At G20, ministers hit impasse with US over free trade & climate change

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Usobuko

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Free Trade:

In a meeting that some said was at times 19 against one, the U.S. did not yield on key issues, essentially torpedoing earlier agreements as the G20 requires a consensus. Still, the dialogue was friendly and non-confrontational, leaving the door open to a future deal, officials who attended the meeting said.

"This is my first G20, so what was in the past communiqué is not necessarily relevant from my standpoint," U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the German resort town of Baden Baden.

"I understand what the president's desire is and his policies, and I negotiated them from here," Mnuchin said. "I couldn't be happier with the outcome."
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Climate Change:

Trump has suggested global warming was a "hoax" concocted by China to hurt U.S. industry and vowed to scrap the Paris climate accord aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

Trump's administration on Thursday proposed a 31 percent cut to the Environmental Protection Agency's budget as the White House seeks to eliminate climate change programs and trim initiatives to protect air and water quality.

Asked about climate change funding, Mick Mulvaney, Trump's budget director, said on Thursday: "We consider that to be a waste of money."
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source: reuters
 
"We want free and open markets," Merkel said in a speech in Hanover, a day before the world's biggest computer trade fair, CeBIT, kicks off in the central German city. The event is partnered with Japan this year.

"In these times of inter-connectedness, we want to link together our societies and work together in an equitable way. That's what free trade is about," she said.

She made no direct reference to US President Donald Trump, elected on a protectionist "America First" platform promising to slash trade deficits, but noted that the European Union and Japan are negotiating a free trade deal that may be reached this year.

"At a time when we are arguing a lot over free trade, open borders and democratic values, it's a good sign that Japan and Germany are not arguing" over trade, she said.

Abe, who is in Hanover as part of a European tour, said that Japan "wants to be the champion upholding open systems alongside Germany".
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One good thing about Trump administration is it forced other nations to quickly come to an agreement regarding Free Trade. Especially after 4 Years of negotiation between EU and Japan.
 
My cousin claimed Trump was not going to do anything drastic on trade, he is a business man and surprised I felt bad for Hillary. I really wanted to shout so hard.
 
Usobuko said:
One good thing about Trump administration is it forced other nations to quickly come to an agreement regarding Free Trade. Especially after 4 Years of negotiation between EU and Japan.
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Other countries seem to be priming themselves to step right over us as we throw our tantrums on the floor in public.
 
EmmanuelMunoz said:
Other countries seem to be priming themselves to step right over us as we throw our tantrums on the floor in public.
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Yeah it does seem like everyone else is pulling together to fill the gap the US will leave. To be fair it will probably turn out pretty good for everyone else in the world, not sure what the US is going to do.
 
A waste of money...

I wonder whether future generations will regard that attitude as a nearly genocidal level of evil, or worse.
 
"This is my first G20, so what was in the past communiqué is not necessarily relevant from my standpoint," U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said
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Ehm... we do business between countries. Just because you guys get another face in power doesn't mean all past talks and such are irrelevant suddenly.
 
What an embarrassment, hopefully it's only 4 years and the Dems get back in and immediately turn it around.

The EU is making strides. Brexit is a bloody joke.
 
Fox Mulder said:
America was doomed when science became a partisan issue.
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I blame the internet.

Politics are complicated. Complicated topics should be treated with the adequate intellectual respect.
What I see in the US is an amateurization of political opinion shaping. Intellectuals have lost the war for the clicks, ratings and shares.
And now we are left with cheap, stupid, ignorant but sensationalist coverage of politics on both sides of the political spectrum.

The "opinion" worked as the great equalizer. By glorifying the opinion and becoming ignorant to qualitative differences between opinions and becoming fearful of the idea of outright rejecting stupid ideas and calling out stupid ideas, we ended up where we are today. A world where nothing is true and nothing is false anymore.

Its the uneducated, uninsightful, sensationalist and agenda driven political opinion content that drives traffic on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and even established media outlets.


Given this development over the recent years, its makes sense that people elected someone who holds several certifiably false positions.
An anti-Intellectual movement led to an anti-intellectual president.
And now science and reason are the enemies.
Lets see how long this period will last.
 
He can't do anything to trade right? Everyone around him will scream at him not to just out of self preservation because of how badly it will torpedo things
 
Usobuko said:
One good thing about Trump administration is it forced other nations to quickly come to an agreement regarding Free Trade. Especially after 4 Years of negotiation between EU and Japan.
Click to expand...

The irony of Japan and Germany being the defenders of the free world while Britain and America fuck off into neo-fascism.
 
The Technomancer said:
He can't do anything to trade right? Everyone around him will scream at him not to just out of self preservation because of how badly it will torpedo things
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'He can't do that that's too stupid" has never been a valid assumption with this administration. They will pick the stupidest, most self-destructive thing and do it, and the GOP will pretend it was great. We didn't even WANT to export anyway. Fuck our economy, America First. Except for exporters. And democrats. And the gays. Women. Brown people. Most people really. Actually just me, just singularly me first.
 
Majine said:
Climate change a "waste of money"?

Well, it's been nice knowing y'all.
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121126_a16995_g2048.jpg


"Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.”
 
ClosingADoor said:
Ehm... we do business between countries. Just because you guys get another face in power doesn't mean all past talks and such are irrelevant suddenly.
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This does hurts US credibility, not that Trump administration has much credibility to begin with.

It's not inconceivable to see them acting like bullies ( again ) if they inked a new deal and then suddenly wants to scrap it because it's not working out as planned. There is no weight behind US commitments and everything can be undo until they find a model that works in accordance with their protectionism stance.
 
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