Truth: the new hate speech
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| TECHNOLOGY |
FYI: NASA,
for the first time on Tuesday, flew a remotely piloted, large, unmanned
aircraft using detect and avoid technology that complied with FAA's "see
and avoid" rules. "This is a huge milestone for our Unmanned Aircraft
Systems Integration in the National Airspace System project team,"
according to Ed Waggoner, director of NASA's integrated aviation systems
program, who said in a statement that NASA had been working closely with the
FAA for several months to coordinate the flight. The FAA gave NASA a waiver to
conduct the flight. [POLITICO's Morning Transportation, June 13, 2018]
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WILBUR ROSS
Secretary of Commerce |
SENATE GOP TO GRILL ROSS OVER TARIFFS NEXT WEEK: Republican
free-traders won't be able to vote on potentially blocking Trump's tariffs on
steel and aluminum in the Senate next week, but they will get to lob questions
about the duties at Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Ross will appear before the Senate Finance Committee
at 9 a.m. Wednesday to discuss the administration's tariffs plan - including
Commerce's ongoing investigation into whether auto imports are a threat to
national security.
The hearing will give lawmakers a chance to grill Ross over
protectionist policies that have been deeply unpopular in the GOP. On Tuesday,
Corker slammed Republicans for being unwilling to
stand up to Trump, after his amendment to the NDAA that would give Congress
power to block Trump's tariffs was blocked from getting a vote. Corker's
measure would require duties like those Trump placed on steel and aluminum
imports to go to Congress for a vote before they can be imposed.
"While we share a common goal of pursuing a pro-growth,
pro-America agenda, I have made no secret my concerns with the administration's
use of 232 tariffs," Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch said in a
statement. "These tariffs are ultimately paid by American consumers and
cause harm to American manufacturers, undermining the success of tax
reform." [POLITICO's Morning Trade, June
14, 2018]
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| REFUGEES |
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| GAMES & SPORTS |
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| CLIMATE CHANGE |
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| BUDGET |
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| READ |
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| TRUMP |
TRUMP TO SENATORS: TARIFFS AIMED AT PRESSING ALLIES TO LOWER
TRADE BARRIERS: In a White House meeting last week, Trump explained to
lawmakers that his decision to slap tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from
U.S. allies offers him an opportunity to press other countries to drop their
tariffs on the United States, Sen. Ted Cruz said Monday.
Trump "energetically made the case that the tariffs provide
him with significant leverage to press our allies to reduce or eliminate their
own tariffs," Cruz told reporters of the meeting. "If our trading
partners reduce or eliminate their tariffs, that'd be a good outcome."
The highlight of the G-7 summit in Canada this past weekend was
Trump calling for the elimination of trade barriers between the U.S. and its
allies, Cruz said, adding that it would be beneficial for American farmers and
manufacturers. Cruz remains hopeful that the Trump administration will follow
through and "focus on lowering tariffs, expanding American access to
foreign markets and increasing international trade," he said.
TRUMP REASSURES FARMERS ON NAFTA: Trump
spoke on the phone with Rep. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) over the
weekend to reassure farmers that they will end up winning in a renegotiated NAFTA,
according to the lawmaker's office. In a five-minute call with
Trump, Marshall emphasized to Trump the importance of striking a deal on a
NAFTA 2.0. Trump, in response, said negotiations are ongoing and that he
continues to look for ways to ensure the NAFTA partner nations treat U.S.
farmers well.
"I'm doing the best I can, as fast as I can, but I don't
want to rush it so much that we make a bad deal," Trump told Marshall.
"It's a bad deal for the farmers and a bad deal for the country. I have to
do the right thing, I'll do the right thing, and it may take time, but they
will make a lot of money because we're going to take down trade barriers."
[POLITICO's Morning Trade, June 12, 2018]
SPANISH OLIVES DECISION DUE TODAY: The
Commerce Department today will issue its final anti-dumping and countervailing
duty calculations in a case brought by California olive producers against
imports from Spain. The United States imported about $71 million worth of ripe
olives from Spain in 2017. That was $8 million more than in 2016, although the
volume of imports was about the same, at around 32,000 metric tons.
The Commerce Department set preliminary countervailing duties
ranging from about 2.5 percent to 7.25 percent in November and preliminary
anti-dumping duties of 15 percent to 20 percent in January. For the final
duties to take effect, the U.S. International Trade Commission has to determine
that U.S. producers have been materially injured, or are threatened with
material injury, by the imports. The date for that vote has not yet been posted
on the ITC's website. [POLITICO's Morning Trade, June 12, 2018]
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| CYBERSECURITY |
WYDEN OPENS ELECTION SECURITY FRONTS — Sen.
Ron Wyden is introducing election security legislation today that requires
paper ballots and "risk-limiting" audits that verify results.
Currently, 18 states use paperless machines in at least some jurisdictions, and
22 states do not require any post-election audits. Wyden's bill counts two
potential Democratic presidential hopefuls, Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and
Elizabeth Warren, among its co-sponsors, as well as Patty Murray, the Senate's
No. 3 Democrat. A summary of the legislation from Wyden's office asserts that
the subject requires federal action. But: "This bill is the
least-intrusive way to secure federal elections. It does not require federal personnel
to secure or monitor states' voting infrastructure, it does not regulate the
voting technology manufacturers, it does not impose detailed technological
cybersecurity standards on state election bodies, nor require in-depth,
third-party audits of states' election cybersecurity."
On Monday, Wyden wrote to the Election
Assistance Commission about what kind of guidance the commission was giving
states on the recently appropriated $380 million election security fund.
"Absent guidance from the EAC, states may opt to spend these new funds on
insecure voting technology," he wrote to the commission in a letter that
requested up-to-date advice. He asked whether it employs full-time technical
staff with cybersecurity expertise, and whether the commission has a process
for making sure EAC-verified voting systems keep up with the best cybersecurity
advice. Additionally, Wyden asked what outside experts the commission has
relied on since 2016, since Commissioner Christy McCormick last year dismissed intelligence community conclusions
that Russia was behind the U.S. election interference and cited John McAfee, a
cyber pioneer widely known these days for his eccentric commentary. [POLITICO's
Morning Cybersecurity, June 12, 2018]
An open letter on trade: The facts speak for themselves By 29
E.U. Ambassadors to the U.S.
There has been a lot of
talk recently about the trade and investment relationship between the European
Union and the United States. Who wins? Who loses?
The fact is, we are both winning and have been for years. Claims
to the contrary, including that the United States is at the losing end of this
relationship, deserve to be debunked. Because the United States makes more
money doing business with the E.U. than with anyone else.
The facts speak for themselves:
Fact No. 1: Together, the U.S. and the E.U. have created the largest and wealthiest market in the world. The transatlantic economy accounts for half of the global gross domestic product by value, which directly supports more than 15 million high-quality jobs and $5.5 trillion in commercial sales. And nearly one-third of the world’s trade in goods occurs between the E.U. and United States alone.
Fact No. 1: Together, the U.S. and the E.U. have created the largest and wealthiest market in the world. The transatlantic economy accounts for half of the global gross domestic product by value, which directly supports more than 15 million high-quality jobs and $5.5 trillion in commercial sales. And nearly one-third of the world’s trade in goods occurs between the E.U. and United States alone.
Fact No. 2: The United States has a partner in the form
of the European Union that invests more in the United States than the United
States does in it. The E.U.’s foreign direct investment in the United States is
$2.56 trillion, compared with $2.38 trillion in the other direction. Seventy
percent of all foreign direct investment in the United States comes from
Europe.
Fact No. 3: There is no “buy European” policy for
U.S. enterprises to compete with. We have a level playing field in public
procurement, regardless of whether you are a European or American company. On
top of that, we have eliminated thousands of legal and bureaucratic barriers to
trade, leading to an open and thriving marketplace of more than 500 million
consumers.
Fact No. 4: The European Union is the top destination
for American exports — in 2016, we bought $269.6 billion worth of goods from
the United States. And U.S. exports of services to the E.U. — increasingly the
backbone of any modern economy — have been steadily increasing over the years,
coming in at a record-setting $231 billion in 2016. That makes us the
top destination for U.S. services – in fact, transatlantic trade in services
results in a surplus for the United States.
Fact No. 5: Our tariff rates are constant, level and
predictable, helping U.S. enterprises to seamlessly enter our markets without
having to fear sudden, perhaps unforeseen heightened charges. The United States
currently imposes individual tariff rates of more than 15 percent on 330
separate manufactured goods. Yet when U.S. companies sell their products to the
E.U., they encounter only 45 such tariff peaks.
Simply put, the E.U. invests more in the United States, buys
more American services and employs more American workers than the other way
around. As a ready comparison: 45 of 50 U.S. states export more to
the E.U. than they do to China. And what of China’s foreign direct investment
into the United States? It’s around one-hundredth that of Europe’s.
This is a relationship,
indeed a partnership, that other countries can only dream of. It’s a
partnership underpinned by a broad set of shared values, grounded in a common
determination for freedom, peace and prosperity. But, as with any partnership,
the prospect of unilateral action by one side, to the detriment of the other
partner, places the entire mutually beneficial relationship at risk. Placing
tariffs on E.U. steel and aluminum imports — imports that are high value and
support critical U.S. industries — is a significant step in that protectionist
direction. So is going after the European auto industry — an industry that
invests billions in the United States and creates millions of jobs.
Instead, as the two most free and open economies in the world,
let’s focus on what benefits us both. We should work together to address
Chinese steel overcapacity and other market distortions. We should work
together toward a fair, open and rules-based global trading system. We should
work together to improve market access for our companies and farmers around the
world. Together we should tackle intellectual property theft and look at how we
can further reduce red tape, regulatory barriers and tariffs between us —
facilitating innovation and investment, to the mutual benefit of business and
consumers on both sides of the Atlantic. This, not tariffs and quotas, would be
moving in the right direction.
Ambassador of Bulgaria to
the United States, Tihomir Stoytchev
Ambassador of Austria to
the United States, Wolfgang Waldner
Ambassador of Romania to
the United States, George Maior
Ambassador of Finland to
the United States, Kirsti Kauppi
Ambassador of Croatia to
the United States, Pjer Simunovic
Ambassador of Germany to
the United States, Peter Wittig
Ambassador of Portugal to
the United States, Domingos Fezas Vital
Ambassador of Slovenia to
the United States, Stanislav Vidovic
Ambassador of France to
the United States, Gérard Araud
Ambassador of the Czech
Republic to the United States, Hynek Kmonicek
Ambassador of Sweden to
the United States, Karin Olofsdotter
Ambassador of Spain to
the United States, Pedro Morenés
Ambassador of Belgium to
the United States, Dirk Wouters
Ambassador of Hungary to
the United States, Laszlo Szabo
Ambassador of Poland to
the United States, Piotr Wilczek
Ambassador of Denmark to
the United States, Lars Lose
Chargé d’affaires of
Cyprus to the United States, Andreas Nikolaides
Ambassador of Ireland to
the United States, Daniel Mulhall
Ambassador of Lithuania
to the United States, Rolandas Krisciunas
Ambassador of Greece to
the United States, Haris Lalacos
Ambassador of Italy to
the United States, Armando Varricchio
Ambassador of Latvia to
the United States, Andris Teikmanis
Ambassador of Luxembourg
to the United States, Sylvie Lucas
Ambassador of the
Netherlands to the United States, Henne Schuwer
Ambassador of the Slovak
Republic to the United States, Peter Kmec
Ambassador of Malta to
the United States, Pierre Clive Agius
Ambassador of the United
Kingdom to the United States, Sir Kim Darroch
Ambassador of Estonia to
the United States, Lauri Lepik
Ambassador
of the European Union to the United States, David O’Sullivan
NAVARRO SIGNALS AUTO TARIFFS ARE COMING: The
White House adviser called out Germany and Japan for their auto exports as he
built a case in a New York Times opinion piece for why the era of
American complacency on trade is over.
"Even when Germany's automakers build facilities in the
United States, these so-called factories are more like assembly plants. S.U.V.s
in the BMW X series that are assembled in the United States actually contain
only 25 percent to 35 percent American-built content — the high-value engines
and transmissions are manufactured in Germany and Austria," Navarro wrote.
NAVARRO: ZTE HAS ONE MORE CHANCE: The
Trump administration will shut down Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE if it
is caught violating U.S. laws again, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro
said on Sunday, responding to criticism on Capitol Hill about the deal the
Commerce Department struck to put the company back in business.
"It's going to be three strikes, you're out on ZTE,"
Navarro said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday." "If they do
one more additional thing, they will be shut down." Doug has more on
that here.
SURVEY: TRADE WAR THREATENS POSITIVE U.S. ECONOMIC OUTLOOK: While
the U.S. continues to see high levels of investor and consumer confidence,
increased trade tensions and pivoting toward protectionism could derail the
strong outlook for the future of the U.S. economy, according to the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's annual U.S. economic
survey. Read it here. [POLITICO's Morning Trade, June
11, 2018]
NOTE: I have no official connection to any organization from which information is shared.. Occasionally, I post informational material and/or an opportunity to donate or join as a "community service" announcement. These again are shared for their varying perspectives.
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