The great negotiator has done it yet again. Since December, market pressure on DDR4 production — ram for PCs, phones and other devices — has pushed prices higher and higher. With more devices needing memory, from streaming services to gaming terminals and phones, the rules of supply and demand were already making cost go up.
Now, in a move from the White House, the Trump administration has waived the starting flag on a run of potential major price increases from technology houses concerned about long term profitability in the United States.
www.washingtonpost.com/…
President Trump threatened to terminate the U.S. trade agreement with South Korea in an interview Thursday night, declaring that the five-year-old accord with a key ally was “a horrible deal” that has left America “destroyed.”
During an Oval Office interview about trade policy in North America, Trump served notice that he is looking to disrupt an important partnership in the tumultuous Asia-Pacific region as well — even with Seoul on edge because of North Korea’s escalating military provocations.
South Korea, which is one of our largest trading partners, is also home to Hynix and Samsung, two of the global leaders in memory and circuit board production.
Their manufacturing products end up driving many products developed and sold in the US, including mundane devices like Microwaves and Breadmakers.
Trump continued:
“We’ve told them that we’ll either terminate or negotiate,” Trump said. “We may terminate.”
The president said that the process of termination of Korus is simpler than with the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“With NAFTA, we terminate tomorrow; if we did, it ends in six months,” he said. “With the Korean deal, we terminate and it’s over.”
President Trump, who has spent the last week shaking a saber at North Korea, has already caused market concerns over what happens next for South Korea. The back and forth over North Korea also held a caveat: Trump expects South Korea to pay for the responses.
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President Trump wants South Korea to foot the bill or a $1 billion U.S. missile defense system and is threatening to kill the free trade deal between the two countries.
His comments aren't sitting well with officials in South Korea, a key American ally in Asia. One foreign policy expert called the remarks "shameless."
"I informed South Korea it would be appropriate if they pay," Trump said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday. "That's a billion dollar system."
Traditional definitions of friends and allies rarely include those who force you to pay an unexpected bill while telling you they plan to steal your lunch money.
And yet, Trump’s plans — a forced payment for a missile program and the announcement he doesn’t like a trade deal — boil down to exactly that.
In the end, it appears as though US Consumers, who love their high tech devices may be the first group to pay the price.