This hearing might be a little too wonky for some, but not too many other policy issues touch 100% of American lives.   U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will be delivering testimony today outlining the 2020 trade policy agenda.

The testimony is before the House Ways and Means Committee, and will be livestreamed on the committee website [SEE HERE] and below at 10:00am ET from the Longworth House Office Building.  USTR Lighthizer is the sole witness.

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Lighthizer will also be testifying to the Senate Finance Committee at 3:00pm. [LINK]

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U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is testifying tomorrow at 10:00am to the House Ways and Means committee; later in the afternoon Ambassador Lighthizer will testify before the Senate Finance Committee.

The New York Times has received an advance copy of USTR Lighthizer’s opening statement, and the liberal publication is apoplectic the Trump administration plans to outline an even more aggressive stance toward the World Trade Organization (WTO).

According to the pearl-clutching Wall St. class, Lighthizer is going to inform congress of Trump/USTR plans to demand tariff reciprocity; and Lighthizer will indeed raise tariffs against any nation that continues to attempt one-sided benefit. [EU will go bananas]

One method to approach tariff inequality would be for the U.S. to lower the import value threshold for non-tariff exemptions. Currently the U.S. does not apply import duties to any product valued under $800. This is a great benefit to China, southeast Asia, and U.S. on-line retailers such as ebay and Amazon; however, the zero tariff threshold hurts U.S. manufacturers because China and other nations do not reciprocate.

It is anticipated that USTR Lighthizer will inform congress the U.S. will lower that import threshold to match the same value level applied by other nations. Obviously the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Wall Street multinationals will not like this approach.

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Specifically because President Trump has noted the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19 the media are therefore against it.  It doesn’t matter that it works; it doesn’t matter that it saves lives; the mere fact that President Trump supports it means the entire resistance operation must be against it.  That’s the current scale of TDS.

However, non-political medical professionals, and some democrat governors who don’t want the run the political risk of killing their constituents simply to keep their resistance bona-fides, are admitting the treatment does work.  Today New York Governor Andrew Cuomo admitted to asking the federal government for more doses. WATCH:

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A wise man once told me the best crisis response is not based on plans and strategies, but rather the maintenance of long-term personal relationships.  He was very correct.

The bulk of U.S. supplies of hydroxychloroquine come from U.S. pharmaceutical companies operating in India. Because the drug is now considered to be the leading source of treatment, India had banned the export. However, on Saturday President Trump called his good friend, India’s Prime Minister Modi… and today reports from India that an exception will be made to supply the U.S.

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A very big picture discussion requires a considerable baseline.

The stock market is not the U.S. economy; the stock market is an investment instrument that determines valuations of economic activity company by company. The valuation is considerably arbitrary, based on the determinations of the arbiters (investors). This is empirically true.

However, that said, how would the multinational underwriters, the multinational financial systems, reset all transactional tables (the bookkeeping systems underneath the valuation) …if the U.S. stock market was every forced to re-value economic nationalism over multinational globalism?    Enter “Coronavirus”.

Four years ago CTH first explained a new way to look at the U.S. economic system and how Main Street was/is disconnected from Wall Street.  We presented a metaphor to explain. Before going deeper into the discussion of tomorrow; and at the request of several people who now accept the era of “deglobalization” is upon us,  I first present that prior reference & then will use this as the baseline to describe what could come next.

There is a key phrase at the fulcrum of everything past:

…there had to be a point where the value of the second economy (Wall Street) surpassed the value of the first economy (Main Street).

What we are going to outline in part II is the possibility what happens when this natural truism is reversed.  The objective is to answer: How, specifically would Wall Street reset its evaluative systems if Main Street once again emerged as the priority?

But first, a baseline revisit is needed.

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President Donald Trump and Melania Trump attended a state dinner at India’s presidential palace Tuesday night concluding an event filled two day state visit.
The state dinner was held at the presidential palace with President Ram Nath Kovind and his wife Savita Kovind. [Video and Pictures Below]

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After a full day of special events, diplomatic meetings and business discussions, President Trump holds a press conference with the international media prior to attending a state dinner with leaders, dignitaries and diplomats from around India.
[Video Below – Transcript Added]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Please. So we had a couple of really great days in India. Prime Minister Modi is a terrific man. He’s a terrific leader. And we have a lot of things going in terms of product being purchased by India.

We just had a meeting. A lot of the press was there. I thought it was a great meeting with some of the biggest businessmen in the world. They come from India. They’re agreeing to invest billions and billions of dollars. You heard it for yourself. They’re going to be investing billions of dollars in our country, so that was the purpose of the trip also.

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During a mid-afternoon session at the U.S. embassy’s Roosevelt House in New Delhi, India, President Trump met with U.S. and India business leaders. The president cancelled his prepared remarks to the business investors, instead he took questions from roundtable participants.

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President Trump and Prime Minister Modi deliver joint remarks to the media at the conclusion of their first bilateral discussion.

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[Transcript] – PRIME MINISTER MODI: My friend and President of the United States, Donald Trump; respected members of the American delegation; ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Once again, a very warm welcome to President Trump and his delegation in India. I am especially really happy that he has brought his family with him on this visit.
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Day two of the President Trump and First Lady Melania visit to India holds a very busy schedule including: a welcome ceremony in New Delhi; a tree planting ceremony in New Delhi; a social lunch; a set of bilateral diplomatic meetings; a joint press conference; a business roundtable and a full state dinner.

SCHEDULE
11:10pm ET / 9:40am Local – THE PRESIDENT and THE FIRST LADY depart the Grand Presidential Suite of the ITC Maurya en route to Rashtrapati Bhavan, Presidential Palace, New Delhi, India
11:25pm ET / 9:55am Local – THE PRESIDENT and THE FIRST LADY arrive at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Presidential Palace, New Delhi, India
11:30pm ET / 10:00am Local – THE PRESIDENT and THE FIRST LADY participate in a Welcome Ceremony, New Delhi, India
11:50pm ET / 10:20am Local – THE PRESIDENT and THE FIRST LADY depart Rashtrapati Bhavan, Presidential Palace en route to Raj Ghat, New Delhi, India
12:05am ET / 10:35am Local – THE PRESIDENT and THE FIRST LADY arrive at Raj Ghat, New Delhi, India
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President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania arrived in Agra just before 5:00pm local (6:30am ET) to take in the view of the Taj Mahal silhouetted against a setting sun.
Our President and First Lady stood watching the beautiful white marble mausoleum located on the bank of the Yamuna River, before walking together along the fountain pool.

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