US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he wants to avoid policies that make it difficult for other countries to do business with the US — even as his administration has done precisely the opposite.
Trump has imposed tariffs on billions of US dollars in goods and launched disputes with most key US trading partners over the past three years, but in a lengthy Twitter post, the president said: “We don’t want to make it impossible to do business with us. That will only mean that orders will go to someplace else.”
“The United States cannot, & will not, become such a difficult place to deal with in terms of foreign countries buying our product, including for the always used National Security excuse, that our companies will be forced to leave in order to remain competitive,” he tweeted.
Trump appeared to be directing his tweets at hardliners in his administration, referring to a proposal to block General Electric Co (GE) from selling jet engines to China.
“I want China to buy our jet engines, the best in the World,” he wrote. “I have seen some of the regulations being circulated... and they are ridiculous.”
US officials are considering denying a license to CFM International SA, a joint venture between GE and France’s Safran SA, to export more of its jet engines to China, the Wall Street Journal said in a report over the weekend, citing people familiar with the discussions.
China is using the engines to develop its own airliner, Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd’s (COMAC, 中國商飛) C919, to compete with Boeing Co and Airbus SE.
The Journal said that US officials worry that Beijing could reverse-engineer the engine and enter the engine market.
Another goal of the US proposal reportedly is to slow development of the COMAC airliner.
GE said that it has provided products and services globally for decades.
“We aggressively protect and defend our intellectual property and work closely with the US government to fulfill our responsibilities and shared security and economic interests,” the Boston-based company said.
The episode marks the latest example of the administration’s often-chaotic approach to policymaking, with the president publicly and unexpectedly weighing in on ongoing deliberations, leaving businesses confused over where US policy is headed.
“Uncertainty is death to trade,” former US Department of Commerce official Kevin Wolf, who is now a partner at the Akin Gump law firm, said at a conference on Tuesday on US export controls, where the president’s tweets caused a stir.
The US Department of Commerce declined to comment. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Additional reporting by AP
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said that its research institute has launched its first advanced artificial intelligence (AI) large language model (LLM) using traditional Chinese, with technology assistance from Nvidia Corp. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), said the LLM, FoxBrain, is expected to improve its data analysis capabilities for smart manufacturing, and electric vehicle and smart city development. An LLM is a type of AI trained on vast amounts of text data and uses deep learning techniques, particularly neural networks, to process and generate language. They are essential for building and improving AI-powered servers. Nvidia provided assistance
GREAT SUCCESS: Republican Senator Todd Young expressed surprise at Trump’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running US lawmakers who helped secure billions of dollars in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing rejected US President Donald Trump’s call to revoke the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, signaling that any repeal effort in the US Congress would fall short. US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who negotiated the law, on Wednesday said that Trump’s demand would fail, while a top Republican proponent, US Senator Todd Young, expressed surprise at the president’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running. The CHIPS Act is “essential for America leading the world in tech, leading the world in AI [artificial
DOMESTIC SUPPLY: The probe comes as Donald Trump has called for the repeal of the US$52.7 billion CHIPS and Science Act, which the US Congress passed in 2022 The Office of the US Trade Representative is to hold a hearing tomorrow into older Chinese-made “legacy” semiconductors that could heap more US tariffs on chips from China that power everyday goods from cars to washing machines to telecoms equipment. The probe, which began during former US president Joe Biden’s tenure in December last year, aims to protect US and other semiconductor producers from China’s massive state-driven buildup of domestic chip supply. A 50 percent US tariff on Chinese semiconductors began on Jan. 1. Legacy chips use older manufacturing processes introduced more than a decade ago and are often far simpler than
Gasoline and diesel prices this week are to decrease NT$0.5 and NT$1 per liter respectively as international crude prices continued to fall last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to decrease to NT$29.2, NT$30.7 and NT$32.7 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, while premium diesel is to cost NT$27.9 per liter at CPC stations and NT$27.7 at Formosa pumps, the companies said in separate statements. Global crude oil prices dropped last week after the eight OPEC+ members said they would
RSS