On The Money: Trump readying $200B in tariffs for China | Warren wants companies to disclose climate impacts | Bill aims to provide clarity to online sales tax ruling

by Sylvan Lane - 09/14/18 5:44 PM ET

Happy Friday and welcome back to On The Money. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.

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THE BIG DEAL–Trump moving forward with additional $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods: President Trump on Thursday told his aides to move forward with tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods, even as the administration seeks to restart trade talks with Beijing, according to Bloomberg News.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin this week proposed another round of talks with China in an effort to ease tensions in the escalating trade war that is raising concerns on Capitol Hill and throughout the business community.

{mosads}Trump’s strong desire to narrow the expanding trade gap with China has led to tit-for-tat tariffs of $50 billion imposed by each country. He has promised tariffs of $200 billion on China’s imports, a move that’s been delayed while officials determine a final list of products based on recently submitted public comments.

The Hill’s Vicki Needham fills us in here.

LEADING THE DAY

Pelosi: You can’t spell NAFTA without an ‘eh’: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Friday that any renegotiatied North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) must include Canada, one of the pact’s original signatories.

U.S. and Canadian officials have been working toward an agreement to bring our northern neighbor into a new pact struck between the White House and Mexico. Trump has said that he’s fine with letting Canada walk away from the trade agreement all three countries signed in 1994, but he’s received pushback from lawmakers in both parties.

“I think it should be trilateral,” Pelosi told reporters according to Reuters, adding she did not think it would be “in the interest of this hemisphere” to turn NAFTA into a bilateral deal.

The renegotiated NAFTA would be subject to congressional approval, and Pelosi is likely to play a major role in the process. As the top-ranking House Democrat, Pelosi would regain the speakership if her party takes control of the lower chamber, though she is likely to face a leadership challenge.

Warren wants companies to disclose more about climate change impacts: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wants to require corporations to disclose to the public and investors how much they are contributing to climate change and what risks it causes their businesses.

Warren, seen as a likely presidential candidate in 2020, has largely built her political career on improving corporate accountability, like her role in launching the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

She proposed the Climate Risk Disclosure Act Friday to raise public awareness of how dependent companies are on fossil fuels and how the effects of climate change could hurt them.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would dictate the exact rules, but Warren’s bill spells out sweeping standards for the disclosures, which would cover companies’ greenhouse gas emissions, their fossil fuel holdings, how climate policies would impact them and how climate effects like rising sea levels could hurt them.

The Hill’s Timothy Cama explains here.

Manafort forfeits Trump Tower apartment in plea deal: Former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort agreed to forfeit his apartment in Trump Tower instead of one his bank accounts in his plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller.

Overall, Manafort forfeited five properties, three bank accounts and a life insurance policy.

The forfeitures are part of an agreement to plea guilty to one count of conspiracy against the United States and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice by witness tampering.

Manafort must also cooperate “fully, truthfully, completely, and forthrightly” with the Justice Department in any and all matters that the government finds his cooperation to be relevant.

More Manafort:

Manafort pleads guilty, reaches ‘cooperation agreement’

Mueller threat to Trump grows with Manafort deal

Giuliani: Trump has nothing to be concerned with on Manafort’s deal

White House: Manafort’s deal has ‘nothing to do’ with Trump

Lawmakers look to clear up online sales tax confusion: A bipartisan group of lawmakers rolled out legislation on Friday that’s designed to provide certainty to businesses following the Supreme Court’s online sales tax ruling in June.

The bill would provide a framework for when states can require out-of-state online retailers to collect their sales taxes.

The case: In its June opinion in South Dakota v. Wayfair, the Supreme Court overturned a 1992 ruling that restricted states’ ability to compel out-of-state internet business to collect their sales taxes.

The court though didn’t provide specific criteria for what would make a state’s online sales tax law constitutional.

The worry: Critics of the Supreme Court’s ruling are concerned that it will be burdensome for small online retailers, since there are thousands of state and local tax jurisdictions across the country.

The bill from Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) would prevent states from requiring remote sellers to collect sales taxes on purchases made before the Supreme Court’s ruling was issued. It also would only allow states to impose sales tax collection duties on remote sellers for purchases made after Jan. 1, 2019. It would also prevent states from requiring online retailers with less than $10 million in sales to collect their sales taxes until the states come up with a compact simplifying their sales-tax collection that’s approved by Congress.

Naomi Jagoda has the details.

NEXT WEEK’S NEWS, NOW

The House is out, but the Senate will be in session, which means we can expect limited action on the Hill. One thing we’ll be watching: The Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday on financial technology.
We’ll be looking for signs of progress in the U.S. trade talks with Canada and China, two major headaches for lawmakers who are eager for an end to a costly global trade war.

GOOD TO KNOW

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s regulator, Mel Watt, refused to cooperate with an independent review of allegations that he harassed a female subordinate, citing his status as a presidential appointee, according to Bloomberg.
Mary Daly, a labor economist who dropped out of high school, later earned a PhD from Syracuse University, joined the San Francisco Fed’s research department in 1996 and led it since 2017, was picked on Friday to be the bank’s next president after a five-month search, Reuters reports.
Tax receipts are down in nominal terms since the 2017 tax cuts took effect, but adjusted for inflation, they’re down quite a bit, according to Bloomberg.
Wells Fargo’s chief financial officer criticized the media on Friday, insinuating that journalists and news outlets are running negative headlines on the company because they are an “ad seller.” (For what it’s worth, reporters–including yours truly– have literally nothing to do with the ads their publications sell.)

ODDS AND ENDS

Tesla stock gained 12 percent on the week as CEO Elon Musk flew largely under the radar this week.
Congress passed a bill Thursday that would require senators to file campaign finance reports electronically through the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced Thursday that the location of his company’s second headquarters would be revealed by the end of the year.

RECAP THE WEEK WITH ON THE MONEY