Posted originally on CTH on December 6, 2025 | Sundance |
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is questioned about the Trump administration strategy or lack thereof. “Yes, there’s a strategy,” Greer says in this new interview. “First of all, you don’t change 70 years of trade policy overnight. And second of all, when some people say, ‘Oh, well, this is chaos. What’s your strategy?’, what they really want to know is can we go back to how it was before? And that’s not going to happen.”
The interview is in an audio file presented by Politico and shared below. This is some really good information on the various free trade agreements and the regions represented by some of our largest trade partners. Well worth listening to as you go about your day and travels today. Embed below:
USTR Greer notes how the tariffs are being used, the upcoming Supreme Court decision, the need for congress to codify the tariff regime in legislation and the various regional strategies for the deployment of countervailing duties.
Posted originally on CTH on December 5, 2025 | Sundance
The European Union has fined the X social media platform (formerly Twitter), owned by Elon Musk and his investment group, $140 million (usd) for violations of the EU Digital Services Act. The decision by the EU is likely to create even more friction between President Trump and the European Union. However, this problem is not difficult to solve.
The collective government within the EU accuse Elon Musk and X of permitting misinformation, disinformation and malinformation to appear on the platform.
The European DSA is ultimately designed to control information, that reality should not be debated. All efforts to control traditional and social media are efforts to control information.
The specifics of the reasoning for the fine are typically European. (1) Twitter allows ordinary people to deliver information at the same level as people who should be defined as more important. (2) Advertisers of those who pay for promotion of information on X are not easily identifiable – people need to figure it out on their own. (3) It is too difficult to figure out who is providing the information.
Basically, all of the EU concerns center around information control. It’s really an ideology issue. In the outlook of the EU, bureaucrats and elites feel they are superior and must rule/protect the people under them. Ordinary people having access to information that may or may not be approved by the EU is the underlying issue.
EUROPE – […] Before Musk acquired X, when it was previously known as Twitter, the checkmarks mirrored verification badges common on social media and were largely reserved for celebrities, politicians and other influential accounts, such as Beyonce, Pope Francis, writer Neil Gaiman and rapper Lil Nas X.
After he bought it in 2022, the site started issuing the badges to anyone who wanted to pay $8 per month.
That means X does not meaningfully verify who’s behind the account, “making it difficult for users to judge the authenticity of accounts and content they engage with,” the Commission said in its announcement.
X also fell short of the transparency requirements for its ad database, regulators said.
Platforms in the EU are required to provide a database of all the digital advertisements they have carried, with details such as who paid for them and the intended audience, to help researches detect scams, fake ads and coordinated influence campaigns. But X’s database, the Commission said, is undermined by design features and access barriers such as “excessive delays in processing.”
Regulators also said X also puts up “unnecessary barriers” for researchers trying to access public data, which stymies research into systemic risks that European users face.
“Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU. The DSA protects users,” Henna Virkkunen, the EU’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said in a prepared statement. (more)
Stopping this nonsense is not complicated.
Attach a $1,000 free speech support fee to every European automobile sold in the USA.
Their pontificating ideology is less important than their need for money.
Posted originally on CTH on December 5, 2025 | Sundance
In the world of Trumpian geopolitical trade stuff, three issues are very interesting to watch. (1) The strategic reset with Russia which could break the official western construct of financial control. (2) The proactive and defensive positioning of Mexico (desperate attempt to retain economic attachment), and (3) the certain dissolution of the USMCA what Canadians call CUSMA.
Canadian media are starting to realize something we have talked about on these pages for years; President Trump intends to end the USMCA because the USMCA was used as a fracture point to eliminate NAFTA.
Wall Street, the U.S. Congress, the massive K-Street lobbying network around the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the entire political apparatus of business and industry would never permit the end to NAFTA; too many trillions at stake. So, President Trump replaced NAFTA with the interim USMCA, which was better but factually more useful in elimination of the original.
Now, as we have discussed by highlighting President Trump’s no-so-subtle words on the issue, the Canadian media is realizing the USMCA will be dissolved in favor of two independently negotiated bilateral trade agreements; one with Canada and one with Mexico.
🚨MAJOR BREAKING
Trump signals that he could EXIT from USMCA entirely.
This is EXTINCTION LEVEL to Canada.
He going to do it. I have a strong feeling about this.
(CTV) – U.S. President Donald Trump could decide next year to withdraw from the Canada-United States-Mexico trade agreement (CUSMA), Politico reported on Thursday, citing U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
“The president’s view is he only wants deals that are a good deal. The reason why we built a review period into CUSMA was in case we needed to revise it, review it or exit it,” Greer told Politico’s White House bureau chief Dasha Burns in a podcast episode that airs Friday.
Greer also raised the idea of negotiating separately with Canada and Mexico and dividing the agreement into two parts in the podcast, adding that he spoke with Trump about that possibility just this week.
The White House, Canadian and Mexican governments did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.
Trump on Wednesday said that the CUSMA agreement – which faces an upcoming review- will either be left to expire or another deal will be worked out.
The USMCA, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement in 2020 and was negotiated during Trump’s first term as president, requires the three countries to hold a joint review after six years. (link)
I have talked to a lot of Canadians on the issues of economics and trade. As a result, I can say with complete sincerity that not since the COVID-19 examples of New Zealand (lockdowns) and Australia (vaxx), has a nation engaged in such a level of mass cognitive dissonance as the govt of Canada on the issue of economics and trade – in the past few years. It is stunning.
To understand the reality of the situation Here’s an IN-DEPTH LINK. Apparently, few really understand the full scope of the issues.
For those who have followed along with the U.S-Canada trade positioning, the current status of conflict between the Trump administration and the government of Canada is not surprising. {GO DEEP}
Going all the way back to the replacement of NAFTA, with the USMCA, President Trump always said he did not favor multilateral trade deals with multiple countries; instead, he preferred bilateral free trade agreements.
Some people have construed the bilateral preference of President Trump to be the elimination of globalism in favor of nationalism in trade agreements.
While the outcome of the Trump approach indeed aligns with that theme, it is not specifically the objective of President Trump to eliminate global trade, but rather to focus on specific interests in trade that benefit the unique nature of each party involved.
As a result, the USMCA -or CUSMA as said in Canada- is not in alignment with a bilateral free trade agreement, and the conflicted differences between trade with Mexico and trade with Canada are an outcome of this dynamic. The solution is simply to eliminate the multilateral in favor of the bilateral approach. This is the objective of President Trump as expressed.
There is zero leverage on the Canadian side of the trade negotiation, zero.
There is nothing that Canada provides to the USA that the USA cannot create, produce or secure independently. The nature of the economic relationship is entirely lopsided, with the USA getting nothing in return for the massive outflow of U.S. dollars (USD).
Our trade relationship with Canada is based on the U.S. government simply liking our northern neighbor and giving them terms and conditions for their economy to benefit from proximity. Take the friendship out of the equation, which is key to understanding the polar political ideology of the two nations, and there is simply not much reciprocal trade benefit.
Take away the soft wood lumber, we have our own. Take away the oil, we have multitudes of domestic production options. Take away the minerals, again we have both our own unused capacities and enhanced trade agreements with other Free Trade Agreement nations.
Then look at the possibility of a strategic U.S-Russia economic alliance, and all those contracted icebreakers take on new meaning.
Some may think this is an overly harsh view of our Canadian friends. However, the Canadian majority believes in climate change and unfortunately leftist politicians control their industrial economy. Canada is in the middle of a mass formation psychosis. Canada needs to get hard, dispatch cultural Maxism and put deliberate men in charge.
A Canadian conservative is essentially a politically correct Mitt Romney; not strong enough to make a difference.
The best thing President Trump can do for our Canadian friends is to help strategic regions while their overall economy collapses around them. Then we hope guys like this surface to rebuild the Great White North.
Posted originally on CTH on December 3, 2025 | Sundance
In an effort to return common sense, practicality and affordability to the American consumer base for automobiles, President Trump announced the elimination of Joe Biden’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for manufactured cars and trucks.
Under the auspices of the “Green New Deal”, the Biden administration mandated ridiculous quotas for EVs and demanded lower power combustible engines, or pay a climate change tax. These CAFE standards resulted in a surcharge for large vehicles, large engine autos and SUVs, and essentially bifurcated the auto consumer into those who could afford to pay for efficiency and stability, and those who could not.
“We’re officially terminating Joe Biden’s ridiculously burdensome, horrible actually, CAFE standards that impose expensive restrictions and all sorts of problems, gave all sorts of problems to automakers,” President Trump announced from the Oval Office. “It put tremendous upward pressure on car prices, combined with the insane electric vehicle mandate. Biden’s burdensome regulations helped cause the price of cars to soar more than 25%,” President Trump said. WATCH:
(Via White House) – DELIVERING A WIN FOR AMERICAN FAMILIES AND AUTOMAKERS: Today, President Donald J. Trump is delivering major relief to American families by resetting the Biden Administration’s costly and unlawful Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards.
President Trump is returning CAFE standards to levels that can actually be met with conventional gasoline and diesel vehicles. The Biden Administration standards imposed unrealistic fuel economy targets that effectively resulted in an electric vehicle (EV) mandate.
The Trump Administration’s reset of the CAFE standards ensures the program’s fidelity to the legal restrictions set forth by Congress.
The Biden standards broke the law by going far beyond the requirements that were mandated by Congress when it created the CAFE program.
SAVING AMERICAN FAMILIES MONEY: Today’s action represents an enormous win in response to the cost-of-living increases imposed on the economy by the Biden Administration.
The Biden Administration created extraordinarily stringent fuel economy standards for passenger cars and trucks, set at such aggressive levels that they were impossible to meet with available technologies for gas cars.
The Biden standards would have compelled widespread shifts to EVs that American consumers did not ask for, accompanied by significant cost-of-living increases. Since EVs are so expensive to build, automakers must sell them at a loss and make up the difference by significantly raising the sticker price of gas cars.
If President Trump had done nothing, the Biden standards would have raised the average cost of a new car by nearly $1,000, relative to the cost under the standards announced today.
President Trump’s actions will save American families $109 billion in total over the next five years. By helping more Americans buy newer, safer vehicles, this reset is projected to save more than 1,500 lives and prevent nearly a quarter-million serious injuries through 2050.
MARKING A CRITICAL BATTLE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST BIDEN’S HIDDEN COST-OF-LIVING INCREASES: The CAFE reset represents the latest action by President Trump to prevent the Biden EV-related policies from raising costs for Americans.
In June, President Trump signed a joint resolution to end the California EV mandates, which would have effectively been a 100% ban on new gas cars sold in the state by 2035 (with similar effects in 17 states that adopted California’s standards).
In July, President Trump signed into law the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, which set the civil penalty for violating CAFE standards to $0, protecting the U.S. auto manufacturing industry from significant fines.
Under President Trump, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has also released its proposal to rescind the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which ignores Congress’ clear intent under the Clean Air Act and has been used to justify over $1 trillion in costs for the American consumers and economy.
Today’s action helps ensure that even if far-left Democrats return to power, the CAFE standards are sensible, so U.S. automakers are not held to infeasible standards.
Combined with auto loan interest deductibility for new made-in-the-USA vehicles, President Trump continues to deliver real relief that makes owning a safe, reliable car more affordable for every American family. (source)
Posted originally on CTH on December 2, 2025 | Sundance
Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, Marco Rubio, delivers a passionate series of remarks in support of President Trump’s foreign policy.
Outlining the impact of federal policy under President Trump from the perspective of what is in America’s best interest, Rubio notes how foreign policy meshes with domestic policy and is specifically the combination of national security interests that secures prosperity for all American people.
“For the first time in four decades American foreign policy is based on what is in our interests,” Rubio notes. The entire segment is well presented. WATCH:
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This level of authenticity is very difficult to fake. Secretary Rubio is an exceptional advocate for America’s interests.
Posted originally on CTH on November 24, 2025 | Sundance
This could potentially be very good news; however, the battle between where we are today and where we would need to be in order to address unlawful sedition criminally is very far apart. Let’s hope the Pentagon and DOJ can harden up and start to take down these political bad actors.
In a social media post Monday, the Pentagon said it received complaints over former U.S. Navy Captain Mark Kelly’s efforts to undermine President Trump and destabilize the U.S. government.
The pentagon saying they received, “serious allegations of misconduct” against him, and “a thorough review of these allegations has been initiated to determine further actions, which may include recall to active duty for court-martial proceedings or administrative measures.”
WASHINGTON DC – […] Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared the Pentagon’s post and referred to the lawmakers as the “Seditious Six.” Noting that five of the six lawmakers do not fall under the Pentagon’s jurisdiction, he added that Kelly does.
Posted originally on CTH on November 21, 2025 | Sundance |
The majority of New York City residents elected Zohran Mamdani as their mayor. New Yorkers elected him, and New Yorkers are going to have to deal with the consequences of their choice.
True to form, President Trump invited mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to the White House and gave the representative of the New York voters the spotlight their choice represents. President Trump then holds a media availability with Mayor-elect Mamdani to answer questions. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. WATCH:
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What will the outcome be for New York City? They will soon find out.
Posted originally on CTH on November 20, 2025 | Sundance
The govt shutdown made a mess of the economic data surveying and statistical analysis generally needed for accurate snapshots of the economy. However, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) was able to release the September jobs report data {SEE BLS REPORT HERE}.
The geopolitical trade reset continues delivering domestic economic fluctuations, as each sector and specific international dependency reacts to President Trump’s shifts and turns in targeted economic policy. The September jobs report caught the economic pundits off-guard, as it showed a much bigger gain in jobs than they expected.
As noted by MSM, “The US added 119,000 jobs in September, far more than the 53,000 economists expected, and unemployment unexpectedly increased to 4.4% from 4.3%.” President Trump’s immigration enforcement continues to capture and remove illegal alien workers from the U.S. economy. This is also driving up domestic wages.
Posted originally on CTH on November 14, 2025 | Sundance
President Donald Trump gave U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer, all the tools and leverage needed to bring the Swiss govt to a substantive trade agreement. The pressure was too much to bear, so Switzerland quickly negotiated a deal.
In the background President Trump’s global trade reset has been seriously damaging for the Swiss industrial economy. The EU overall, Germany specifically and China, have stopped purchasing precision Swiss industrial machinery.
It’s not the direct tariffs against Swiss precision machinery itself that created the pressure, but rather the tariffs against nations who purchased the Swiss precision machinery.
China was a big purchaser of the Swiss machinery, until Beijing stole enough intellectual property to develop their own precision machining capacity. Slowly China didn’t need Switzerland.
Germany and the EU economy then began to contract as the Trump tariffs bit hard against their exports to the USA.
Simultaneously, Chinese EV production started replacing more expensive European EV production, and the tooling purchases within the auto industry began contracting within Switzerland.
As things unfolded, the forecast for the future of the Swiss economy started to become very clear; their precision industrial exports were going to continue contracting. Something needed to change, and fast.
Ambassador Jamieson Greer announces a major free trade agreement with Switzerland {SEE HERE} and the White House provides a fact sheet {SEE HERE}. A joint statement is then released:
Today, the United States of America (United States), the Swiss Confederation (Switzerland), and the Principality of Liechtenstein (Liechtenstein) (collectively, Participants) express through this Framework their intention to negotiate an Agreement on Fair, Balanced, and Reciprocal Trade (Agreement). Through the Agreement, the Participants intend to create a dynamic and balanced trading relationship on a reciprocal and mutually advantageous basis, with a view toward creating good, high-paying jobs and economic growth in their markets. The Participants share a desire to make trade fairer, easier, and more substantial. The Participants further share a desire to foster secure and resilient supply chains and a conducive business environment to attract high-quality and trusted investment. Switzerland intends to take action to balance its trade with the United States, including by purchasing U.S. goods, facilitating investment in the United States, and removing tariff and non-tariff barriers for U.S. goods. The Participants intend to immediately begin negotiations of the Agreement with the aim to make significant progress, and if possible conclude the Agreement, by the first quarter of 2026, subject to their respective domestic processes.
The Participants intend for the negotiations of the Agreement to focus on the following key areas:
Investment, Commercial Considerations, and Opportunities
Switzerland and Liechtenstein support the increase of foreign direct investment by Swiss and Liechtenstein enterprises into the United States.
Switzerland intends to encourage and facilitate at least $200 billion of investment into the United States, across all 50 states, over the next five years, to create manufacturing and research and development jobs. Liechtenstein intends to encourage and facilitate at least $300 million of investment into the
United States and increase by 50 percent over the next five years the number of jobs created by its private sector in the United States. Switzerland and Liechtenstein intend to encourage and facilitate one third of these investments by the end of 2026. The United States intends to determine, in its application of reciprocal tariffs, if Switzerland and Liechtenstein have taken appropriate steps to encourage and facilitate these investments and associated job creation. If needed, the Participants intend to jointly discuss the steps taken to encourage and facilitate such investment and job creation and determine additional measures for investment promotion and facilitation.
The Participants intend to encourage their enterprises to promote and develop training and apprenticeship programs, including Registered Apprenticeship programs, for U.S. workers in key high-growth sectors in the United States, taking into account their current and future investments.
The Participants intend to cooperate on this issue.
Switzerland and Liechtenstein intend to work together with the United States on addressing potential distortions of bilateral trade and investment arising from industrial subsidies or actions of state-owned enterprises.
The Participants intend to create the best possible environment to encourage and facilitate cross-border investments and job creation.
2. Tariffs
Recognizing the Treaty of 29 March 1923 between Switzerland and Liechtenstein on Accession of the Principality of Liechtenstein to the Swiss Customs Area, the United States intends to apply the same tariff treatment to both Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
Switzerland and Liechtenstein intend to improve market access for U.S. goods, through the application of zero duties on all U.S. industrial goods, U.S. seafood, and certain U.S. agricultural goods, and through the application of tariff rate quotas for a number of other U.S. agricultural goods.
The United States intends to apply the higher of either the U.S. most-favored-nation (MFN) tariff rate or a tariff rate of 15 percent, comprised of the MFN tariff and a reciprocal tariff, on originating goods of Switzerland and Liechtenstein and to apply only the U.S. MFN tariff rate on certain products listed in the “Potential Tariff Adjustments for Aligned Partners” Annex to Executive Order 14346 (Modifying the Scope of Reciprocal Tariffs and Establishing Procedures for Implementing Trade and Security Agreements).
The United States intends to promptly ensure that the MFN tariff and the tariff imposed pursuant to Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (Section 232) do not exceed 15 percent for originating pharmaceutical goods and semiconductors of Switzerland and Liechtenstein subject to Section 232 tariffs. The United States intends to positively consider the effect of the Agreement on national security, including when taking action under Section 232.
The Participants intend for the benefits of the Agreement to accrue predominantly to the Participants. If the Participants determine that the benefits are not accruing predominantly to the Participants, the Participants may modify the Agreement with rules of origin necessary to achieve that objective.
The Participants intend to cooperate, where relevant, on matters relating to transshipment and circumvention practices, in accordance with their respective domestic laws and regulations.
3. Non-Tariff Barriers and Related Matters
The United States and Switzerland each intend to accord to conformity assessment bodies located in the territory of the other treatment no less favorable than they accord to conformity assessment bodies located in their own respective territories. Treatment under this paragraph includes procedures, criteria, fees, and other conditions relating to accrediting, approving, licensing, or otherwise recognizing conformity assessment bodies.
The Participants intend to apply the World Trade Organization (WTO) Decision of the Technical Barriers to Trade Committee on Principles for the Development of International Standards, Guides and Recommendations (2000) to determine relevant international standards within the meaning of Articles 2 and 5 and Annex 3 of the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, and intend to negotiate provisions clarifying this understanding.
With respect to automobiles, Switzerland intends to work with the United States to facilitate the recognition of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
The Participants intend to advance cooperation in mutually agreed strategic sectors, including medical devices. Switzerland intends to facilitate the acceptance of medical devices cleared or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The United States acknowledges the efforts made by Switzerland to facilitate trade in beef and beef products. Switzerland intends to work with the United States to address specific measures that restrict market access for U.S. poultry and poultry products, strengthening opportunities for U.S. agricultural exports in Switzerland. The United States and Switzerland intend to cooperate on streamlining sanitary requirements for labelling and certificates, particularly for beef, bison, and dairy products.
The Participants intend to discuss robust commitments related to intellectual property rights protection and enforcement, including transparent and fair treatment of geographical indications.
The Participants intend to continue to provide an open and competitive environment for service suppliers. Accordingly, Switzerland and Liechtenstein intend to consider opportunities to provide service suppliers additional access to their markets.
The Participants intend to increase their cooperation on labor-related trade issues, and work to address forced labor, including forced child labor, and the worst forms of child labor in supply chains. Switzerland and Liechtenstein intend to continue to protect internationally recognized labor rights. Switzerland and Liechtenstein intend to continue to adopt and implement high levels of environmental protections, effectively enforce their respective environmental laws, and work together with the United States on trade-related environmental measures, including those that may affect trade between each of them and the United States.
The Participants intend to negotiate commitments on good regulatory practices to ensure greater transparency, predictability, and participation throughout the regulatory lifecycle.
With a view to achieving greater reciprocal benefits from participation in their procurement markets, the Participants reaffirm their commitments under the WTO plurilateral Agreement on Government Procurement and their other binding international procurement obligations, and intend to clarify that states that are not party to these agreements do not benefit from non-discriminatory treatment in procurement at the central governmental level covered by such agreements, including through further implementation measures in their respective national procurement frameworks, if necessary.
The United States and Switzerland intend to foster the use of technology solutions that allow for full pre-arrival processing, paperless trade, and digitalized customs procedures.
4. Digital Trade and Technology
Switzerland and Liechtenstein intend to continue to refrain from imposing digital services taxes.
The Participants intend to facilitate trusted cross-border data flows and address data localization requirements, taking into account legitimate public policy objectives.
The Participants intend to explore mechanisms that promote interoperability between their respective privacy frameworks with a view to facilitating secure cross-border transfers of data.
The Participants intend to refrain from imposing customs duties on electronic transmissions and to support the multilateral adoption of a permanent moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions at the WTO.
5. Economic Security
The Participants intend to strengthen their cooperation on economic security, including on addressing non-market policies of third countries.
The Participants recognize that the effective enforcement of economic and trade sanctions serves the Participants’ shared interests. The Participants intend to strengthen existing cooperation with regard to U.S. export controls and sanctions.
Switzerland and Liechtenstein intend to cooperate with the United States on matters related to the review of inbound investment, including on the basis of national security.
Switzerland and Liechtenstein intend to work cooperatively with the United States to secure supply chains and improve supply chain resilience in sectors of shared interest.
The Participants intend to coordinate the timing of their respective domestic processes for the entry into force and implementation of the Agreement.
This document does not constitute a legally binding instrument creating or affecting any rights or obligations under international law. {SOURCE}
Posted originally on CTH on November 13, 2025 | Sundance
White House National Economic Council Director, Kevin Hassett, made two appearances today to discuss economics and ongoing Trump policy.
As noted by Hassett earlier today (bottom video), the October unemployment numbers will be generally unknown when reported because during the shutdown the BLS household survey was not completed. All other data will likely have an asterisk as the NEC calculates that roughly 60,000 private sector workers were impacted during the shutdown. Two Short Videos Below:
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This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
Centinel2012 