to ask for asylum…they’ll be arrested or allowed in, given a court date and then released.
CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT LAWS WE’RE ENFORCING? To me, it doesn’t matter what laws we have because if you get across the border, you’re here until you get “due process” as to whether you can stay here after you’ve already been here for 5 yrs. AND now you’ve managed to have kids born here. I posed this to AG Sessions and Pres. Trump last night. Because without the right to turn people away, we’re soon to be invaded by approx. 7 billion people who view their economic opportunities better here than where they are now.
BTW, 60% of all LEGAL immigration into the US in the last 30 years comes from chain migration—family members who are NOT screened, not necessarily educated and no job skills (and no English).
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Jan our President is in full agreement! As long as Congress does nothing, what you described will continue to occur for the foreseeable future.
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You can “thank” Teddy Kennedy and LBJ for that. They turned the immigration quotas upside down, to the point that it’s very hard for a Westerner (e.g. European) to emigrate to the USA.
I know. Three European relatives of mine have emigrated, and they went through HELL doing it. Hours and hours of paperwork, interviews, more paperwork, more interviews, hundreds of dollars of fees, etc., etc., etc.
And yet the leeches end up in the USA scot free. Here in Germany we have Coudenhove-Kalergi bringing in millions of military-aged Moslem males who are mostly jobless, and pursue their “hobbies” of robbery, stabbings, rapes, and other violence. In the USA, there’s Cloward-Pivven for pretty must the same thing, albeit with Mexicans and faux Mexicans (who are probably also Moslems/ISIS).
If it doesn’t stop soon, WE (the current citizens/residents) will soon become the refugees. Thrown out of our own lands, by barbarian usurpers…
Where is our Vlad the Impaler? Our Charles Martel?
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They not only put them through fees and paperwork, etc. that the others get to skip, they actively look for reasons to keep them out.
Irish people I have spoken to tell me that just when they think they have met all requirements, there’s another one, with another fee.
They think they are being milked for the revenue.
Then there were the adult children of an Irish woman married to an American man, living here when her husband died. Not sure what stage she was at in the immigration process, but even if you want to stay they will often kick you out if the spouse dies. She went back to Ireland with her two American boys, because that’s where her family was.
When the boys, now grown, wanted to reenter their county, they went through hell as well.
And they worry about DACA.
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rf121,
The new Marxist regime may have quite a surprising effect. Think about this. Marxism starts off by redistributing a countries wealth. For a while at least, the great unwashed receive a handout and they are all extremely happy.
Many Mexicans here in the US will take the first bus back home to get their share. All will go well until the money runs out. Then everyone goes hungry. By that time, its too late and the Mexicans who returned will be stuck where they are as our border will be closed.
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From the article linked above:
It could be called President Donald Trump’s version of “take it, or leave it.”
As top-level ministers gathered in Washington toward the end of this week, the Trump administration has already been thinking about how to get a new NAFTA agreement through both chambers of Congress.
One strategy that has seemed to gain favor is to force a congressional approval on the new NAFTA by withdrawing from the existing pact even before the new one is ready. The thinking is that Congress will have to approve whatever terms are in the new deal quickly, lest the U.S. is left hanging without an agreement with two of its largest trading partners.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is said to have advocated for such an approach, according to current and former administration officials.
The strategy, which has been under consideration for months, figures that Congress may not act on the new agreement, preferring the status quo instead.
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The longer we play this game, the better it is for us! Canada 🇨🇦 is already experiencing a mass exodus because of the uncertainty with NAFTA.
Mexico 🇲🇽 is dying literally! 14 killed in Cancun, Mexico in a 36 hour window in April!
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/04/12/streets-cancun-run-red-with-14-murders-in-36-hours.html
From the article linked above:
Mexico’s most popular holiday hotspot has become overrun with drug gangs, as violence in the tourist party town escalates to unprecedented levels.
Cancun has seen 14 murders in just 36 hours — the highest ever in the country’s recorded history, according to Noticaribe.
The latest violence on April 4 saw 14 people killed and at least five others left with gunshot wounds, in six separate instances in the party town.
In the first 3 months of this year, there have been already 7,700 murders! They are about to set a one year record of over 30,000 murders!
https://www.onenewsnow.com/national-security/2018/04/23/mexico-77k-pre-election-murders-in-last-3-mos
From the article linked above:
As Mexico prepares to vote for a new president this summer, Mexican drug cartels are warning politicians to “drop out or be killed,” and the murder rate shot up 20 percent after 7,667 were violently killed in the first quarter this year.
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You can find my three posts in the thread below:
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To oversimplify, a 3-Step NAFTA Plan would make sense:
1 – Impose the Tariffs … triggering Price Increases on Consumers & Businesses
2 – Cancel NAFTA 1.0 … triggering Business Relocations & Capital Flight
3 – Propose NAFTA 2.0 … without the Tariffs … watching Currencies Plummet
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I love it!
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Yup. Just like DACA. Kill the old one, and make them pass a new one if they want one.
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Funny you mentioned DACA! Their worse nightmare is about to happen! AG Paxton From TX and seven other state AGs are moving forward with their lawsuit they threatened back in September. The 3 decisions against our President has no baring on this lawsuit. The EXECUTIONER, Judge Hanen!
From the article linked above:
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and six other states on Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging the lawfulness of DACA, arguing that former President Barack Obama’s initial creation of DACA in 2012 violated the Constitution and federal law.
The case was also re-assigned late Tuesday to District Judge Andrew Hanen, the judge who initially issued the nationwide ruling preventing DACA from being expanded through a similar program in 2014. Hanen was seen as particularly unfriendly to DACA based on his ruling in the related case, and advocates feared a DACA challenge before him would likely be decided the same way.
If the Texas court were to also issue a nationwide ruling in favor of the termination of DACA, it could set up dueling nationwide decisions that would likely end up at the nation’s highest court.
This time the SC will rule 5-4 in favor of KILLING DACA IMMEDIATELY!
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Doesn’t that run into a conflict with the recent ruling that prevented the Administration from terminating DACA? I am admittedly confused with what unilateral authority the President truly has with either DACA or NAFTA.
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NAFTA is all on him because there is a clause that states any of the 3leafers can terminate by signing an order that starts the six month clock.
As for DACA, AG Paxton and the six other AGs are arguing that what Obama did is unconstitutional. It has nothing to do with the three courts that ruled against our President’s way of terminating DACA.
Judge Hanen can literally end it immediately. The Left will run to the SC. The Court won’t hear it until October.
In the meantime DACA goes bye bye!
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Flep – you mean “bearing”, I think. Just FYI…..
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Yes thank you ☺️!
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Also, “their WORST nightmare” – not “worse”. I am not trying to be picky with you but sometimes misspelled words totally change the meaning of the sentence. Lots of love – love your posts!!!
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And when the CONgress fails, the rotten egg’s all over their faces, not the shining visage of VSGPDJT!
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Thank you!
Thank you!
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
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Flep: Don’t forget Truedope! He is also a classic people kind moron!
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When the negotiations are done for the new trade deal with Mexico, I certainly hope the issue of “trains full of immigrants”, “caravans” are put on the table and in the agreement. In other words, you, Mexico, stop the crap or sections x, y, z of the agreement will be put in full force immediately.
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I hope our team brings up this farcical ‘caravan’ in the NAFTA talks.
Mexico lied to us about “stopping the caravan”…they merely allowed them to break up into smaller groups.
Mexico waved those people into their country and then has used them as a weapon to invade our Border!
We have every right to be outraged about this.
This alone should be sufficient grounds to exit NAFTA.
I see no difference between these ‘caravans’ and what has been going on in Europe with those waves of so-called “refugees”.
It is being engineered and pushed by people who want to destroy our country.
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Mexico has become an invading enemy. The only trade deal to do with an enemy is called blockade.
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An invading enemy with outposts all over our country. Nuts!
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Yup, this is what happens when everyone else is having a war, but your own “leaders” and people are oblivious or worse, complicit. We have been “led” by very stupid people for a long time.
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Imagine if we facilitated a busload of illegal aliens coming from Canada, and delivered them right to Mexico?
There would be international outrage and condemnation.
We should do that. Let the Chinese know that if they can get to Canada, they can go straight to sunny Mexico.
Heck, let anybody know.
Why shouldn’t Mexico have any Easter Europeans?
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Eastern.
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We need to buy Lighthizer a beer.
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Already sounds like a beer…
I can’t wait to get home, prop up my feet, and pop open an ice cold can of Lighthizer!
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Light Budhizer… the beer that made America famous!
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Timing of Kim Jung-on’s decision to give up nuclear weapons seems perfectly timed with serious trade talks with China. US gets a nuclear-free Korean peninsula; China gets to retain access to US markets.
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China will no doubt try to game it that way.
But…it could backfire on them.
After the big show of ‘Korean Peace’, how can China threaten to roll that back now?
If China doesn’t get what they want from our trade delegation…they may whisper to our guys that “It would be a shame if peace did not happen for Korea now.”
But then our guys could simply say:
“Are you saying that China will now admit that they support N. Korea having nuclear weapons?”
It will be interesting to see how it goes.
The big showing of Peace-in-Korea may have happened too soon for China to use it in their trade negotiations with us.
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Bingo!
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Sundance, you R the only thread I have seen that brought to light the content aspect to NAFTA.
Thank You…
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Make that the U.S. Chamber of Commies, which is also on thin ice.
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Sundance, you R the only thread I have seen that brought to light the content aspect to NAFTA.
Thank You…
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Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye
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“U.S.T.R. Lighthizer Tells U.S. Chamber of Commerce NAFTA “On Thin Ice”…”
______________________
By special request, for Tommy Donohue and the traitors of the CoC:
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Favorite album of all time.
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I don’t know about this new NAFTA. I’ll figure that one out AFTER we get rid of the nightmare we have right now. FOR NOW I WANT U.S. OUT OF NAFTA!
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“I still find it stunning how many people cannot see the ridiculous side of the Mexican and Canadian position; and how that showcases the insanity of NAFTA. Can/Mex are not arguing for more Canada and Mexico content, they are holding out for more Asian content. Their economic models are nothing more than brokering the assembly of cheap Asian goods through their NAFTA access to the U.S. market. Ridiculous.”
____________________
It’s because people who are unfamiliar with the basic concepts.
Here is a way that most people can understand. It’s not technically accurate in every aspect, but the point is to get the general concepts across:
Canada, Mexico and America agreed to a three-way trade deal, where we don’t charge each other tariffs (taxes). Nobody else has that deal, just we three neighbors. That’s NAFTA.
Everybody else charges us tariffs (taxes), and we (should) charge everybody else a reciprocal tariff or tax, to maintain a level playing field.
So either there are no tariffs at all (a level playing field), like the agreement we have with Mexico and Canada, OR we charge the same/similar tariffs as anybody else charges us, which is also a level playing field.
Now HERE is what has been happening for the last 30+ years.
Canada and Mexico have been letting other countries enter the U.S. market without paying any tariffs (taxes) by coming in through Mexico and Canada, in exchange for kickbacks and bribes.
So China, for example, might charge a 25% tariff on American steel shipped to China. We should reciprocate, i.e., do the same to Chinese steel being shipped into America.
But China doesn’t ship their steel directly to America, so they never pay any tariff at all, resulting in a VERY un-level playing field.
What China does (as an example) is to ship their steel to Mexico or Canada, and then that steel comes in to America under the Mexican or Canadian part of the NAFTA agreement with no tariffs (no taxes), and corrupt politicians in Canada and Mexico take huge amounts of bribe money to allow China (and lots of other countries) to do this to America, with every product you can imagine.
Why hasn’t it stopped before now?
First that would require American politicians who weren’t CORRUPT, who WANTED to stop our country from being taken advantage of.
But there’s another problem. The geniuses (traitors) who came up with NAFTA in the first place gave equal voting power to Canada and Mexico and America, even though they (Canada and Mexico) are midgets and we are a giant.
So if we ever file a complaint or go to arbitration or use any other remedy outlined in NAFTA, it’s two against one — Canada and Mexico out votes America — every single time, year after year, decade after decade.
Like two wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner.
Even though the sheep is the size of the Empire State Building and the wolves are the size of Chihuahuas and Yellow-bellied marmots, and we could CRUSH them both, just by rolling over onto them in our sleep.
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Scott467: Truedope works on the pay to play into his family trust just like Hillary s CF. Truedope was bought and paid for before he became PM. Truedope more worried about making pot legal by July!
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Scott, great post!
I reckon Sundance will use your “ABC to Understsnfing NAFTA” in coming posts and twitter feeds….
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Yes it was very well stated.
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Mexico’s near future? Perhaps China will send food and not so much steel.
https://mobile.twitter.com/molratty/status/991286435419447298
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Dang…
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Coming to a border near you… 😦
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Don’t know how, but I’m thinking Nafta 2.0 has Mexico paying for,…..a WALL?
“The parties over,…
Its time to call it a day,..
He’s burst your corrupt balloon,
And taken your pay to play, away,…
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My fave Lighthizer line: “If not, then you start having a problem.” 😂
Yes!!
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So, d’ja see: Mexican illegals, positioned South of the border, to cross are p.o.’d, that Hondurans, in the caravan cut in front of them, to cross!
Thats like a spouse, that has an affair, but then gets jealous when their other half flirts!
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Our negotiators need to walk away and just scrap NAFTA if too much time passes to get a modified version through a REPUB Congress (assuming GOPe obstructionist members will even cooperate.)
Get’er done ASAP!
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The U.S. supertanker turns slowly, in a wide arc, but turn it does. To the benefit of all, most especially the paradoxically short-sighted –because anti-competitive– Communist Chinese, let’s hope these talks do not default to mutual recriminations.
As Trump’s first term wears on, the contrast with feckless do-nothings since 1993, a full quarter century, could not be more profound. The culmination of these sellouts in 2009 – ’16,
celebrated by simpering hate-America bumwads, is similar to a societal Grand Mal.
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To extend your analogy, a supertanker first turns slowly, then all of sudden 🙂
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In 1998 I was the purchasing agent for a major manufacturer of sprinklers and irrigation products. This was in the early days of NAFTA and just after the Clinton Administration had given China “most favored nation” status. The company I worked for was an old one with an iconic name, had deep roots in the United States, but under NAFTA had opened a maquiladora plant in Tijuana, Mexico. I worked in that Mexican plant, buying raw materials for the Mexican factory and also finished goods from China.
EVEN IN 1998 a major portion of our business involved buying finished goods from China and selling them under our brand. It was vexing: The owners had opened the plant in Mexico to take advantage of low costs to compete with China, but were unable to. I quickly realized something was amiss: Chinese manufacturers were able to sell me completed goods, packed and ready for retail sale, AND ship it across the ocean and land it in the United States for just slightly more than the cost of the raw materials – let alone the time and labor to manufacture it.
I only lasted a year because the Chinese snaked us by going directly to our customers and selling direct, cutting us out. My company laid off a bunch of people including me.
China subsidizes it’s manufacturers and exports. No question about it. If the Chinese can sell finished goods for slightly more than the cost of the raw materials then you know something ain’t right.
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It’s called ‘Slave Labor’…under Communism in China they get paid, but NOT much…you either work in the factory or starve to death, those are the choices.
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Not even slave labor could account for it. Our Mexican labor was practically free, but I couldn’t even buy zinc and brass for our machinists and assemblers to make the products with.
Our cost (COST!!) was double the Chinese WHOLESALE price. Including SHIPPING.
It was subsidies. They were selling below cost.
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AND, apart from subsidies there are some structural differences in the tax system. For example, the US income tax embeds cost in every single level of the supply chain, but other countries don’t do taxation the same way we do it. President Trump has mentioned that with regard to Mexico, which has a VAT that keeps tax costs down.
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That’s kind of like the heroin plague.
So many got hooked so fast, because we were flooded with so much of the stuff at once, and they were practically giving it away.
I’m still convinced that the “unaccompanied minor humanitarian crisis” at the border was to keep our interdiction agents away from doing their jobs, btw.
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We know the “unaccompanied minor crisis” was completely planned, organized, and run by the Obama Administration.
It was about importing anchor babies and seeding them strategically into places where the local electorate was too “white” and too “Republican”.
In time these little anchors would bring the whole extended family, and the extended family of extended family, into these areas and turn them a nice deep blue.
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Using minors and women as “mules” and diversions are well known, common tactics of drug dealing/running criminals. They are evil, predatory animals that only look like people.
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PDJT tells U.S. Chamber of Commerce that it is, “On Thin Ice”.
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Enough of this NAFTA CHINA crap. Dump them already Mr.President.
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The caravan of illegal central americans escorted by Mexican police to TJ qualifies as a squadron of M1A tanks on top of that thin ice.
We need to couple Mexico’s behavior towards that kind of cr@p with the trade agreement. They stop, we consider NAFTA, they keep at it, we get out of NAFTA ipso facto.
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We elected a president who knows from steel.
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“I still find it stunning how many people cannot see the ridiculous side of the Mexican and Canadian position; and how that showcases the insanity of NAFTA. Can/Mex are not arguing for more Canada and Mexico content, they are holding out for more Asian content. Their economic models are nothing more than brokering the assembly of cheap Asian goods through their NAFTA access to the U.S. market. Ridiculous.”
Actually this was planned by the Democraps and the Deep State at the initiation of NAFTA and I have no doubt Canada and Mexico are paying them hand$omely for this ‘GIFT’, and screwing America as usual.
All of America’s ‘Trade Agreements’ are negotiated by the ‘Deep State’ tied to the political party in power…that means WE, the taxpayers get screwed, as WE are forced to guarantee their profits, while they get mega-RICH! That is why the Deep State Hates Trump, he is upsetting their well planned scam/applecart tied to all the Trade Agreements! MAGA and to Hades with the Deep State! All those in power have been doing deals like this since the beginning of this country. It is WAY past time to stop their theft!
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Found both of your comments in the bin…. 😦
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Actually this was planned by the Democrats and the Deep State at the initiation of NAFTA and I have no doubt Canada and Mexico are paying them hand$omely for this ‘GIFT’, and screwing America as usual.
All of America’s ‘Trade Agreements’ are negotiated by the ‘Deep State’ tied to the political party in power…that means WE, the taxpayers get screwed, as WE are forced to guarantee their profits, while they get mega-RICH! That is why the Deep State Hates Trump, he is upsetting their well planned scam/applecart tied to all the Trade Agreements! MAGA and to Hades with the Deep State! All those in power have been doing deals like this since the beginning of this country. It is WAY past time to stop their theft!
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