[Atimes] NAFTA partner’s planned crackdown on the dumping of cheap steel angers the world’s second-largest economy.
When it comes to swapping insults, China’s state-owned media is in a league of its own. With a heavy helping of bile, the world’s second-largest economy ratcheted up the rhetoric with the United States in a looming trade war by branding neighbor Canada a “US colony.”
In a 477-word media tirade, China picked apart remarks made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday when he announced plans to bring in new regulations to crack down on countries dumping cheap steel and aluminum in foreign markets.
“Canada is a trading nation, and we will not allow North American industries to be hurt or threatened by unfair trade practices, like the diversion of steel and aluminum,” Trudeau said in a statement, without directly naming China.
“Our businesses and workers rely on our integrated industries, and we will take strong action to defend and protect our most important trade relationships. Canada will not be used as a backdoor into other North American markets. Our people have worked hard to be competitive in this global economy, and they deserve a level playing field,” he added.
But Trudeau’s comments sparked outrage in the Global Times, which is run by People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of Beijing.
‘Freaked out’
“[US President Donald] Trump’s announcement of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports earlier this month seems to have freaked out Canada [and it] may be trying to cement the exemption by accusing China of dumping,” the state-owned newspaper said in an editorial on Friday.
“In fact, Canada is more like a US colony economically, and half of its trade is with the US … But by following the US suit, Canada is acting like a crafty merchant,” it went on to say.
“We despise the way Canada vacillates between China and the US, and won’t readily let this go. Beijing should take punitive measures against Ottawa’s actions that undermine the interests of Chinese business, sending a warning to others,” the editorial added.
Still, President Xi Jinping’s ‘cabinet’ appears to be spooked since the Trump administration rolled out tough measures last month to curb steel and aluminum imports from China.
On Monday, Washington demanded that Beijing should cut tariffs on imported cars and allow access for foreign firms to own majority stakes in domestic financial services companies.
The White House also told China to buy more US-made semiconductors and clamp down on infringements on intellectual property rights. Failure to agree would trigger a new round of punitive tariffs on an array of Chinese goods, escalating trade tensions.
“We’re hopeful that China will work with us to basically address some of these practices,” Peter Navarro, the new US trade adviser, told CNBC earlier this week in a rare note of optimism after Trump slapped up to US$60 billion in tariffs on certain Chinese imports.
In response, Beijing has swung from confrontation to reconciliation. On Thursday, they told the US not to open “Pandora’s Box” and threatened to roll out $3 billion in tariffs on imports ranging from aircraft and related equipment to soybeans and cars.
“The malicious practices of the United States are like opening Pandora’s Box, and there is a danger of triggering a chain reaction that will spread the virus of trade protectionism across the globe,” a Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman told the media.
#2
China has nothing. We've got them by the balls. A trade war will devastate them, while we will be largely unaffected.
We could have done this ages ago, and saved our people. But the State Department didn't want to do it. Why would they benefit our own people at the expense of hostile foreigners?
Posted by: Herb McCoy7309 ||
04/01/2018 3:16 Comments ||
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#3
Does this mean America has wrested Vancouver from the Chinese?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/01/2018 15:12 Comments ||
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#7
Well I really hope that Trudeau's string pullers are sufficiently miffed that they impose further tarrifs. I bet there's a lot of other stuff Canada can manufacture at better quality and price
Posted by: Otto Spailet6361 ||
04/01/2018 20:51 Comments ||
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#8
Canada should respond by calling China a North Korean lapdog.
[ATimes] Laos is one of eight global countries considered of “particular concern” for a future debt crisis, according to a recent report by the Center for Global Development (CGD), a Washington-based economic think tank.
The main cause of concern is the small poor country’s big rich plans for a US$6.7 billion high-speed railway that China is promoting as part of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The project’s cost represents a quarter of Laos’ current gross domestic product (GDP).
One-third of that sum will be covered by a China-Lao joint venture company, of which the Lao government will contribute roughly 30%, or around US$700 million. Around US$480 of that amount will come from an Export-Import Bank of China loan. The remaining US$220 million will be drawn from the state budget.
But, as the CGD report notes, “the financial terms for many elements of the project remain a secret.” The opaque terms on the remaining US$6 billion is raising concerns about the concessions China may be able to wrest in the case of default. The project is scheduled for completion in 2021.
Beijing has already notched various long-term land concessions for plantation agricultural and other commercial ventures that have facilitated fast migration of Chinese workers and entrepreneurs. The train, designed to connect China to Laos and then through Thailand to mainland Southeast Asia, will pave the way for even faster Chinese migration southward.
China - the new Colonial Power. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...!
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/01/2018 10:43 Comments ||
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#4
Interested in China? Look at the Ancient Chinese books translated by Ralph D. Sawyer, fascinating insights! I first ran across his "The Seven Military Classics" years ago through a book club and was hooked...
Anyway, this is Chinese Diplomacy 1001 straight from their 'Lifan Yuan', the Office of Barbarian Control. Hook them on trinkets, corrupt their leaders, and turn them into puppets -- with millennia of practice the Chinese are very skilled at this.
#5
One line will run from Kunming, China, to Singapore. Another line will run from Assam, India, to the Vietnamese port of Danang. The area where the two lines will intersect, in northern Thailand, will presumably become a prosperous area.
So, this POS has been around since the Scandal Free™ Obama/Holder/Lynch era
The head of the federal Department of Justice's death penalty unit has been removed from his job after being investigated at least 12 times on charges of sexism and favoritism, according to reports. Only 12?
Kevin Carwile had helmed the group, which assists the Attorney General in evaluating potential capital punishment cases, since 2011.
Current and former employees filed multiple grievances against Carwile and a deputy for promoting a "sexualized environment" and for a pattern of biased assignments that disadvantaged female subordinates, the New York Times reported Saturday.
In one case, employees alleged, Carwile stood idly by as the deputy, Gwynn Kinsey, groped a low-level assistant against her will ‐ and then instructed employees who witnessed the abuse not to speak about it.
The complaints against him began in 2013 and continued through last year.
Carwile had been bounced from his role as the head of the much larger DOJ gangs unit as part of the fallout from the "Fast and Furious" gun-walking scandal in 2011.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/01/2018 12:03 ||
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#1
How many more corrupt pieces of shit have burrowed in?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/01/2018 12:08 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.