I have never witnessed an economic policy initiative positioned, framed and delivered with this much success.  A few points must be noted for emphasis.

♦ First, at 3:30pm today President Trump will announce the final end-policy on his Steel and Aluminum tariffs.  It is going to happen; and the final outline will be extraordinarily effective – in part because the opposition to the policy walked directly into the hands of a deal-maker who knows how to position the opponent’s demands to increase his own strength.

After President Trump’s lead trade policy advocate, Peter Navarro, stated yesterday the steel and aluminum tariff announcement would be coming today, the opposition immediately increased their calls for modifications.

While the White House trade lawyers were working through the day and night constructing the legalese, Fox News Ed Henry stated late last night there might be a delay….

But the media again displayed how they don’t understand this President.

When Trump establishes a goal that is a top priority for his personal MAGAnomic agenda – he will not accept roadblocks.  As such, today the announcement is proceeding according to the timeline set by Trump, no-one else.

This trade specific issue, and many more soon to follow, are important to this president.  This is President Trump’s subject area of specific expertise.  These trade policies are the issues he has been discussing for over thirty years.

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Important stuff in this ‘straight talk’ interview.  Buckets of ‘breaking’ stuff to unpack.

First, per Trade Adviser Peter Navarro, the Steel and Aluminum tariffs will be announced tomorrow.  Second, Mexico and Canada will be given an exemption from those tariffs while NAFTA is being renegotiated.  WATCH:

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The exemption will give U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer increased leverage in his efforts to close the NAFTA loophole.  Closing the NAFTA “fatal flaw” is the essential “Option 1” that we have discussed previously several times.  It would be against the interests of Canada and Mexico to ever agree to close the loophole.  However, the steel and aluminum tariffs add a bit of financial incentive not previously in the equation.

It is still highly doubtful the amount of money in the steel and aluminum tariff aspect is close to enough to get Canada and Mexico to agree to close the backdoor loophole.  However, any amount is more than was there before…. so the possibility of “option 1” increases a smidge.

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Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross talks about the importance of trade “reciprocity”.  As Wilburine outlines phase-2 MAGAnomics is only just beginning the reciprocity discussion.

Additionally, Secretary Ross talks about the issues with Chinese steel trans-shipment and the reason for Steel and Aluminum tariffs to be global in order to address China’s use of proxy nation states to continue dumping.   In this interview Ross begins to outline the fine points behind the pending 2018 trade negotiations. It is going to take a lot of repeated effort to awaken the larger U.S. electorate to the issues.

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500 high-wage manufacturing jobs might not sound like a big deal, but for the community of Granite City Illinois it is a VERY BIG DEAL. Their blast furnace was shut down in 2016, and today they happily hear the news of its reopening… GREAT NEWS !

ILLINOIS – U.S. Steel announced it will restart a blast furnace and steel-making operations at its Granite City Works plant in southern Illinois near St. Louis as a result of the announced tariffs of 25 percent on all steel imports.

The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker shuttered parts of the mill in late 2015 and early 2016, largely, it said, as a result of a glut of imports that depressed prices and made steel mills less profitable. U.S. Steel plans to bring 500 steelworkers back to work if President Donald Trump goes forward with plans to act on a Section 232 investigation that concluded a surge in steel imports was eroding the American steel industry and threatening national security.

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Maria Bartiromo interviews Treasury Secretary Mnuchin to discuss Gary Cohn’s departure from President Trump’s National Economic Council (NEC).  {Deep Dive Here}  Secretary Mnuchin talks about the larger MAGAnomic objectives, and the transition of the administration into ‘policy phase-2’ with all attention now focused on Main Street.

Great Interview:

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♦Economic Patriotism – ‘America First’:
√ Unleash energy development. Drive down energy costs. Lower cost-of-living.
√ Eliminate regulatory stranglehold. Unleash free market entrepreneurial expansion.
√ Lower corporate tax burden. Position business investment ‘best bet’ domestically.
√ Generate investment expansion. Create: jobs, jobs, jobs.
√ Generate higher labor demand. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs = Higher wages, wages, wages.
√ Lower middle-class tax burden. Combine higher wages with lower taxes. 2x benefits.
==> WE ARE HERE <==
• Structure trade deals to benefit workers/companies inside the U.S.
• Leverage access to U.S. market as incitement for domestic investment.
• Economic Growth + Domestic Manufacturing Expansion =  GDP increases.
• Increased overall tax revenues from expanding economy stabilizes debt and entitlements.

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*ahem* As if on cue…

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DEEP-DIVE FULL BACKSTORY

The Eagle, The Panda and The Red Dragon

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Very cautious optimism because Red Dragon has history of using the Panda Mask to cloud intents as a strategy.   North Korea is a proxy state to their enabler, China.  DPRK Kim Jong-un is little stompy-feet panda to the big panda/red dragon, Chairman Xi Jinping.

The one constant in an ever-changing universe is the gravity of China; it only goes one-way.  China allows and directs what is in China’s best interests.  Period.

Chinese Chairman-for-life Xi Jinping (all he represents) view smiling panda economics as modern intercontinental nuclear weapons.

Chairman Xi and President Trump have been deep inside a geopolitical smiling contest for over a year.  Xi and Trump are playing grandmaster level geopolitical economics.  Their most consequential moves are well beyond the horizon; far away from the gaze of the crowd; the media is oblivious to them.

•Japan (Shinzo Abe) has stated they have “great confidence” in President Trump’s Asian national security approach. •South Korea (President Moon Jae-in) stated they are “confident there will not be war again on the Korean peninsula“; •and they are willing to send a special envoy to North Korea to begin talks. •In addition, China quietly removed the 71-year-old veteran diplomat, Wu Dawei, from the position of negotiator toward the DPRK, and replaced him with 58-year-old Kong Xuanyou. Kong is a long time Chinese diplomat in charge of Asian affairs and he speaks Korean.

All of this was generally under-reported and took place months before President Trump arrived in Asia last year.  The U.S. media was busy pushing racism and Charlottesville narratives.  More importantly this quiet activity took place while President Trump directed US Trade Rep Robert Lighthizer to begin a section 301 trade investigation (Intellectual Property theft) into China.

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Dear Ambassador Lighthizer, love ya’ but enough already.  After eight months, and seven rounds of negotiations, only six trade chapter agreements -out of 30- have been closed.  It’s an election year in Mexico (July), Canada and the U.S. (November).

Time to cut bait; call the baby ugly; end the nonsense; stop the backslapping; put everyone out of their diplomatic misery, and finally make a formal NAFTA exit announcement in Washington DC.

Today, round #7 ends in Mexico City with no progress. Surprise fail.   Here’s the trilateral presser (sorry, poor audio):

Other than the progressive Canadian ‘princess rainbow-sparkles’ stomping her feet and promising targeted political trade retaliation for U.S. Steel and Aluminum tariffs, there’s nothing newsworthy within the entire public conference.   Below is a transcript of Ambassador Lighthizer’s full remarks as delivered.

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We are nearing the timeline apex for release of the decision/announcement on a U.S. NAFTA exit. Trade adviser Peter Navarro appears on Fox Business to discuss the pending Steel and Aluminum tariff while President Trump tweets concerns about NAFTA renegotiation; which enters Round #7 this week.

The steel tariffs are targeted toward national economic security; the Wall Street financial class are apoplectic because a firm administration stance on Steel and Aluminum tariffs indicates the larger trade perspective on all bilateral trade deals.

New Twitter Thread on the NAFTA Fatal Flaw – HERE

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Ya know, it’s increasingly funny to watch the Wall Street crowd going bananas simply because POTUS Trump does exactly what POTUS Trump said he was going to do.  I mean it’s not like the administration has been hiding the trade policy plans and objectives for the past year; yet, the financial class acts shocked, SHOCKED, when it actually happens.

Cue the audio visual demonstration….. Was anyone paying attention in January at the Davos World Economic Forum when Commerce Secretary Ross said exactly what the administration was going to do in the coming months?  ….Apparently not.

Against the backdrop of current financial and corporate media running around like blindfolded zombies with forks in their eyes – hysterically bumping into walls, it might be worthwhile to revisit Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s purposeful remarks at Davos:

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Twitter Thread HERE to Expand Full Dynamic

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