Trump to name and shame trade ‘cheats’

“Today I am signing two executive orders that send this message loud and clear and that set the stage for the great revival of American manufacturing”.

In remarks in the Oval Office, Trump said he’d seen first-hand as he travelled the country how bad trade deals had hurt American workers.

Between 2001 and 2016, about $2.8 billion in import taxes went uncollected from companies in 40 countries, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Friday.

The study of trade abuses appeared aimed at justifying unilateral retaliatory trade actions by the United States, said Matt Gold, a former deputy assistant USA trade representative who is now an adjunct trade law professor at Fordham University in NY.

“While many countries talk about free trade, they’re actually far more protectionist than we are”, he said.

Separately, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, which is controlled by the White House, said Beijing’s industrial policies and financial support for industries such as steel and aluminium have resulted in over-production and a flood of exports that have distorted global markets and undermined competitive companies. “That’s not the case”, Ross said, noting that China is the number one source of trade deficit.

Earlier on Friday, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who is taking the lead on producing the large-scale report, called enforcement a “very primary objective of this administration on trade”, during an interview with Bloomberg.

Zheng said as the worldwide situation continues undergoing “profound and complicated changes”, the meeting will be of great significance to charting China-US ties in a new era, advancing the development of bilateral ties in a “healthy and stable way from a new starting point, and promoting peace, stability and prosperity in Asia and the Pacific and the world at large”.

The announcement says the U.S. must address the challenges to economic growth and employment that may arise from large and chronic trade deficits and the “unfair and discriminatory” trade practices of some of their trading partners. Phrases like “harms US companies” are also liberally sprinkled throughout.

The move comes immediately before the first diplomatic meeting between Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping, scheduled for next week.

Trump himself called out China on Thursday for trade imbalances and USA job losses just minutes before the order was announced.

“With some of the countries we will conclude that no action should be taken”, Ross said.

The resulting USA trade deficit with Germany has almost doubled in the past 10 years from some 28.8 billion euros (S$42.9 billion) in 2006 to 49 billion euros in 2016, according to data from Germany’s Federal Statistics Office.

The report, Ross said, will examine whether deficits are being driven by things like cheating, specific trade obligations, lax enforcement and World Trade Organization rules. Let’s not make this a China story.

The orders will also target enforcement of pirated and counterfeited intellectual property owned by US companies, he said.

In response to the move, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel on Friday urged Brussels to file a complaint at the World Trade Organizaion against the U.S. over planned duties on steel plate imports from five European Union member countries.