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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I always find it amusing that ABC News never publishes the excerpts of interviews (on their YouTube channel) that run counter to their political ideology.   I digress…

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appears on ABC to talk trade with George Stephanopoulos.  Secretary Ross highlights a key point in the discussion about how post-World-War-II trade tariff policies were intentionally constructed to lift Germany, Japan and economically devastated nations after the war.  This was the origin of the progressive trade association that became the WTO.

[Ross’s segment begins at 38:45 of the video below – prompted, just hit play]

https://youtu.be/MPcrUfw1fwg?t=38m45s

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Oh, how the European hypocrisy is in overdrive on the tariff issue.  According to BBC U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May and President Trump had a phone call where the British leader expressed “deep concern” over the Trump administration’s pending tariff’s on Steel and Aluminum.

Theresa May has told Donald Trump of her “deep concern” at his plan to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports into the US.

Amid an escalating war of words between Washington and the European Union, the Prime Minister told the US President that “multilateral action was the only way to resolve the problem of global overcapacity in all parties’ interests”, a Downing Street spokeswoman said.  (read more)

Mrs. May must think Americans are unambiguously stupid because it was less than two years ago when the U.K. urgently applied tariffs against Chinese steel in an effort to stave off the losses within their own steel industry:

APRIL 2017,  – BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Commission has imposed anti-dumping duties on steel products from China to stop them flooding Europe’s struggling steel market.

Hypocrisy much?

President Trump is entirely correct in his prior tweet:

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Senator Joe Manchin appears on Face the Nation and highlights his support for the Trump trade initiatives.  The cross-party MAGAnomic support highlights an aspect to President Trump policy that is unique to this administration. [ DEEP DIVE HERE ]

Within the aggregate MAGAnomic policy of President Trump there are two central components: taxes and trade.  With the ‘tax element’ completed, the administration will likely jettison some of the Wall Street crowd as they focus on the trade issues that specifically benefit Main Street.

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The application of “economic nationalism” as a policy is adverse to the interests of multinational corporations. The multinationals have been purchasing U.S. policy through DC politicians for decades. However, the last 30+ years have seen exceptionally high increases. (read more)

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Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appears on Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo to talk trade and tariffs amid the apoplectic drum-beating from the Wall Street crowd and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Secretary Ross explains the use of Trade Section 232 for national security. The U.S. capability to produce steel and aluminum is a vital interest to national security. The World Trade Organization (WTO), a collective enterprise of multinational corporations, is angered by the use of section 232 because it works around their ability to file complaints.

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The essential point to drive home is that for the past 30+ years U.S. trade policy has been driven by Wall Street and financial corporate benefactors to the detriment of the U.S. middle class and a manufacturing economy.  It is not necessary to argue the outcome, we can all clearly see it.  The Trump objective is to restore a balanced U.S. economy, stop the exploitative export of American wealth, and stabilize our own middle-class.

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Boy howdy, you can judge how close you are to the treasury center of the swamp by the scale of the defenses surrounding the policy.   As we have continued to explain, it’s always about the money.  All aversion to President Trump is about the economic interests of people who have established their affluence and influence from 30+ years of exploitation.

Chris Wallace is the media guardian of corporate Wall Street, the GOPe, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the financial controlling interests at the intersection of Wall Street and corporate media.  In this interview with President Trump’s Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, Peter Navarro, Wallace goes bananas to protect those interests.

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The exploitation of the U.S. economic market through export of American wealth is a UniParty policy. Almost all Republicans and almost all Democrats are aligned in common cause to do the bidding of their corporate benefactors on trade, finance and economic policy. There are trillions at stake, and President Trump is an existential threat to their decades-long constructs.

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Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro appears on CNN with Jake Tapper to discuss pending steel and aluminum tariffs.   During the interview Navarro rightly outlined the possibility of some product “exemptions” but there no country “exclusions” for new trade tariffs.

What the media refuse to explain (willful blindness), on the country exclusion aspect, is that Chinese steel dumping doesn’t come from China alone.  China uses proxy countries in Asia as shipment depots to avoid tariffs.  Additionally, China use Mexico and Canada in North America as destinations for their steel product to gain tariff-free NAFTA access to the U.S. market.   The only way to avoid their use of proxy shipment hubs is to tax all steel and aluminum globally.

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I think we’ve figured out why President Trump is doing the Steel and Aluminum tariffs ahead of the NAFTA withdrawal.  Perhaps, the wolverine administration is using Steel and Aluminum to draw attention to the NAFTA fatal flaw.

Earlier today Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland stated:

“Should restrictions be imposed on Canadian steel and aluminum products, Canada will take responsive measures to defend its trade interests and workers,” Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement, calling any trade restrictions“absolutely unacceptable.”  (link)

The key word in that statement from Freeland is “products”. Why? because Canada doesn’t make more than a boutique amount of raw Steel.  (Top 40 List)  The Canadians, like the Mexicans, import the vast majority of their raw steel from China.  Canada then fabricates products from the Chinese steel.  This nuanced point is almost always lost on people who discuss trade.  This point of origination is also the fatal flaw within NAFTA.

In essence Canada is a brokerage for Chinese manufactured material, and NAFTA is the access trade-door exploited by China for entry into the U.S. market.  More on that in a moment.  First watch Justin from Canada explain his country’s position. (prompted, just hit play):

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