In May 2019, President Trump declared a national emergency regarding potential threats posed by foreign technology companies and blacklisted the Chinese Company Huwwei to prevent it from conducting business with U.S. companies. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) had charged Huawei in January 2018 with bank fraud and stealing trade secrets as well as crimes including conspiracy, money laundering, bank and wire fraud, flouting U.S. sanctions on Iran, and obstruction of justice.

Several dozen(!) countries intoduced bans on Huawei, followed the US lead on Huawei either because they were strong-armed or because they trusted the US threat assessment.

Six weeks later, Trump declared Huawei open for business again and all other countries that shut down Huawei for supposed national security reasons now sit with egg on their faces. Even Republican senators noted that no one will believe the US anymore if one day it declares a country/company a threat to national security and on the next day declares it open for business.

This raises they question why anyone would believe Trump in the first place (see also link and link). Here is the latest soap opera regarding his trade negotiations with China:

“Trump on Monday [7/1/2-19] said talks have already begun. “They’re speaking very much on the phone and also meeting,” he told reporters at the White House. A spokesperson for [US Trade Representative] Lighthizer said there no scheduling announcements at this time. “The date is not set. The city is not set,” said one person close to the talks, when asked by Morning Trade about when U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer might sit down with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He.”

We also learned some interesting new pieces if information about these negotiations. They are no longer about tariff reductions but about changes in laws. The “U.S. still wants China to change its laws to implement commitments to combat forced technology transfers and other intellectual property transgressions.” “China wants the U.S. to also amend its laws that Beijing views as hostile to Chinese companies.” You be the judge how likely any of these outcomes are…