I will if you will. Cancel the Tariffs that is...
BRAmble Daily: 5 news items, 2 comments from me and 1 random musing, book or quote
5 News Items
China Says U.S. Agrees to Tariff Rollback If Deal Reached
Inside the last 5 days of Donald Trump's chaotic presidency
India should tie up with China beyond BRI
US woos Asia with plan to rival China's 'Belt and Road'
2 Comments
China uncharcteristically takes the driver’s seat in publicly defining the phase one trade deal. Is the Trump administration really on board?
Beijing announced Thursday that the U.S. and China have mutually agreed to roll back tariffs as part of a “phase one” trade accord. This statement lifted international financial markets, but questions remain over whether the Trump administration had actually agreed to such terms.
“In the past two weeks, top negotiators had serious, constructive discussions and agreed to remove the additional tariffs in phases as progress is made on the agreement,” - Gao Feng, China Ministry of Commerce spokesman
Feng insisted that an important condition for a limited trade agreement was that the U.S. and China remove the same amount of charges at the same time.
“If China, U.S. reach a phase-one deal, both sides should roll back existing additional tariffs in the same proportion simultaneously based on the content of the agreement, which is an important condition for reaching the agreement.” - Gao Feng, China Ministry of Commerce spokesman
Neither the White House nor the U.S. trade representative issued a public response to corroborate China’s statement, and there were conflicting reports from within the Trump white house as to whether there was a firm commitment to reduce tariffs.
I suppose we need to wait for Trump’s next tweet to find out for sure.
BRI only mentioned once during China’s Fourth Plenum. A sign that the days of questioning its validity over?
At China's Fourth Plenum (a major Communist Party meeting that took place in Beijing from October 28-31, 2019) the discussion around the Belt and Road Initiative was very limited compared to past plenum sessions. It was actually mentioned by name only once in the official transcript in the context of “strengthening independent and peaceful foreign policy” and promoting the construction of the “shared community of mankind”.
The main point stressed was the importance of ensuring “high quality” construction in BRI projects which has been the prime mission since the second Belt and Road Forum that took place this past Spring in Beijing. Going forward the focus appears to be on China to “take a positive role in the reform of the global governance system,” which includes but is not limited to the Belt and Road Initiative.
It seems these days clamor over the BRI as a “debt trap” argument as well other structural concerns about the Belt and Road Initiative in practice, have died down. The general feeling is that the BRI has passed a significant international “stress test” and its purpose and existence have been validated to a certain extent. For now, it seems the Western media couldn’t find a newsworthy scandal to latch on to and therefore doubting the legitimacy and effectiveness of the BRI has become less interesting to the world and the media—and therefore not requiring much discussion at the 4th plenum.
1 Musing
If you are old enough you may remember the popular 1993 cult-hit comedy film “Groundhog Day” starring Bill Murray as Phil Connors, a TV weatherman who, during an assignment covering the annual Groundhog Day event, is caught in a time loop, repeatedly reliving the same day.
Groundhog Day was fairly successful on release and received generally positive reviews. Over time it gained popularity and critical acclaim and now has a cult status among comedy films. One of the more interesting facets of the story around this film is how the term "groundhog day" is now commonly used in the English language to describe a recurring situation. For entering the popular vernacular this way, in 2006, the film was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
For those of you who haven’t seen it, the film begins with local celebrity weatherman Phil Connors reassurring Pittsburgh viewers that an approaching blizzard will miss Western Pennsylvania. As is the local tradition he goes to cover the Groundhog Day festivities in a small town outside of Pittsburgh. While on location Phil makes no secret of his contempt for the assignment, the small town, and the "hicks" who live there. Basically Phil is not a very nice person. He is a very self-centered and arrogant person who feels he is more intelligent than all those around him. His comments are and sense of humor is extremely sarcastic. Does that remind you of anyone? :)
The next day, Phil awakens at his Punxsutawney bed and breakfast to Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe" on the clock radio. He tapes a half-hearted report on Punxsutawney Phil and the town's festivities. Rita wants to stay and cover other events, but Phil wants to return to Pittsburgh. The blizzard blankets the region in snow, stranding them in Punxsutawney. Phil shuns the celebrations and retires to bed early.
Phil wakes to "I Got You Babe" and the same DJ banter on the radio, and discovers the day's events repeating exactly. Phil relives the day and returns to bed, assuming it was a dream, but it is still Groundhog Day when he wakes again: he is trapped in a time loop that no one else is aware of. Realizing there are no consequences for his actions, he spends the first several loops indulging in binge drinking, one-night stands, and reckless driving. After spending several loops trying and failing to court Rita, he becomes depressed and desperate for a solution to end the loop. He kidnaps Punxsutawney Phil and drives off a cliff with him, even going as far as committing suicide various times—nothing works, and he continuously wakes up to "I Got You Babe" on the radio. - Wikipedia
Following the U.S. - China Trade War saga for the past year or so I can’t help empathizing with Phil. You go about your day hoping something will change but every morning at 6:00 you wake up to the same day happening all over again. Even though we are stuck on groundhog day for now, I don’t give up hope that something will change one of these days and the tariff fist fights and the trade war will end.
"If you don't get what you want, it's a sign either that you did not seriously want it, or that you tried to bargain over the price." - Rudyard Kipling
Thanks for reading,
James