British Leaks Describe Trump’s ‘Act of Diplomatic Vandalism’ on Iran Deal
"Trump Is Losing His Trade Wars"
A leak of diplomatic cables led to the resignation of Kim Darroch, Britain’s ambassador to the United States.CreditCreditAlex Wong/Getty Images
By Benjamin Mueller
July 13, 2019
LONDON — It was just hours after Boris Johnson, then Britain’s foreign secretary, returned to London from a whirlwind trip last year to try to persuade the White House to abide by the Iran nuclear accord.
The vice president, the national security adviser and the secretary of state had all failed to “articulate why the president was determined to withdraw, beyond his campaign promises,” Mr. Darroch wrote. And the American government had no plan for what would follow.
“Even when you pressed,” Mr. Darroch wrote to Mr. Johnson, “none had anything much to say about the day after, or a Plan B, beyond reimposition of U.S. sanctions.”
With Iran and the United States now locked in an escalating standoff .. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/world/europe/iran-trump.html?module=inline , the leaked cables offered a window into Britain’s frantic effort to save the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 — and the Trump administration’s indifference to its entreaties.
Mr. Darroch resigned after Mr. Trump vowed to stop dealing with the ambassador, and after Mr. Johnson, now the front-runner to succeed Prime Minister Theresa May, repeatedly refused to say he would keep Mr. Darroch in his post.
Mr. Johnson’s position drew fierce criticism from his opponent in the prime minister race, Jeremy Hunt, the current foreign secretary, as well as from some of the Conservative Party members who are voting on the next party leader and prime minister.
On Friday night, Mr. Johnson acknowledged in a BBC interview that his failure to stand behind Mr. Darroch had been part of the reason the ambassador decided to resign. Heckled that same night at a campaign event, Mr. Johnson said for the first time that he wished he had publicly supported Mr. Darroch.
“I probably should have been more emphatic that Kim personally had my full support,” Mr. Johnson said.
The leak has prompted an aggressive investigation by a counterterrorism unit of the Metropolitan Police, as well as a bitter dispute over the right of The Mail on Sunday to publish the files.
Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, the leader of the counterterrorism unit, warned before the latest release that publishing any further documents “may also be a criminal matter.” He asked newspapers to turn over any leaked documents to the police.
Journalists, lawmakers and both candidates for prime minister leapt to the defense of The Mail on Sunday, saying the warning from the police jeopardized the workings of a free press.
“I defend to the hilt the right of the press to publish those leaks if they receive them & judge them to be in the public interest: that is their job,” Mr. Hunt said on Twitter.
Mr. Johnson said he worried that clamping down on the publication of leaked documents would have “a chilling effect on public debate.”
British news reports on Saturday indicated that the police were focusing on a government insider in the leak investigation. Pro-Brexit politicians have blamed civil servants and diplomats for Britain’s failure to leave the European Union as scheduled, and Mr. Darroch, formerly Britain’s top diplomat in Brussels, was one of the senior officials most distrusted by Brexit supporters.
Brexiteers like Mr. Johnson have held out the prospect of a free trade deal with the United States as one of the rewards of a hard split with the European Union. But the cables published on Saturday reinforced how little weight the Trump administration gives the views of its allies, with Mr. Darroch writing that the United States was quitting the nuclear deal with “no sort of plan for reaching out to partners and allies, whether in Europe or the region.”
Mr. Johnson did not meet with Mr. Trump on the visit, but Mr. Darroch ensured that the foreign secretary had “exceptional access” to senior officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the cables said. That meeting created the impression that parts of the administration were at odds over Mr. Trump’s determination to quit the Iran deal.
Mr. Darroch wrote that Mr. Pompeo “did some subtle distancing by talking throughout about ‘the president’s decision,’” and that Mr. Pompeo hinted at an attempt to “sell” Mr. Trump on a revised version of the nuclear deal or, short of that, milder sanctions than the president was seeking.
Vice President Mike Pence and John Bolton, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, showed no such hesitation, though Mr. Bolton promised Mr. Johnson that the president “wasn’t favoring a military option,” the cables said.
Trump's latest Iran sanctions are blowhard fluff, as Khamenei and his cohorts have most of their wealth tied up safely out of sight of any sanctions Trump could ever hit them with. They know how it's done as other corrupt leaders have done it before. P - And Khamenei and his mates are not in any danger of being overthrown from within. P - Trump in his overwrought fervor to undo everything positive Obama accomplished has got himself in a corner. It has to now be an accommodation by America, a backdown with some face-saver - or escalation. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=149573120
With the World Bank forecasting growth of the global economy to slow in 2019 to 2.9 percent, countries that provide economic safe harbors for their citizens are increasingly important.
Being seen as economically stable is one of nine equally weighted attributes used to develop the larger Quality of Life sub-ranking in the 2019 Best Countries report, a perception-based series of rankings. The Best Countries report is based on a survey of more than 20,000 global citizens from four regions to assess perceptions of 80 countries on 75 different metrics.
Countries seen as economically stable are generally the leaders of the overall ranking in the Best Countries report. With two notable exceptions: the United Kingdom, roiled by its turbulent negotiations to leave the European Union, is ranked as only the 11th-most economically stable country. The United States, the world's largest economy but a nation that under President Donald Trump has entered into an era of contentious trade disputes with other countries, is seen as the 14th-most economically stable country, trailing countries such as the United Arab Emirates and New Zealand.
The following are the top 10 countries viewed as the most economically stable.
AP fact check: Trump’s fog of misinformation on trade
"Trump Is Losing His Trade Wars "The S Word, the F Word and the Election""
Economy May 11, 2019 3:58 PM EDT
[...]
TRUMP: “We have lost 500 Billion Dollars a year, for many years, on Crazy Trade with China. NO MORE!” — tweet Friday.
THE FACTS: That’s wrong. When sizing up the trade deficit, Trump always ignores trade in services — where the U.S. runs a surplus with China — and speaks only of goods. Even in that context, he misstated the imbalance.
The U.S. trade deficit with China last year was $378.6 billion, not $500 billion.
On goods alone, the deficit was $419.2 billion.
Trump is also misleading when he puts the deficit in that ballpark for many years. It’s true the imbalance has long been lopsided. But the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office notes that exports of goods to China have increased by nearly 73% since 2008 and U.S. exports to China overall are up 527% since 2001.
Nor is the trade gap a “loss” in a pure sense. U.S. consumers and businesses get electronics, furniture, clothing and other goods in return for their money. They are buying things, not losing cash.
TIANJIN, CHINA – 2018/04/05: Soybeans and Banknotes of US Dollar VS RMB, arranged for photography. On April 4th, the US government issued a Customs duty list, which would impose a 25% tariff on the 1333 products exported to China with a total value of 50 billion US Dollar. On the second day, with the approval of the State Council of China, the State Council Tariff committee decided to fight back with a 25% tariff on 14 categories of 106 commodities native from the United States, including soybeans, automobiles and chemicals,. Photo by Zhang Peng/LightRocket via Getty Images
TRUMP: “Tariffs will bring in FAR MORE wealth to our Country than even a phenomenal deal of the traditional kind. Also, much easier & quicker to do. Our Farmers will do better, faster, and starving nations can now be helped. Waivers on some products will be granted, or go to new source!” — tweet Friday.
THE FACTS: In addition to repeating the canard that China pays the tariffs, he’s failing to account for the damage that tariffs can do.
By most private estimates, a trade war leads to slower growth rather than the prosperity that Trump is promising. The president’s tweet also goes beyond past claims that tariffs are simply a negotiating tactic to force better terms with China. Trump appears to be suggesting that a tariff increase would generate revenues that could then be spent on farm products and infrastructure, something that might in theory require support from Congress.
But on their own, tariffs are a clear drag on growth.
Analysts at the consultancy Oxford Economics estimate that implementing and maintaining the latest increase would trim U.S. gross domestic product by 0.3%, or $62 billion, in 2020. This would be equal to a loss of about $490 per household.
Economists at Nomura note that gross domestic product this year could take a hit of as much as 0.4% if Trump expands the taxes to all Chinese imports as business confidence slumped and financial conditions tightened.
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