Trump Goes "Postal", Abandons 144-Year-Old 'Unfair' Shipping Treaty With China

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

zerohedge
 Tyler Durden
Wed, 10/17/2018 - 10:21

[excerpt]

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-17/trump-goes-postal-abandons-144-year-old-shipping-treaty-china



    “Something has to be done...How can my government be subsidizing China and driving me out of business?”

Those are the words of Jayme Smaldone, who runs a 12-employee housewares company in Rahway, N.J., who first became aware of the problem when he noticed websites selling Chinese knockoffs of his “Mighty Mug,” a desktop coffee cup he designed with an anti-topple base.

And it appears President Trump has listened to Jayme among many others, as The New York Times reports that he plans to withdraw from a 144-year-old postal treaty that has allowed Chinese companies to ship small packages to the United States at a steeply discounted rate, undercutting American competitors and flooding the market with cheap consumer goods.

    

[edpc]

Yeah, whatever.......


President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast. Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2018


https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeanbaptiste/2018/05/14/trump-to-rescue-chinas-zte-save-thousands-of-jobs-and-billions-of-dollars-to-u-s-tech-industry/#3e1f9e4c16c8

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

"Yeah, whatever."

So you're OK with the US Govt subsidizing a Foreign Govt to produce knockoffs of American products (probably without even paying royalties, so there's patent infringement too) and undersell/put out of business, the American Companies who actually own the product?

But Trump's Trade War PR about putting a Chinese co back on its feet is cause for your hatred of Trump in general to blow off getting US Post Office/Tax Dollars out of Subsidizing the destruction of American Entrepreneurs?

Thanks for clearing that up.

Angels and Ministers of Grace defend us from "Absolute Lowest Price no matter Who Gets Screwed, Globalist Free Trade/Privateers"

[Frank Cannon]

"Yeah, whatever."

So you're OK with the US Govt subsidizing a Foreign Govt to produce knockoffs of American products (probably without even paying royalties, so there's patent infringement too) and undersell/put out of business, the American Companies who actually own the product?

But Trump's Trade War PR about putting a Chinese co back on its feet is cause for your hatred of Trump in general to blow off getting US Post Office/Tax Dollars out of Subsidizing the destruction of American Entrepreneurs?

Thanks for clearing that up.

Angels and Ministers of Grace defend us from "Absolute Lowest Price no matter Who Gets Screwed, Globalist Free Trade/Privateers"

The radical Trump haters would rather see America looted and transformed into a Globalist paradise before giving Trump an ounce of credit for being the first President to take on these filthy Chinamen.

[edpc]

So you're OK with the US Govt subsidizing a Foreign Govt to produce knockoffs of American products (probably without even paying royalties, so there's patent infringement too) and undersell/put out of business, the American Companies who actually own the product?

The move was effectively a death sentence for ZTE, which a few weeks later announced it was shutting down. Shortly after, President Trump tweeted he would work with Chinese president Xi Jinping to reverse the ban, since it would lead to “too many jobs in China lost.” ZTE employs 75,000 workers and says it has business operations in more than 160 countries.


So, you’re OK with Trump rescuing Chinese jobs and saving a government entity everyone knows is engaged in espionage and is a security threat.  Thanks for clearing that up.

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

The move was effectively a death sentence for ZTE, which a few weeks later announced it was shutting down. Shortly after, President Trump tweeted he would work with Chinese president Xi Jinping to reverse the ban, since it would lead to “too many jobs in China lost.” ZTE employs 75,000 workers and says it has business operations in more than 160 countries.


So, you’re OK with Trump rescuing Chinese jobs and saving a government entity everyone knows is engaged in espionage and is a security threat.  Thanks for clearing that up.

Wake me up when ZTE is back on its feet, and being busted for espionage again.

Until then, it hasn't happened yet.

[Suppressed]

So, you’re OK with Trump rescuing Chinese jobs and saving a government entity everyone knows is engaged in espionage and is a security threat.  Thanks for clearing that up.

It's not a question of right or wrong -- that's irrelevant.  It's a question of whether Trump supports it or not.

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

It's not a question of right or wrong -- that's irrelevant.  It's a question of whether Trump supports it or not.

OK. And you can bet the Whatever that even if ZTE Does rise from the ashes there's gonna be all kinds of Inspections of their product and practices Keeping any more spy hardware/software out of it before it clears American customs or goes into American service Anywhere.

I thought Trump couldn't be trusted because he LIES all the time.

What in the hell makes you think he's putting all his cards on the table with This "Statement" about ZTE?

What's the disconnect?

He only LIES to Americans?

He doesn't LIE to Chinese SPYWARE makers?

[edpc]

Wake me up when ZTE is back on its feet, and being busted for espionage again.

Until then, it hasn't happened yet.

Perhaps you should ask the Director of the NCSC, who was appointed by Trump.


https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/top-intelligence-official-says-chinese-zte-cellphones-pose-security-risk-n874276

[DB]

Perhaps you should ask the Director of the NCSC, who was appointed by Trump.


https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/top-intelligence-official-says-chinese-zte-cellphones-pose-security-risk-n874276

Lenovo ThinkPads are made in China. I wonder if they are compromised. I'm waiting for delivery of a "mobile work station" Thinkpad P1. Dell has the closest competitive product but it overheats and throttles down as a result making "work station" usage pretty much impossible. Dell's customer service has also fallen through the floor these days.

[roamer_1]

Lenovo ThinkPads are made in China. I wonder if they are compromised. I'm waiting for delivery of a "mobile work station" Thinkpad P1. Dell has the closest competitive product but it overheats and throttles down as a result making "work station" usage pretty much impossible. Dell's customer service has also fallen through the floor these days.

I am almost all HP Professional, and I am pretty happy...

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

Perhaps you should ask the Director of the NCSC, who was appointed by Trump.


https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/top-intelligence-official-says-chinese-zte-cellphones-pose-security-risk-n874276

Uh oh, looks like a job for Mueller Man. You've finally got him now!

Bill Evanina, who is facing a confirmation vote to head the newly created National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said he was not up to speed on the sanctions against ZTE, and he declined to say whether lifting them would be a good idea.

But under questioning by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Evanina said U.S. intelligence agencies are on record as assessing that Chinese telecommunication firms are used as a vehicle by the Chinese government to conduct espionage.

[snip]

Legislation is pending in Congress that would ban the sale of the products in the U.S.


ZTE is under a 7 year ban.

Let's see what actually happens before we start screaming about getting hit in the head with chunks of falling sky.

[DB]

I am almost all HP Professional, and I am pretty happy...

Maybe HP has improved in computers in more recent years but my experience hasn't been good. Every HP high end desktop I've owned, and its been several, have come to a bad end with mother board failures. In addition HP has a bad habit of making drivers/apps that don't play nice with others. In thirty some odd years I've had one Dell work station die an unnatural death and I've had many Dell workstations/high end computers over that time. But Dell isn't the company it once was so I'm giving Lenovo a try with a ThinkPad P1 mobile work station. It is an Intel Xeon E-2176M 4.40 GHz 6 core processor with 32 GB of ECC memory, 2 TB SSD and 4k screen all in a very light 4 lbs 15.6" display laptop. It is supposed to have better heat management than any other laptop in its class and that's a big deal when trying to use it as a workstation with long sustained demand on all its cores. I hope I'm not disappointed with it...

[edpc]

Legislation is pending in Congress that would ban the sale of the products in the U.S.


ZTE is under a 7 year ban.

Let's see what actually happens before we start screaming about getting hit in the head with chunks of falling sky.

Except the legislation was dropped, along with the ban.  Wanna guess who lifted the ban?


WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers backed away from a plan to reinstate stiff penalties on Chinese telecom firm ZTE, handing a win to President Trump, who had personally intervened to save the Beijing company.

.............................

President Xi Jinping of China appealed personally to Mr. Trump to save the company and Mr. Trump obliged. The Commerce Department announced June 7 that it would lift the ban, in return for the Chinese company paying a $1 billion fine, replacing its board and senior leadership, and embedding a compliance team handpicked by the United States inside its company. Wilbur Ross, the secretary of commerce, said the penalty was the strictest ever levied by the agency’s Bureau of Industry and Security.


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/us/politics/zte-sanctions-congress.html

[Right_in_Virginia]

President Trump moved Wednesday to withdraw from a 144-year-old international postal agreement that enables businesses in China to mail small packages to the United States at a hefty discount, an arrangement government officials said boosts foreign competitors and costs the U.S. Postal Service roughly $170 million per year.

Trump’s notice to exit from the Universal Postal Union (UPU) treaty comes as the White House cranks up the pressure on Beijing to drop what it calls predatory commercial practices, including swiping trade secrets from American companies operating in China.

“This has been a long-standing, long-festering problem,” said Robert Taub, chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, an independent federal agency.

Dropping out of the postal treaty, first ratified in 1874, is expected to exacerbate tensions with China, but the Postal Service and business groups applauded the action Wednesday.

“The current system has led to the United States subsidizing the imports of small packages from other countries,” said Jeff Adams, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service.

Under the treaty, which sets fees that national carriers in 192 countries charge for mail delivery, the U.S. Postal Service bills China-based companies at a sharply discounted rate for parcels that weigh less than 4.4 pounds.

Trump administration officials say the leg up, granted under a 1969 provision, was intended to promote growth in poor countries. But it remained in place after China became an e-commerce powerhouse.

The deal has allowed the country to flood the United States with cheap goods at shipping discounts of up to 70 percent, putting American companies at a disadvantage and straining the U.S. mail system while fueling growth abroad, Taub said.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-ditches-144-year-old-postal-pact-that-boosts-chinese-retailers/2018/10/17/88aefea6-d234-11e8-8c22-fa2ef74bd6d6_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9fe309f64dd3

[roamer_1]

Maybe HP has improved in computers in more recent years but my experience hasn't been good. Every HP high end desktop I've owned, and its been several, have come to a bad end with mother board failures.

@DB
Oh believe me, brother, I know what you mean. If you'd have told me 10 years ago that I would own a single HP/Compac, I would have laughed you out of the house... Not to mention 5 of them, and that they would be my core machines. But at least in their professional line, I have found them lately to be very, very good.

In addition HP has a bad habit of making drivers/apps that don't play nice with others.

Again, I would have made the very same argument not so long ago. I just reloaded my laptop due to a drive failure, so it is fresh in my mind. I loaded it clean w/ Win10Pro, got the chipset direct from Intel, got the vid direct from NVidia, and the rest either detected properly on install or loaded up on update. Only 3 drivers came from the HP site - The card reader, the fingerprint driver, and the freefall driver, of which only the freefall driver was an HP product... The other two were aftermarket that didn't detect well, and getting them direct from the laptop's driver site was just the easiest route.

Now it could be that their native software might still be problematic, as I never load a machine with all that crapware anyway... But at the driver level, your statement is no longer a concern.

In thirty some odd years I've had one Dell work station die an unnatural death and I've had many Dell workstations/high end computers over that time. But Dell isn't the company it once was so I'm giving Lenovo a try with a ThinkPad P1 mobile work station.

I am a whitebox boy, and have been most all the way along - The only whitebox I have left is my main server, with the lion's share of my systems being HP - and that is really saying something. I have always had a fair opinion of Dell (though their homeowner line leaves much to be desired as compared to whitebox builds) - I have an older Dell professional box running my main media server... Of the branded boxen, I would have always put Dell at the top for recommendation, fighting for that spot with IBM/Lenovo. Lenovo gives me the impression of sturdy reliability, sometimes at the cost of comparable performance. But they last and last. 

Lenovo is always a good choice. Good luck with that.