By Douglas V. Gibbs ——Bio and Archives--March 20, 2017
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After delays and hours of discussions amid tensions over 'trade' comments between the United States and the rest of The G-20, it appears President Trump has 'won'. While China was "adamantly against" protectionism, the finance ministers end talks without renewing their long-standing commitment to free trade and rejection of protectionism after US opposition. The world's financial leaders are unlikely to endorse free trade and reject protectionism in their communique on Saturday because they have been unable to find a wording that would suit a more protectionist United States, G20 officials said. This would break with a decade-old tradition among the finance ministers and central bankers of the world's 20 top economies (G20), who over the years have repeatedly rejected protectionism and endorsed free trade. But the new administration in the United States is considering trade measures to curb imports with a border tax and would not agree to repeat the formulations used by previous G20 communiques, clashing with China and Europe, the officials said. "Unless there is a last minute miracle, there is no agreement on trade," one official, who declined to be named, told Reuters. "This is not a good outcome of the meeting," a G20 delegate quoted Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann as saying. In a partial face-saving move, as The FT details, G20 finance ministers meeting in the German resort town of Baden-Baden noted the importance of trade to the global economy, but dropped tougher language from last year that vowed to “resist all forms of protectionism”. The new communique said: “We are working to strengthen the contribution of trade to our economies. We will strive to reduce excessive global imbalances, promote greater inclusiveness and fairness and reduce inequality in our pursuit of economic growth.” The watered-down commitments on free trade reflected the anti-globalisation mood that Donald Trump has brought to Washington and came in the first G20 meetings between Steven Mnuchin, the new US Treasury Secretary, and his foreign counterparts. Reuters also points out another potential win for Trump as the communique will also drop a reference, used by the G20 last year, on the readiness to finance climate change as agreed in Paris in 2015 because of opposition from the United States and Saudi Arabia. Trump has called global warming a "hoax" concocted by China to hurt U.S. industry and vowed to scrap the Paris climate accord aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Trump's administration on Thursday proposed a 31 percent cut to the Environmental Protection Agency's budget as the White House seeks to eliminate climate change programs and trim initiatives to protect air and water quality. Asked about climate change funding, Mick Mulvaney, Trump's budget director, said on Thursday, "We consider that to be a waste of money." The G20 do agree, however, to show continuity in their foreign exchange policies, using phrases from the past on foreign exchange markets. As we noted earlier, needless to say, such an acrimonous end to the weekend's summit would likely result in a surge in FX volatility when markets open for trading late on Sunday, reflecting the new state of global trade flux, in which the future of the US Dollar is completely unknown, and reflecting the emerging chaos over the future parameters of trade.A few thoughts about Zero-Hedge's article: "Free Trade" is not the opposite of "protectionism", and what Trump offers is not "protectionism" no more than what the global collectivists offer is "Free Trade." What Trump offers is smart free trade, in which the rules of the trade deals do not tilt away from a country's best interests. While the collectivist jargon being thrown around by the various global players would make any Marxist proud, the reality is that in between the lines what you see here is that the world leaders understand that Trump is not a collectivist like them, and they can't push him around, so they will at least hear what he has to say, and possibly moderate slightly from their hard-left positions...which makes it a big "win" for Trump. Many of the leaders wish to resist Trump's refusal to play the globalism game at all costs, however, so while Trump at least has gotten them to consider his proposals, the likelihood of any kind of agreement happening with all of these hard left globalist world leaders any time soon is very small. Trump's recognition that man-made climate change is a political maneuver is mentioned by Zero-Hedge, but I disagree with the idea that the hoax was "concocted by China" to hurt U.S. industry. Hurting U.S. industry has been the result of climate change protocols, but I don't believe it was China's idea. The leftist Marxists of Europe and the United States came up with global warming, hoping to use it as the Marxists tried decades earlier with their "a new ice age is coming" scare. I agree with the Trump administration that the climate change expenditures this country is paying out is a waste of money on a concept that has no foundation in reality. Global temperatures rise and fall. However, historical and scientific data has shown time and time again that the phenomenon is a natural one, and the influence by human activities is minimal. I believe in natural climate change, not the hysteria that claims we are doomed because of human industrial activity. The leftists are predicting chaos after the latest G-20 meeting. I disagree. I believe we may be on the cusp of a new global prosperity led by the United States in a fashion that more resembles a free market, than that of a collective cooperative like we've seen the statists trying to put into place for a few generations.
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Douglas V. Gibbs of Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary, has been featured on “Hannity” and “Fox and Friends” on Fox News Channel, and other television shows and networks. Doug is a Radio Host on KMET 1490-AM on Saturdays with his Constitution Radio program, as well as a longtime podcaster, conservative political activist, writer and commentator. Doug can be reached at douglasvgibbs [at] yahoo.com or constitutionspeaker [at] yahoo.com.