Oh dear, Prime Minister Rainbow Sparkle-Socks is issuing threats now.

“We aren’t going to take any old deal,” Trudeau said Friday at a town hall in Nanaimo, British Columbia. “Canada is willing to walk away from Nafta if the United States proposes a bad deal.
We won’t be pushed around.” (link)

The backdrop is important context here.  Prime Minister Twinkles has been watching Trump, Ross, Mnuchin and Lighthizer closely.  Two months ago Twinkles attempted to launch economic leverage by entering direct trade discussions with China; but there’s a problem – Twinkles actually believes Beijing is ‘playful panda’.  PM Rainbow-brite doesn’t grasp that Playful Panda is a mask.  [Wrong place for leverage.]
Trudeau is willing to open his door to Chairman Xi without realizing once inside Beijing will hold open the door for arriving goods, and shuttle out the Canadian manufacturers. Attachment to China is a one-way proposition; and China only indulged Canada from the context of using the Canadian NAFTA door, as a tariff workaround to gain entry to the U.S. market.
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Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appears on CNBC to discuss ongoing trade initiatives including NAFTA, China and the more broad Asia background.  Additionally, Wilburine discusses growth in GDP and anticipated economic enhancements from the tax cut legislation.

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Earlier today it was announced that ADP private payroll growth for January has exceeded 234,000 jobs gained.   “The job market juggernaut marches on,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said in a statement. “Given the strong January job gain, 2018 is on track to be the eighth consecutive year in which the economy creates over 2 million jobs.  (read full story on payroll report)
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The economic strategy of President Trump is so consequential and encompassing, even the domestic effects are felt globally.

♦Removing the U.S. from the multinational TPP trade deal initially planted the seeds of doubt amid multinational trade forecasters because the shift positioned the U.S. with unique leverage. They saw Trump using access to the worlds largest market as a negotiating strategy.
♦A few months later, President Trump walked away from the ridiculous regulatory restrictions within the Paris Climate Treaty.  Instantaneously this put even more strategic manufacturing and economic advance on the U.S. ledger, and simultaneously made American energy independence a foregone conclusion.
♦And now that congress has codified President Trump’s lower domestic business taxes, in conjunction with opening up ANWR for energy development (a strategic economic goal for 20+ years), the size of the U.S. economic and manufacturing advantage has just increased U.S. trade leverage to almost unimaginable levels.

Economic Nationalism – President Trump’s strategy has created: •Lower and long-term predictable energy costs, not attached to OPEC or multinational influence; •Lower and long-term raw material costs due to slashed regulatory environment; •lower and long-term business manufacturing tax rates; and now Trump begins negotiating trade deals.

Add these advantages together within the largest economic market in the world and the U.S. is now the place where manufacturers will want to do business.  Additionally, the process of utilizing Canada and/or Mexico as a workaround into the U.S. market, via NAFTA, is on the cusp of removal.
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WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Defense detected and tracked a single North Korea missile launch today at about 1:17 p.m. EST. Initial assessment indicates that this missile was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
The missile was launched from Sain Ni, North Korea, and traveled about 1000 km before splashing down in the Sea of Japan, within Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). We are working with our interagency partners on a more detailed assessment of the launch.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) determined the missile launch from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America, our territories or our allies.
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CTH has been looking, unsuccessfully, for China SME’s who have insight on the DC lobbying angle by Chinese foreign nationals and the hidden story of how the Trump administration might be confronting that aspect.
Gordon Chang briefly touches on that note during a discussion segment on the overall outcome of President Trump’s 12-day visit to Asia.
Apparently, if Chang’s sources are accurate (likely they are), the notification by POTUS Trump toward Chairman Xi Jinping, of the lobbyist warning did take place [Video 02:25].

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The foreign influence lobbying is a critical element for us domestically in the larger geopolitical strategy.  Chinese nationals pay our congressional representatives millions of dollars to purchase U.S. foreign policy.  CTH is cautiously optimistic this is a key element of Robert Mueller.
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President Trump left the Philippines a little early Tuesday after the East Asia Summit schedule was running late.  According to Reuters President Trump left Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to attend the plenary session.

[Pool Report] POTUS, wearing a blue tie, exited Marine One, walked to Air Force One, shook a few people’s hands and scaled the stairs. He entered Air Force One at 3:12 pm and waved.
Trump did not stay for family photo with the 18 members of the East Asia Summit. The event was running behind schedule and he opted to leave.
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Some last minute modifications to President Trump’s schedule appear to have ended up adding Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to a previously scheduled bilateral meeting with Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull (suspicious cat’s nemesis down under).
I think President Trump wanted to include PM Abe because there was no bilateral meeting with Abe scheduled.  Regardless, the trio conducted a trilateral meeting immediately following the video below:

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. It’s great to be with Prime Minister Turnbull and Prime Minister Abe of Australia and of Japan. You know them well; I know them well.
We’ve had many meetings. We’re having another one right now, primarily focused on trade, North Korea, other subjects. But we’re very far along. The dialogue has been very good, I think, for all countries. And we look forward to the continuation of that dialogue.
Mr. Prime Minister, would you like to say something?
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Those who have walked in the deep weeds of geopolitical strategy know the emphasis the Trump administration has placed on ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) as a counter-balance (control leverage) to the Chinese trade and military expansion.
The ongoing trade and security relationship between the U.S. and India, as well as other regional partners, is a large part of the overarching dynamic.  The ASEAN Summit in Manilla Philippines is an opportunity for President Trump to expand the conversations; enter into deeper discussions surrounding the terms of partnership; and deepen commitments toward larger U.S. international objectives.

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The ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region including India, comprises a combined population of 1.85 billion people, one-fourth of the global population. From the perspective of India – “Prime Minister Modi is likely to reassert India’s push to create a global approach to deal with terrorism. He will also pitch steps to boost regional trade. One of the more significant meetings will be Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with US President Donald Trump.”
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This has to be,.. scratch that,… ‘THIS IS’ one of the biggest multinational trade embarrassments in the past decade.

President Trump and team U.S.A. have already said  the United States is not engaging in the multilateral Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal (TPP). We’re out, and have been out since the 2016 election. [The U.S. is focusing on direct, one-one-one, bilateral trade agreements.]
However, for the backdrop of this latest TPP development, you might also remember USTR Robert Lighthizer and Commerce Secretary Ross expressed the NAFTA plans were at loggerheads, and cancelled the October round of NAFA discussion, because of the ridiculous positions of the Canadians led by Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s far-left Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Well, for several months the eleven nations within the TPP have been negotiating among themselves for the details of the agreement without the United States. The member nations in the TPP-11 group are: Australia, Japan, Brunei, Mexico, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and Canada.
All eleven trade ministers from the TPP-11 countries had finally agreed on a “substantial conclusion” to the deal. The framework was built over almost two years and it was to be signed off by leaders on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Vietnam today.
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The international leaders attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in Da Nag, Vietnam gathered for their customary group photograph.
Justin from Canada was positioned next to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Australian PM Turnbull by the host nation (after a big controversy over TPP); U.S. President Trump was positioned next to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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