CHINA/NAFTA/TARIFFS/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s meeting with Republican senators on trade last week did nothing to unstick his stalled trade deal with Mexico and Canada. Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Monday [5-6-19] that the president once again refused to lift steel and aluminum tariffs on U.S. allies when pressed, a requirement that Grassley has laid out to consider the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement to replace NAFTA. Trump also refused to rule out imposing tariffs on foreign automakers, Grassley said…Trump also threatened in recent days to impose 25 percent tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods, a move that raised further fears of a retaliatory tit-for-tat with China. The meeting left the president’s long-sought trade deal with a grim prognosis in the immediate future…Earlier this year, Trump spurned Grassley’s direct lobbying to lift tariffs that have caused retaliatory levies against Midwestern farmers. Last week, Grassley said his request met ‘with the same results”
–Burgess Everett, “Grassley: Trump’s new trade deal still stuck over tariffs,” Politico, May 6, 2019 4:54 pm