Round six of NAFTA renegotiation talks continue today as Canada and Mexico claim cautious optimism that a round seven will take place.  This round of talks is scheduled to continue through Monday and end with a much anticipated a joint press conference between Ildefonso Guajardo (Mex), Chrystia Freeland (Can) and U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer.   There were seven rounds initially scheduled.
Canada and Mexico are trying to close less important, and less controversial, trade chapters in an effort to give the illusion of progress and frame a political narrative that lends itself toward continuing to talk; ie. round seven.
However, if there’s no significant progress on the larger issues it’s doubtful Lighthizer will find value in endless words that amount to nothing.
Canada and Mexico have been lobbying U.S. politicians hard to retain their parasitic trade positions.  Additionally, a significant number of Washington DC politicians are willing to take massive bribes from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbyists and support the export of American economic jobs and wealth.   This is another key UniParty indulgence issue.
Big Corporate Agriculture (Big AG), the consortium of massive multinational agriculture companies who hold stakes in the entire continent, are pushing hard to keep their “controlled market” dominance in place, and is attempting to stoke fears using false claims about farms and negative trade impacts to farmers.  Pure nonsense.
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When President Trump left the Davos economic forum, Secretary T-Rex traveled to Poland for a bilateral meeting with Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz.  Many readers are aware how the U.S. and Poland have formed a very strong bond, a very strategic alliance, since the Trump administration took office.
Last year President Trump visited Warsaw to solidify a geopolitical relationship based on common interests and a desire to help Poland push back against Russian leverage based on energy dependence. Poland is a key strategic ally for the Trump administration, and more importantly a trusted ally; arguably more so than the U.K.
T-Rex held a joint press conference with his Polish counterpart Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz. Video:

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After the visit to Poland, T-Rex flew to London (there now) for the opening of the new U.S. Embassy.  While in the U.K. T-Rex will be meeting with Boris Johnson to discuss mutual interests and continue trying to determine if the U.K. is a willing trade partner.
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The U.S. Fourth Quarter GDP growth was reported two days ago at 2.6% and that stunned everyone who were expecting a much higher number. All U.S. economic indicators including U.S. Holiday consumer spending, which accounts for around two-thirds of total GDP, were off the charts in the fourth quarter growing +5.5% over the prior holiday.
The total growth in fourth quarter consumer spending was almost four percent (3.8%), that’s the highest rate of consumer spending in well over two years.  Q4 investment in new housing increased 11.6%, business spending on equipment surged 11.4% and outlays on structures edged up 1.4%.
Before the BEA (Bureau of Economic Analysis) announcement, everyone predicted 4th quarter GDP growth would easily be over 3%, and most likely in the 3.5 to 4.0% range.
So what gives.  Why did the Q4 GDP only grow at 2.6% ?

It seems a little funny to be griping about 2.6% growth because, well, that’s really good, Bigly even; so hopefully those within the Commerce Department don’t take this review personally.  But, c’mon, we expected more…  Well, the answer to the question is actually in the first few paragraphs of their release, and later in the deep weeds of the data.  I’ll explain.
First, the part of the announcement to note carefully:

[…] The Bureau emphasized that the fourth-quarter advance estimate released today is based on source data that are incomplete or subject to further revisionby the source agency (see “Source Data for the Advance Estimate” on page 3). The “second” estimate for the fourth quarter, based on more complete data, will be released on February 28, 2018.

The “source data for the advance estimate” is another set of separate analytical disclaimers (pdf here) which informs users there are economic data-sets that contain ‘less than‘ three months of information.  To see what data is missing, and what “assumptions” the BEA  recommends, you to travel to a third level of depth (LINK HERE), and then to the key source data and BEA assumptions (excel spreadsheet here).
Don’t try this at home without a pocket protector and guidebook to the fourth level of Dantes inferno. So let me try to make this easy.
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Earlier today, prior to his speech in Davos, Switzerland, President Trump sat down for an interview with Joe Kernen to discuss the America-First economic policy.

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The entire economic world is unilaterally focused on President Trump and the U.S. delegation in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum. CTH has stated for several years that MAGAnomics, the U.S. economic outlook, would be the primary generational change evident from a successful election of Donald Trump. What’s happening at Davos is simply visible confirmation therein.

Boil all international and geopolitical issues down to their common denominator and everything, E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G., every issue, every discussion, every person, every policy, every position, everything -all of it- circles around economics. Nothing matters except the underlying economics of every single issue. Power or weakness, famine or war, peace or conflict, master or servant, culture or crisis, growth or collapse, the entirety of everything -including the foundation of freedom- centers around the economics.
There are trillions at stake.
Yesterday we saw U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross commanding around 80% of panelist discussion, and factually 100% of all questions and attention from the Davos audience. Every single question was for Wilburine.  Team U.S.A. is the epicenter of the economic universe and Secretary Ross was well prepared for the severity of attention.
Today, the same theme continues as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin engages with a similar panel discussion.

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Earlier today President Trump had dinner with European business leaders attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Attendees included:
U.S. Team – President Donald J. Trump, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielson, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn.
European Delegation: Kasper Rorsted, Adidas (Apparel) Germany; Joe Kaeser, Siemens AG (Tech) Germany; Heinrich Hiesinger, Thyssenkrupp AG (Industrials) Germany; Eldar Saetre, Statoil ASA (Energy) Norway; Mark Schneider, Nestle SA (Food and Beverage) Switzerland; Vas Narasimhan, Novartis AG (Pharmaceutical) Switzerland; Mark Tucker, HSBC (Financial Services) UK; Patrick Pouyanne, Total SA (Energy) France; Carols Brito, Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (Food and Beverage) Netherlands; Rajeev Suri, Nokia Corporation (Technology) Finland; Punit Renjen, Deloitte (Consulting) UK; Martian Lundstedt, AB Volvo (Auto) Sweden; Werner Baumann, Bayer AG (Pharmaceutical) Germany; Bill McDermott, SAP SE (Technology) Germany; Ulrich Spiesshofer, ABB Ltd (Manufacturing) Switzerland.

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U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is attending Round Six of the NAFTA talks in Canada while President Trump, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, and Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin attend the Davos World Economic Forum and sit down for an interview with Maria Bartiromo. (Three Video Segments).

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Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross at the World Economic Forum in Davos (President Trump departs the U.S. tonight to attend). The attendance by Secretary Ross provides an opportunity to further enforce the position of the Trump administration regarding free, fair and reciprocal trade deals.
Believe me, the economic globalist attendees were/are entirely freaking out.  There’s a panel discussion video at the bottom which will highlight the tenuous position of the multinational corporations, banks and the economic interests of the globalists.  Prior to the panel Secretary Ross gave an interview to CNBC. WATCH:

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As mentioned Secretary Ross also outlined how the ‘America First’ economic policy and platform engages with the global community during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum.  Generally the attendees have been historic champions of multinational corporations and multinational financial interests, ie. fans of “economic globalization”.
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President Trump and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer held an open-press Oval Office event to announce trade action, tariffs, against China (solar) and S-Korea (washing machines) for product dumping. [Details Here]
The backdrop of this executive action happens on the first day of NAFTA round six talks beginning in Canada.  Ambassador Lighthizer will be traveling to Canada shortly.  It is increasingly likely that President Trump will exit NAFTA as part of the larger initiative to draw manufacturing jobs back into the U.S.   In this round, we are hearing from those close to the work that Mexico and Canada are panicked and ready to concede in an effort to keep access to the U.S. market they are dependent on.
President Trump and Ambassador Lighthizer are now in the process of leveraging the U.S. business tax policy changes to hammer bilateral trade deals.  This is where the teeth of Team wolverine become visible.  All future action builds on all preceding action.

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The economic shift in 2018 will be a very visible Ambassador Lighthizer. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross built the larger foundation for U.S. trade policy and USTR action in 2017. Now that a smooth policy foundation is established, Robert Lightizer shifts into gear and becomes the trade-deal closer in 2018.
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President Trump and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer followed through on the trade commission study from last year showing evidence of dumping in the U.S. market.  Samsung anticipated this final outcome and is almost finished with their plans to manufacture washing machines in South Carolina.

Washington, DC – U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announced today that President Trump has approved recommendations to impose safeguard tariffs on imported large residential washing machines and imported solar cells and modules.
USTR made the recommendations to the President based on consultations with the interagency Trade Policy Committee (TPC) in response to findings by the independent, bipartisan U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) that increased foreign imports of washers and solar cells and modules are a substantial cause of serious injury to domestic manufacturers.
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