The actual announcement of KORUS (“KOR”+”U.S.”), the renegotiated U.S. and South Korea trade deal, has yet to be made by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. President Donald Trump.  However, more details are surfacing inside KORUS media leaks.  Fantastic job by Lighthizer!

TOP LINES:

• U.S. Gains twice as many exported vehicles into S-Korea (50k per manufacturer, per year).  [No word on possible Kia / Hyundai tariff or quota – RE: “unlikely”]
• South Korea drops ridiculous customs inspection barriers. [Trade trickery ploy]
• U.S. retains 25% Tariff on S-Korea pickup trucks with extension for 20 years.
• South Korea gets two year exemption from a 25% U.S. steel tariff, but must drop steel export level to 70% of prior two years shipments. (A controlled reduction of 30%).

(Via AP) The new deal doubles — to 50,000 — the cars each U.S. automaker can export annually to South Korea, reduces bureaucratic barriers to American products and extends a 25 percent U.S. tariff on South Korean pickup trucks by 20 years, through 2041.

South Korea escapes America’s new 25 percent tariff on imported steel — but must accept quotas on steel exports equal to 70 percent of its average annual shipments to the United States between 2015 and 2017.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the policy ahead of an official announcement.

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Terrific ‘big picture’ interview and discussion between National Trade Council Director Peter Navarro and CNBC’s Rick Santelli about President Trump’s trade policies, the threat of China, and the future of how our nation will deal with allies and trading partners.

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A perpetual trade deficit is detrimental to our American economy because it is financed with debt. We can buy more than we make because we borrow from trading partners. The trade deficit simply means we purchase more foreign goods, and send more money overseas, than they purchase from us. We then turn around and borrow back the money we just paid.

Another broad concern revolves around national security. A perpetual trade deficit is a statement about the competitiveness of the U.S. economy itself. By purchasing manufactured goods overseas for a long enough period of time, U.S. companies lose the expertise and even the factories to make those products; ex: try finding a pair of shoes made in the America. As the United States loses manufacturing competitiveness, we outsource more jobs, and our total standard of living declines.

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CNBC had an exclusive interview with Larry Kudlow (CNBC is his former job), it is laugh-out-loud interesting to hear (second-hand) how Kudlow explained the NEC Chairmanship perspective at the conclusion of several conversations with President Trump.   WATCH:

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It appears from the second-hand account within the interview above that Mr. Kudlow appreciates his position.  He can now practice making sandwiches.  (I kid. Well, sorta)

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President Donald Trump is traveling to Missouri today to promote recent tax cuts and campaign for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Josh Hawley.  The president is scheduled to visit the Boeing plant in St. Louis where he will hold a round table with business leaders and workers, then plans to attend a fundraiser for the senate candidate.

The roundtable discussion with Boeing business leaders will be livestreamed at 4:00pm

UPDATE: Video Added

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Earlier today one of the more consequential meetings took place between President Trump and his economic team -vs- the professional UniParty apparatus consisting of multinational corporate-purchased Democrats and Republicans.

The policy discussion isn’t sexy or headline making from the perspective of the U.S. media; however, the resulting outcomes will have more of a bearing on you and your family than any other economic policy conflict in this administration.

On one side we have President Trump and a very focused policy and trade group containing Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Robert Lighthizer. On the other side the corporate UniParty apparatus consisting of U.S. Chamber of Commerce Republicans and Democrats.

An encapsulated view would be Main Street (Trump) -vs- Wall Street (UniParty).

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This is THE battle. This is the “trillions at stake“. Everything else is chaff and countermeasures; a war is being waged around this financial issue. Everything within the current conflict is downstream from the economic argument around these issues.

This is the epicenter of the entire institutional conflict against President Trump. This is why THE SWAMP, through all its various affiliated and indulgent enterprises – including the intelligence apparatus, are waging a battle against the disruption that is President Trump.

It is the money.

Period.

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Round three of NAFTA begins this weekend in Canada.  According to a leaked possible itinerary obtained by Reuters the auto-sector “rules of origin” will be discussed on Tuesday or Wednesday.
The auto sector rules of origin have been exploited by China to send auto manufacturing parts into Mexico, including massive electronic components, where they are assembled and shipped into the U.S. under NAFTA.  This trade maneuver is an exploitation, a back-door per se’, of the NAFTA agreement by China which Secretary Ross and USTR Robert Lighthizer are committed to stopping.
Secretary Wilbur Ross explains in this recent CNBC interview. WATCH:

The USS Fitzgerald collided with a merchant vessel in June of this year killing seven members of her crew.  Unfortunately today the USS John S McCain has also collides with a merchant vessel; details unknown.
Update 10:00pm EDT: Unfortunately it appears there are numerous injuries and missing sailors:

“Ten sailors were missing after a Navy destroyer collided with a merchant ship east of the Singapore and Malacca Straits, authorities said Sunday.   Five sailors were injured in the collision between the USS John S. McCain and the merchant vessel, a 30,000-ton chemical and oil tanker, the Navy said in a statement.
A Navy spokesman told NBC News the incident was being treated as an accident. (link)

Original Press release from Pacific Command 7th Fleet Operations:

SOUTH CHINA SEA – The guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) was involved in a collision with the merchant vessel Alnic MC while underway east of Singapore and the Strait of Malacca on Aug. 21.

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Angela Merkel is essentially the de-facto global head of modern political liberalism.  The central tenet, almost religious-based in its importance, is the lunacy within “climate change”.  However, as most reasonable people have concluded, the ‘climate discussions’ are more about controlled global economics than any actual concerns about planetary climatology.   Bottom line, it’s the economics that really matter beyond all else.
Backdrop – The day after President Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Treaty, the German auto-sector immediately responded with a statement.  We see the immediate admission that ‘climate’ is simply a tool to shape global economics within that reactionary auto industry statement (emphasis mine):

(Via Reuters) […] “The regrettable announcement by the USA makes it inevitable that Europe must facilitate a cost efficient and economically feasible climate policy to remain internationally competitive,” Matthias Wissmann, president of the German auto industry lobby group VDA, said in a statement on Friday.

“The preservation of our competitive position is the precondition for successful climate protection. This correlation is often underestimated,” Wissmann said, adding that the decision by the Unites States was disappointing. (link)

As clearly stated, when push comes to shove German sensibilities are connected more to their economics than to any do-gooder need to save the planet.  This reality, in combination with upcoming German elections, sets the stage for Angela Merkel’s statement today, three months later: (more…)

The disrespectful, argumentative, arrogant and combative left-wing U.S. media apparatus was on full display today when President Trump concluded his remarks on infrastructure and opened the floor for questions.
As each media enterprise attempted to one-up the virtue signaling of the prior, the sheer scale of the media’s frenzied hatred and disrespect took center stage. WATCH: