CHINA/ECONOMY/NATO/TRADE WAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump left the global economy unsettled on Tuesday [12-3-19] when he threatened NATO allies and suggested that he could wait a year to reach a trade agreement with China, sending stock markets swooning. In comments to reporters sandwiched between meetings with fellow leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Mr. Trump said a trade deal with China might not be finalized until after the 2020 presidential election in November. Earlier this fall, he hinted that a deal was near completion, signaling that the trade war could be winding down. But this week, peace no longer seems at hand. Beyond Mr. Trump’s downbeat assessment of the conflict with China, his administration is considering tariffs as high as 100 percent on French items including wines, cheeses and handbags.”
–Katie Rogers, Jim Tankersley and Alan Rappeport, “Trump Inflames the Trade Wars, Again,” The New York Times online, December 3, 2019