Asset against the axis: battles on several fronts

Diaz-Canel and Castro rivals, surrounded by the United States, Trump with Xi Jinping. Pompeo with Lavrov this week. Khamenei, leader of Iran since 1989. Photos: Afp and Dpa.

That's George W. Bush who coined the phrase "Axis of Evil" in his speech on the state of the Union in 2002 prefer to Iraq, Iran and North Korea, to which Libya, Syria and Cuba were subsequently added.

In the same line, Donald Trump has three today (Iran, North Korea and Cuba, he retired last year from Syria), and adds the two weight rivals who generally badociate with the previous ones: China and Russia.

With the first, the candidacy was launched since the presidential campaign and had triggered a trade war declared last year, which had been stopped by the armistice of Buenos Aires, within the framework of the G20. But The tycoon's fury picked up again last week by announcing new obstacles to Chinese imports.

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With Russia, supposed partner in the shadow of his 2016 election victory (he has just been exonerated at the door of Russia), its support for Cuba and Venezuela, the focus of the most recent conflict, presents differences.

China Last week The US president put more pressure on the war with the Asian giant by stating that he wanted to eliminate the trade deficit between the two countries. "The United States loses between $ 600,000 and $ 800,000 a year in trade," he said from his Twitter account. "And with China, we are losing $ 500 billion, I'm sorry, but it will not happen anymore!", Stressed Trump. The president ends: according to the Census of the Office of Economic Analysis, the country of North America has a $ 419 billion deficit with China (374.1 billion euros).

And to reverse it, threatens to increase the tariffs approved on imports of Chinese products from 10% to 25%: this would reduce the difference of $ 200 million from a service.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said last weekend that "trade negotiations between China and the United States are entering the final phase.". In this context, what Trump could call a coup to achieve certain points of the agreement drafted by the US Secretary of Commerce, Robert Lighthizer, to try to solve the problems between the two countries.

But no. President Trump is fighting on all fronts: he claimed this week at the Federal Reserve (Fed) a "quantitative expansion" and a "reduction of interest rates" grow on the same level as China.

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"Our Federal Reserve has increased its interest rates unceasingly despite the fact that inflation is very low and instituted a high dose of quantitative contraction," the president criticized.

At present, the monetary authority has set interest rates between 2.25% and 2.50%.

"We are doing well with GDP growth of 3.2%, but with our inflation rate as low as possible, we could set big records. and, at the same time, reduce our debt, " Trump topped who is already dreaming of reelection and wants to focus on the economic recovery during his term.

Cuba The hardening of the relationship with Cuba is related to the support of the island to the regimes of Venezuela and Nicaragua.
This week, National Security Adviser John Bolton directly accused agents from Cuba and Russia of supporting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Miguel Diaz-Canel, Cuban President, responded via Twitter accusing the United States of spreading "lies and slander" to "justify his collapse in Venezuela."

The European Union and Canada felt that tougher sanctions imposed by the United States in Havana raised fears of companies investing in the island.at a time when the Cuban economy is going through a difficult period due to the Venezuelan crisis: its demands have been formulated by the World Trade Organization (WTO). The community bloc is the largest investor in the island and the largest trading partner. It represents 35% of Havana 's trade and exports, which represent some 2,200 million euros to Cuba, compared with 400 million imports of Cuban products.

(This may interest you: Colombia vs Venezuela: Maduro has a new rival)

Obviously that to Trump does not care. The only one who respects this offer is Vladimir Putin, with whom he met by phone last week.

Washington accused Moscow of ending Maduro's resignation and to have frustrated the "Freedom operation" to warn the Venezuelan president of the political maneuvers of Chavez's top officials and the opposition to overthrow him, which would have led the Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino, among others, to back down.

(You may be interested: Coup in Venezuela: Maduro closes the ranks)

And the foreign ministers of the two powers will face each other next week. Mike Pompeo and Sergey Lavrov agreed this week at a brief meeting in Finland to discuss the Venezuelan issue. The United States is pressuring the Kremlin to let go of the Chavez regime. "Maduro is a renegade, not a leader," Pompeo told Lavrov, who claimed that "a military intervention in Venezuela would be catastrophic and unjustified".

The State Secretary and the Chancellor of Russia They also badyzed the situation in North Korea as a result of the two countries' contacts with the communist regime led by Kim Jong Un in order to advance towards the denuclearization and pacification of the Korean peninsula.

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