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The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Monday, December 3, 2018 3A
Trump and Xi call for trade war time-out
PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS I Associated Press
President Donald Trump with China’s President Xi Jinping during their bilateral meeting at the
G20 Summit, Saturday, Dec. 1, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
BY PAUL WISEMAN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The
dinner-table diplomacy that
Presidents Donald Trump
and Xi Jinping of China
conducted over the week
end produced something as
vague as it was valuable: an
agreement to keep talking.
Forged over grilled sirloin
at the Group of 20 summit
Saturday in Buenos Aires,
Argentina, the ceasefire
Trump and Xi agreed to Sat
urday night illustrated that
the leaders of the world’s
two largest economies can
at least find some common
ground, however tentative
and ill-defined it might be.
The truce pulled the United
States and China back from
an escalating trade war that
was threatening world eco
nomic growth and had set
global investors on edge.
“The prospects for real
progress on substantive
issues with China are now
better than at any point in
the Trump administration,”
said Andy Rothman, invest
ment strategist at Matthews
Asia.
What Trump and Xi
achieved was the gift of
additional time — 90 days,
at least — to try to resolve
the thorny and complicated
issues that divide them. Most
important among them, and
perhaps the most intracta
ble, is the U.S. argument that
Beijing has deployed preda
tory tactics in a headlong
drive to overtake America’s
global supremacy in high
technology.
Yet reaching a permanent
peace will hardly be easy.
The Trump administration
asserts, and many experts
agree, that China systemati
cally steals trade secrets and
forces the U.S. and other for
eign countries to hand over
sensitive technology as the
price of admission to the
vast Chinese market.
Washington also regards
Beijing’s ambitious long
term development plan,
“Made in China 2025,” as a
scheme to dominate such
fields as robotics and elec
tric vehicles by unfairly sub
sidizing Chinese companies
and discriminating against
foreign competitors.
This year, Trump imposed
an import tax of 25 percent
on $50 billion in products,
then hit an additional $200
billion worth of goods with
10 percent tariffs. Those 10
percent tariffs were sched
uled to ratchet up to 25 per
cent on Jan. 1 if the United
States and China failed to
reach an agreement to at
least postpone that move.
In Buenos Aires, they
did reach such an accord.
Trump agreed to delay
the scheduled U.S. tariff
increase for 90 days while
the two sides negotiate over
the administration’s tech
nology-related complaints.
In return, China agreed to
buy what the White House
called a “not yet agreed
upon, but very substantial”
amount of U.S. products to
help narrow America’s gap
ing trade deficit with China.
If the Chinese did eventually
increase such purchases, it
would be warmly welcomed
in the U.S. Farm Belt, where
producers of soybeans and
other crops have been hurt
by Beijing’s retaliatory
tariffs.
But can China be trusted?
Its contentious tech poli
cies lie at the heart of its
economic vision, and Bei
jing could prove reluctant
to sacrifice its ambition, no
matter what longer-term
agreement with the United
States it eventually reaches.
“Make no mistake about
it: The issues that we have
with China are deep struc
tural issues, and you’re not
going to resolve all of them
in 90 days or even 180 days,”
said Dean Pinkert, a former
commissioner on the U.S.
International Trade Com
mission and now a partner
at the law firm Hughes Hub
bard & Reed.
The Trump administra
tion is “going to have to
decide how much progress
they need in order to define
it as a win.”
Parag Khanna, founder
of the FutureMap consul
tancy and author of the
forthcoming book “The
Future is Asian,” noted that
in speeches to domestic Chi
nese audiences, Xi is still
promoting the economic
self-reliance that Made in
China 2025 symbolizes.
“What he’s saying to his
own people has more long
term validity than what he’s
saying to Trump over dinner
for the sake of everyone sav
ing face,” Khanna said.
Even so, the Buenos Aires
breakthrough may calm
investors who worried about
financial damage from the
trade hostilities. Caterpillar,
Ford and other U.S. corpo
rate giants have complained
that the higher Trump tar
iffs, if kept in place, would
guarantee higher costs and
lower profits. That’s one rea
son the Dow Jones Industrial
Average tumbled this fall
after hitting a record close
Oct. 3.
In the meantime, just
as Trump dialed back the
drama on one trade front
over the weekend, he magni
fied the tension on another.
En route from Buenos Aires
on Air Force One, the presi
dent told reporters that
he would soon notify Con
gress that he’s abandoning
the North American Free
Trade Agreement. Such a
move would force lawmak
ers to approve the NAFTA
replacement he reached
Sept. 30 with Canada and
Mexico — or have no North
American trade bloc at all.
The absence of any such
bloc would hurt companies
that have built supply chains
that crisscross the three
countries’ borders.
“This trades one trade
uncertainty for another,”
Diane Swonk, chief econo
mist at Grant Thornton,
tweeted. “Policy uncertainty
remains unusually high for
an economy that on paper
should be feeling fat and
happy.”
Events honoring Bush Sr.
planned over next 4 days
BY JUAN A. LOZANO
Associated Press
HOUSTON — Former
President George H.W.
Bush will be honored during
several public and private
events in Houston and Wash
ington before his burial
Thursday in Texas.
Four days of events for
Bush, who died Friday at age
94, include a state funeral
at Washington’s National
Cathedral, a private service
at his longtime church in
Houston and public view
ings in both cities. He will be
buried next to wife, Barbara,
and their daughter, Robin,
who died in 1953.
Here are details about the
events:
DAVID J. PHILLIP I Associated Press
Deitz Kracker, left, and Marg Frazier visit a statue of former
President George H.W. Bush in downtown Houston, Sunday,
Dec. 2.
TRANSPORT FROM
HOUSTON TO
WASHINGTON
Bush’s body will be trans
ported by a motorcade Mon
day morning from a Houston
funeral home to Ellington
Field Joint Reserve Base, a
Texas Air National Guard
base. The casket will be
loaded onto a plane during a
departure ceremony sched
uled to start at 10:30 a.m.
CST and flown to Joint Base
Andrews in Maryland.
Relatives accompany
ing the casket will include
his sons, former President
George W. Bush and Neil
Bush, along with members
of their immediate families.
The rest of the Bush family
is expected to be at Joint
Base Andrews when the
body arrives.
STATE FUNERAL
IN WASHINGTON
In Washington, Bush will
lie in state in the rotunda
of the U.S. Capitol from
Monday at 7:30 p.m. EST
until Wednesday at 8:45
a.m. EST. His casket will be
transported by motorcade
Wednesday morning to the
National Cathedral, where
a state funeral will be held
at 11 a.m. EST. President
Donald Trump has indicated
he and first lady Melania
Trump will attend the state
funeral.
Trump has said he plans
to designate Wednesday as
a national day of mourning.
RETURN TO HOUSTON
Following the service
at the National Cathedral,
Bush will be flown to Hous
ton on Wednesday with a
scheduled arrival of around
4:30 p.m. CST. His body will
be transported by motor
cade to St. Martin’s Epis
copal Church, where he
and his wife regularly wor
shipped. A public viewing
of Bush’s casket will be held
at the church from 6:45 p.m.
CST on Wednesday until 6
a.m. CST on Thursday.
On Thursday, a private
funeral service with about
1,200 invited guests will be
held at the church starting at
10 a.m. CST. After the hour-
long service, a motorcade
will transport Bush’s casket
to a train station north of
Houston, near the interna
tional airport named after
Bush.
A ceremony will be
held at the train station
as Bush’s casket is loaded
onto a Union Pacific train.
The train will take about 2
1 /2 hours to travel roughly
70 miles to the city of Col
lege Station, home to Bush’s
presidential library at Texas
A&M University. The loco
motive has been painted the
colors of the Air Force One
plane used during his presi
dency and bears the number
“4141” in honor of the 41st
president.
BURIAL IN COLLEGE
STATION
The train is scheduled to
arrive in College Station on
Thursday around 3:45 p.m.
CST. Bush’s casket will then
be transported by motor
cade to the presidential
library, where he will be
buried at the gated family
plot near his wife and their
daughter Robin, who died
of leukemia at age 3. Bar
bara Bush died on April 17
at their Houston home. The
couple was married for 73
years, longer than any other
U.S. presidential couple.
Ceremonies at the presi
dential library will include a
missing man formation fly
over. The casket will then be
rolled along a path through
woods, over a bridge and
over a creek for burial dur
ing a private graveside ser
vice with Bush’s family.
Comey to testify behind closed doors
BY ERIC TUCKER AND
MICHAEL BALSAMO
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — For
mer FBI Director James
Comey has reached a deal to
testify privately to the House
Judiciary Committee, back
ing off his legal fight for an
open hearing, his attorney
said Sunday.
Comey, whose lawyers
went to court to challenge
a congressional subpoena,
said in a tweet that it was
“hard to protect my rights
without being in contempt.”
As part of a deal with leg
islators, Comey has been
told that he is free to speak
about the questioning after
ward and that a transcript
would be released 24 hours
after he testifies, his attor
ney, David Kelley, said.
Comey’s lawyers told a
federal judge on Friday
that the interview should
be done in a public setting
because they fear that state
ments from a closed-door
interview would be selec
tively leaked. A lawyer for
Congress, however, argued
that committees can con
duct investigations however
they please and Comey had
no right to refuse a subpoena
or demand a public hearing.
Comey is expected to
be questioned about deci
sions made by the FBI in
2016, including a call not
to recommend criminal
charges against Democrat
Hillary Clinton for her use
of a private email server
and the FBI’s investigation
into potential coordination
between Russia and Repub
lican Donald Trump’s cam
paign. Trump fired Comey
in May 2017.
The interview is sched
uled for Friday and Comey
will be “free to make any or
all of that transcript public
as he is free to share with
the public any of the ques
tions asked and testimony
given during the interview,”
Kelley said.
Because of the deal,
Comey has agreed to with
draw his challenge to the
subpoena. A judge had been
set to rule on the matter on
Monday.
Rep. Schiff: Roger Stone
may have lied to Congress
BY MICHAEL BALSAMO
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The
top Democrat on the House
intelligence committee
said Sunday that the tes
timony of former Trump
campaign adviser Roger
Stone should be provided
to special counsel Robert
Mueller “for consider
ation of whether perjury
charges are warranted.”
The comments from
Rep. Adam Schiff come
days after President Don
ald Trump’s former law
yer pleaded guilty to lying
to Congress, raising ques
tions about whether the
special counsel would pur
sue similar charges against
others eyed in the Russia
probe.
Schiff said on ABC’s
“This Week” that emails
between Stone and an
associate, Jerome Corsi,
are “inconsistent” with the
testimony that Stone gave
to the committee last year.
Schiff, who is set to chair
the intelligence commit
tee when Democrats take
control of the House next
year, suggested that others
may also potentially be in
legal jeopardy for provid
ing false testimony to the
congressional committee.
There’s gener
ally a high legal
threshold to prove
such a charge, but
he said “there are
some people that
I’m confident have
met and exceeded
that bar.”
Mueller’s
investigators
are trying to determine
whether Corsi and Stone
had advance knowledge
of WikiLeaks’ plans to
release hacked material
damaging to Hillary Clin
ton’s presidential effort.
U.S. intelligence agen
cies have said Russia was
the source of that hacked
material.
Documents drafted by
Mueller’s team as part
of a potential plea deal
with Corsi — which he
has rejected — contained
portions of emails he
exchanged with Stone in
the summer of 2016 about
WikiLeaks.
In late July 2016,
Stone emailed Corsi, ask
ing him to get in touch
with WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange, who has
been living in Ecuador’s
embassy in London since
2012, according to the
documents.
Stone said he wanted
Corsi to try to
obtain emails the
group possessed
about Clinton.
Both Stone and
Corsi have denied
any wrongdo
ing, and Stone
has denied know
ing Assange or
being a conduit
for WikiLeaks. He told
The Associated Press
last month that he had
“no advanced notice of
the source or content or
the exact timing of the
release of the WikiLeaks
disclosures.”
Corsi has said the email
he sent Stone in reply —
which accurately forecast
that WikiLeaks would
release derogatory infor
mation about Clinton
campaign chairman John
Podesta in October — was
based on his own deduc
tion and not the result of
any inside information or
a source close to the group.
Prosecutors from Muel
ler’s office had offered
Corsi a deal to plead
guilty to a false statements
charge, but he said he
rejected the offer because
he didn’t knowingly
mislead investigators.
He now says he expects he
will be indicted.
Stone
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