Homeless don’t want to work?

Report: 13,000 of Chicago’s homeless in 2017 had jobs

• 8:29 am
• July 7, 2019

• ILLINOIS NEWS FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHICAGO (AP) — A new study that challenges stereotypes about homeless people estimates that in 2017, around 18,000 of Chicago’s homeless had graduated college and more than 13,000 were employed.

The report, released Tuesday by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, examined census data from that year.

The Chicago Tribune reports that data shows about 86,000 people experienced homelessness in Chicago at some point that year.

Supporters say Chicago’s homeless population is considerably higher than the annual point-in-time tally the city conducts since the count doesn’t include people who are “doubled up,” or residing, in other people’s homes.

The latest point-in-time tally, from January 2018, revealed more than 5,000 people living in shelters or in places not suitable for human occupancy. The coalition indicates four out of five homeless people are “doubled up.”

___

Information from: Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com

Trump’s undocumented former employees call on president to spare them from deportation

The Independent•July 4, 2019

871 Comments

More than 20 undocumented workers previously employed by President Donald Trump’s company have requested a meeting with their former boss to discuss how to update the country’s immigration system and to ask for protection from deportation.

The Wednesday letter to the White House – from former groundskeepers, maids and kitchen staffers at the Trump Organisation’s golf courses – also asks the president to recall their years of service and “do the right thing” for them and others who are in the country unlawfully.

“We are modest people who represent the dreams of the 11 million undocumented men, women and children who live and work in this country,” the group wrote in the letter, signed by 21 people and obtained by The Washington Post.

“We love America and want to talk to you about helping to give us a chance to become legal.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Over the past year, dozens of people who worked for the Trump Organisation without legal documents have spoken publicly about their employment with the president’s company.

Many said they were motivated to come forward because of Mr Trump’s rhetoric about migrants from Mexico and Central America. Some have said their Trump Organisation supervisors knew about their immigration status but hired them anyway.

Trump Organisation officials have said that these workers used fake documents to get their jobs and that the company fired them once they found out.

In recent months, The Washington Post has detailed the Trump Organisation’s reliance on undocumented labour over many years.

Immigrant labour helped build some of his golf courses and staffed jobs in housekeeping, maintenance and food preparation well into Mr Trump’s presidency. The Washington Post has interviewed 40 people who worked for Mr Trump without legal status.

Since going public, these former workers have visited Congress, protested outside Trump rallies and called on federal and state authorities to investigate the company’s hiring and payment practices.

Mr Trump has made blocking illegal immigration central to his presidency. But he has largely avoided discussing his own company’s record of hiring undocumented workers.

This year, after revelations that the Trump Organisation was relying on undocumented labour, the company fired at least 20 workers at golf courses in New York and New Jersey.

The Trump Organisation also adopted E-Verify, the government’s voluntary online system for checking whether an employee is eligible to work in the United States.

The New York Attorney General’s Office has been looking into allegations of wage theft by the Trump Organisation at the company’s golf courses in Westchester and Dutchess counties. The company has denied the allegations.

In the White House letter, the former employees stressed their many years of close personal service to the Trump family.

Among those who signed the letter were maids at the Trump golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, who cleaned Trump’s clothes and made his bed. Others worked personally for the president’s sons at their homes and a New York hunting lodge.

“You know many of us and will recall how hard we worked for you, your family and your golf clubs,” the undocumented workers wrote to Mr Trump. “...You know we are hard workers and that we are not criminals or seeking a free ride in America.

“We all pay our taxes, love our faith and our family, and simply want to find a place for ourselves to make America even better,” the letter added.

“...We believe you have a heart and will do the right thing to find a home for us here in America so that we can step out of the shadows and not deport us and our friends and family.”

Jose Gabriel Juarez, who spent a decade as a waiter at the Trump National Golf Club Westchester, said in an interview that he signed the letter because he wanted Mr Trump to acknowledge the service of so many people who are still living precariously in the United States.

Mr Juarez said he tries to wake up each day with “happiness and faith, but you always think about the possibility of deportation”.

If Trump accepted the invitation for a meeting, Mr Juarez said he would express his gratitude to the president.

“I would say, ‘Thank you very much for having given me work for 10 years in one of the most beautiful golf clubs in Westchester, New York,’ “ he said.

“And I would ask him for the opportunity to be here legally in this country.”

Washington Post

Above is from:  https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-undocumented-former-employees-call-151137756.html

Trump administration reverses course on census citizenship question

(CNN)

By Ariane de Vogue, Gregory Wallace and Jeremy Diamond, CNN Updated 7:40 PM ET, Wed July 3, 2019

In a major reversal following a presidential tweet, Justice Department lawyers told a federal judge in Maryland on Wednesday that they have been told to try to add a question on citizenship to the 2020 census in a way that's consistent with a Supreme Court ruling.

The change comes after President Donald Trump tweeted earlier on Wednesday that "we are absolutely moving forward, as we must" on the citizenship question, despite statements Tuesday from both his Department of Justice and his secretary of commerce that the administration was printing the census without the question.

"We at the Department of Justice have been instructed to examine whether there is a path forward consistent with the Supreme Court's decision that would allow us to include the citizenship question on the census," Jody Hunt, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Division, told the judge Wednesday afternoon.

Government attorneys painted a picture of disarray within the administration, even as the Census Bureau moves ahead with printing the survey without the controversial question asking, "Is this person a citizen of the United States?"

The Supreme Court blocked, for now, the question from being on the census in a decision last week, which hinged on Chief Justice John Roberts concluding there was sufficient reason for concern about why the administration wanted to ask the question. Roberts had not ruled out that the Department of Commerce could come back with a new rationale.

Hunt told Judge George Hazel in a teleconference that if the administration finds a viable path to include the question on the decennial survey, it plans to return to the Supreme Court for "instructions ... to simplify and expedite the remaining litigation and provide clarity to the process going forward."

The judge requested more information from the Justice Department by 2 p.m Friday.

In a separate case in New York on Wednesday, the Justice Department attorney told a federal judge that while the department had told counsel on Tuesday that the questionnaire would not include a question about respondents' citizenship status, it has shifted its position.

"The Departments of Justice and Commerce have now been asked to reevaluate all available options following the Supreme Court's decision and whether the Supreme Court's decision would allow for a new decision to include the citizenship question on the 2020 decennial census," Hunt said.

Hazel told attorneys that he has a Twitter account and follows Trump. He said the tweet Wednesday morning "directly contradicted the position" the Justice Department articulated on Tuesday.

Government misses its own census printing deadline as Trump hints at delay over citizenship question

Sudden shift

In the Wednesday hearing, another Justice Department attorney told the judge that the administration has instructed printing to move forward without the citizenship question, but also acknowledged the situation is fluid.

The attorney, Joshua Gardner, acknowledged he was now backing away from his statements made only a day earlier, when he suggested that a final decision had been made.

Gardner said that he had "confirmed that the Census Bureau is continuing with the process of printing the questionnaire without a citizenship question, and that process has not stopped," but he said the President's tweet Wednesday morning could change the government's ultimate position.

"The tweet this morning was the first I had heard of the President's position on this issue, just like the plaintiffs and your honor," Gardener told the judge.

"I do not have a deeper understanding of what that means at this juncture other than what the President has tweeted," he said, adding, "I am doing my absolute best to figure out what is going on."

The plaintiffs challenging the question in the Maryland court were highly critical of the government's change in position.

"This administration's flagrant disregard of court orders is appalling, and will result in the same kind of misinformation that leads our communities to be reluctant to participate in the Census, at a time when the Census Bureau should be actively encouraging everyone's full participation," said Denise Hulett, the lead counsel in the case for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

When the government asked for an extension until Monday, the judge refused and questioned whether the Justice Department was speaking for the President.

"If you were Facebook and an attorney for Facebook told me one thing, and then I read a press release from Mark Zuckerberg telling me something else, I would be demanding that Mark Zuckerberg appear in court with you the next time because I would be saying I don't think you speak for your client anymore,"Hazel said.

After the lashing, Gardner told the judge he'd been with the Justice Department for 16 years "through multiple administrations" and that he had "always endeavored to be as candid as possible with the court."

Tweet sends administration scrambling

The news comes after Trump's tweet sent administration officials scrambling.

A White House official said earlier Wednesday afternoon that there were ongoing discussions at the White House about finding a path forward for the government to continue to press its case on getting the citizenship question on the census, even though printing is now underway without the question.

This official suggested the printing process and Trump's vow to keep fighting this issue are not necessarily mutually exclusive -- or at least that administration lawyers are trying to figure out how to square the two.

The discussions and confusion at the White House came a day after a Justice Department Attorney, Kate Bailey, notified plaintiffs challenging the question via email that she could "confirm that the decision has been made to print the 2020 Decennial Census questionnaire without a citizenship question, and that the printer has been instructed to begin the printing process."

The Department of Justice later confirmed the question would not be on the census. And Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross issued a statement saying, "The Census Bureau has started the process of printing the decennial questionnaires without the question" even though he said he disagreed with the Supreme Court ruling.

In addition, during a hearing Tuesday evening, a federal judge asked the department whether the decision was "final" and the Department of Justice said that it was, according to plaintiff's lawyers participating in the call.

On Tuesday night, another lawyer involved in a separate case, expressed some skepticism that the administration's position could change.

"We're happy about the development but want to make sure it is thorough and complete," said Thomas Saenz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He told CNN on Tuesday he was concerned that the administration might find other ways to undermine the count.

A fluid situation

The government had initially said that Monday was the deadline to begin printing forms. As late as Monday afternoon, however, the administration asked Hazel for more time to decide how it would proceed following the Supreme Court decision. The outcome was uncertain until Tuesday because the Supreme Court ruling last week that blocked the question from appearing for the time being had left the door open for the administration to present a new rationale.

On the one hand, it is true that the government was facing a daunting timeline. A Census official had testified at trial that extending the deadline to October under the current budget would "impair the Census Bureau's ability to timely administer the 2020 census" and that it would only be feasible with "exceptional resources."

On top of that, there were collateral legal actions set to occur over the summer in two lower courts that were sure to drag out. US District Court Judge Jesse M. Furman of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York was considering a sanctions motion against the government after a trove of documents surfaced from the files of a deceased redistricting expert raising the question of whether the decision was politically motivated. And Hazel, based on those same files, was set to order deposition and new discovery aimed at learning more about the government's rationale for adding the question.

Still, the decision came as a surprise.

Another thing that could have been in play was the testimony of Census Bureau officials that there were other ways to get citizenship data. In a memorandum, Census Bureau official John Abowd recommended that Commerce use existing administrative records — from the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service — instead of adding the question. Ross ultimately chose to do both: Ask the question and compile the administrative records. In May, Abowd said the bureau was operating with the understanding that the administrative records needed to be assembled regardless of whether the courts allowed the question to be included.

In addition, there is another survey that is sent to one out of 36 households that asks the question.

This story has been updated to reflect news developments on Wednesday evening

Above is from: https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/03/politics/census-question-trump-tweet/index.html?utm_source=CNN-News-Alerts&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Trump+administration+reverses+course+on+census+citizenship+questionb313d19a-7278-4f8f-85d8-492cdea12273&utm_term=9ceacdff-2d34-893f-fba5-2b1cfaf0a0ce&m=8a776225d84f290294e4274317e366a5&p=2019-07-0322:03

U.A.E. Splits With U.S. Over Blame for Oil Tanker Attack in May

Bloomberg•June 26, 2019

712 Comments

(Bloomberg) -- The United Arab Emirates appeared to distance itself from U.S. claims that pinned attacks on oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz on Iran.

“Honestly we can’t point the blame at any country because we don’t have evidence,” Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan said on Wednesday in Moscow. “If there is a country that has the evidence, then I’m convinced that the international community will listen to it. But we need to make sure the evidence is precise and convincing.”

While an investigation by the U.A.E., Norway and Saudi Arabia concluded that a “state actor” was most likely behind the incident in May, no nation was singled out. Still, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton has said that Iran was almost certainly responsible.

The attack predated the pair of strikes in the Gulf of Oman this month that the U.S. has also blamed on Iran. Vessels were targeted off the U.A.E. coast in May as they made their way toward the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s foremost oil shipping chokepoint.

Iran’s foreign minister has labeled Bolton and the leaders of the U.A.E., Israel and Saudi Arabia as the “B-team” that’s prodding President Donald Trump into going to war with the Islamic Republic. Trump slapped new sanctions on Tehran this week.

With tensions on the rise across the Middle East, the U.A.E.’s top diplomat tried to change tack after talks in Moscow with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

“We are in a region that is tense and important for the world and we don’t want more tension,” said Sheikh Abdullah.

--With assistance from Zainab Fattah and Verity Ratcliffe.

To contact the reporter on this story: Abbas Al Lawati in Dubai at aallawati6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shaji Mathew at shajimathew@bloomberg.net, Paul Abelsky, Mark Williams

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

President’s “character”questioned in liquor license renewal

Citing Trump’s ‘character,’ D.C. residents challenge city to revoke his hotel’s liquor license

By Katie Mettler

June 14

It’s a saga made for our time — and it may be a little closer to resolution (or not, as protracted political drama is also very much of our time).

Last year, a group of concerned citizens in Washington wrote the D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Board to protest the renewal of a liquor license for President Trump’s downtown property, the Trump International Hotel.

The reason: D.C. law states that license applicants must be of “good character and generally fit for the responsibilities of licensure.”

President Trump does not satisfy those requirements, the group argued.

But the board ultimately declined to take up the case because the group of District residents filed their petition after the Trump hotel had already been granted its liquor license.

In the spring, the protesting group of eight clergy and judges, many of whom are D.C. residents, decided to refile their petition — this time when the Trump hotel’s liquor license was up for renewal before the ABC board.

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“Donald Trump, the true and actual owner of the Trump International Hotel, is not a person of good character,” the residents wrote in their complaint, citing in detail what they characterize as “certain lies he has told, his involvement in relevant fraudulent and other activity demonstrating his lack of integrity, and his refusal to abide by the law or to stop associating with known criminals.”

Lawyers for the hotel appealed and asked the board to dismiss the case on technical grounds.

But this time, the board denied the hotel’s request — and this week issued a ruling that clears the way for the complaint to move to mediation or a hearing before the board.

[Read the ABC Board's order here.]

“We’re excited that we’re closer to a hearing on the merits,” said D.C. lawyer Joshua Levy, who is representing the group of protesters.

“The ruling is a victory for the rule of law,” Levy said. “The board correctly rejected Trump’s attempt to silence the public and be held above the law. In the District of Columbia, no one is above the law.”

A representative from the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Attorneys for the hotel had argued in their appeal that the protest petition was not legitimate because the group had not appealed on the basis of “appropriateness,” rather citing D.C. official code.

In the board’s ruling dated June 12, it argued that the group’s protest was legitimate because those seeking a liquor license renewal are required by D.C. law to demonstrate — to the board’s satisfaction — that they are of “good character.”

The board wrote that the Trump representatives’ “interpretation contradicts the intent of the legislature, which considered character challenges a fundamental part of the District’s alcohol laws.”

The board also dismissed the assertion made by Trump’s lawyers that the group could not legally challenge the president in his individual capacity as owner, rather than those whose names appear directly on the license application. The board cited a previous ruling and wrote that it has consistently held that “the mere creation of a corporate entity does not shield the individuals holding an interest in a corporation or limited liability company from having their records as owners scrutinized by the Board.”

The board granted partial summary judgment to Trump on the issue of whether the protesting group can retroactively add “appropriateness factors” to their petition, such as whether the alleged behavior of the applicant might cause “crime, violence, or accidents in the future.”

The board ruled that it would not hold any further hearings on the “good character” challenge until the protesting residents disclosed their addresses to the Trump representatives. Only D.C. residents and property owners may issue a protest by group, and all parties have the right to ensure that statute is being followed in this case, the board wrote.

Each party has 10 days to contest the board’s decision issued this week.

If there are no further challenges, the board will move to set dates for mediation. If that does not resolve the complaint, the case could move to a hearing before the alcohol board.

Above is from:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2019/06/14/citing-trumps-character-dc-residents-challenge-city-revoke-his-hotels-liquor-license/?utm_term=.9a49c814a575

The Trump International Hotel, which opened while President Trump was campaigning for president in 2016, is just blocks from the White House. | Gabriella Demczuk/Getty Images

Trump hotel's liquor license safe for now

By LORRAINE WOELLERT

09/12/2018 01:53 PM EDT

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Citing a technicality, a Washington, D.C., board on Wednesday refused to review a liquor license held by Trump International Hotel to determine whether the building's owner, President Donald Trump, meets the "good character" test required to serve alcohol in the city.

The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board questioned the timing of a complaint against the hotel, saying a character review couldn't be conducted until the hotel applies to renew its license in March.

The decision was unanimous, with two members of the seven-member board not in attendance.

A lawyer for the complainants said they would appeal.

"The board made a mistake," said Joshua Levy, a partner with Cunningham Levy Muse. "This is not the enforcement of the law that we expected."

WHITE HOUSE

Trump doesn’t drink booze. D.C. weighs whether to let him serve it.

By LORRAINE WOELLERT

The board's investigators did discover an instance of the hotel serving alcohol to an underage patron, a violation it will review later this month.

The liquor license review was prompted by city residents who complained that the owner of the Trump International Hotel fails the “good character” test required of anyone who wants to sell wine, beer or spirits in the city.

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In their grievance to the city board, the group presented a litany of what it says are Trump’s moral failures, citing lying, alleged fraud and racist comments.

The hotel, which opened while Trump was campaigning for president in 2016, is just blocks from the White House and has become a hangout for administration aides and Trump loyalists. The president himself, who does not drink, has appeared at major fundraisers there, and his campaign has spent thousands of dollars on events.

Seven complainants — including a federal judge, a former chair of the White House Council on Faith and Neighborhood Partnerships, and several religious leaders — brought the challenge against the hotel. Their effort is being funded by Jerry Hirsch, an Arizona Republican who is chairman of the nonprofit Make Integrity Great Again.

In a filing last week, the group cited as additional evidence of Trump’s wrongdoing a guilty plea entered by his former lawyer Michael Cohen admitting to criminal charges and a New York Times op-ed piece written by an unnamed official who said members of the administration are working to curb what they see as the president’s worst impulses.

“Mr. Trump adds to the evidence of his lack of ‘good character’ daily,” the complainants wrote last week. “A senior member of the current administration made a stunning admission about Mr. Trump that stands at the heart of the complaint submitted to the board: ‘the root of the problem is his amorality.’”

Above is from:  https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/12/trump-hotels-liquor-license-816455

Report that North Korean dictator killed his nuclear negotiator

North Korea executes envoy in a purge after failed U.S. summit: media

By Hyonhee Shin and Joyce Lee,Reuters 14 hours ago

• 
  
Kim Hyok Chol, North Korea's special representative for U.S. affairs, leaves the Government Guesthouse in Hanoi

By Hyonhee Shin and Joyce Lee

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea executed its nuclear envoy to the United States as part of a purge of officials who steered negotiations for a failed summit between leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, a South Korean newspaper said on Friday.

Kim Hyok Chol was executed in March at Mirim Airport in Pyongyang, along with four foreign ministry officials after they were charged with spying for the United States, the Chosun Ilbo reported, citing an unidentified source with knowledge of the situation.

"He was accused of spying for the United States for poorly reporting on the negotiations without properly grasping U.S. intentions," the source was quoted as saying.

The February summit in Vietnam's capital Hanoi, the second between Kim and Trump, failed to reach a deal because of conflicts over U.S. calls for complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and North Korean demands for sanctions relief.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm the report. Previously, North Korean officials have been executed or purged only to reappear with a new title, according to media reports.

A spokeswoman at South Korea's Unification Ministry declined to comment. An official at the presidential Blue House in Seoul said it was inappropriate to comment on an unverified report.

The United States is attempting to check on the reports of the envoy's execution, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during his visit to Berlin on Friday

When asked about reports of a "shakeup" of Kim Jong Un's negotiating team in a May 5 interview with ABC News, Pompeo said it did appear that his future counterpart would be somebody else "but we don't know that for sure."

A diplomatic source told Reuters there were signs Kim Hyok Chol and other officials were punished, but there was no evidence they were executed and they may have been sent to a labor camp for re-education.

The newspaper reported that other officials had been punished, but not executed.

Kim Yong Chol, Kim Jong Un's right-hand man and the counterpart to Pompeo before the Hanoi summit, had been sent to a labor and reeducation camp in Jagang Province near the Chinese border, the Chosun Ilbo reported.

Officials who worked with Kim Yong Chol have been out of the public eye since the summit, while seasoned diplomats who appeared to have been sidelined, including vice foreign minister Choe Son Hui, were seen returning to the spotlight.

A South Korean lawmaker told Reuters in April that Kim Yong Chol had been removed from a key party post.

RISE AND FALL

Kim Hyok Chol was seen as a rising star when he was appointed to spearhead working-level talks with U.S. nuclear envoy Stephen Biegun weeks before the Hanoi summit.

However, little was known about his expertise or his role in the talks. The four executed alongside him included diplomats working on relations with Vietnam, the Chosun report said.

"This is a man who might provide some tactical advice to the leader but is otherwise a message bearer with little negotiating or policymaking latitude," said Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert at the Washington-based Stimson Center.

"Instead, they put in someone like Kim Hyok Chol to insulate Choe Son Hui and more substantive diplomatic personnel, to a certain degree he is expendable and his superiors are not."

The penalized members of Kim Yong Chol's team included Kim Song Hye, who led the preparations, and Sin Hye Yong, a newly elevated interpreter for the Hanoi summit. They were said to have been detained in a camp for political prisoners, the newspaper said.

The diplomatic source said Kim Song Hye's punishment seemed inevitable because she was a "prime author" of the North's plan to secure sanctions relief in return for dismantling the Yongbyon main nuclear complex.

The idea was rejected by the United States which demanded a comprehensive roadmap for denuclearization.

Kim Song Hye had also worked closely with Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader's younger sister and a senior party official whom Kim Song Hye accompanied to South Korea for the Winter Olympics last year.

Kim Yo Jong was also lying low, the paper reported, citing an unidentified South Korean government official.

Madden, however, said Kim Yo Jong's status was unchanged as Kim Jong Un's top aide, citing her attendance at key party meetings in April and appearance in state media reports.

Sin Hye Yong was charged with making critical interpretation mistakes that included missing an unspecified "last-minute offer" the North Korean leader supposedly made as Trump was about to walk out, Chosun reported.

'TWO-FACED'

North Korea's official party mouthpiece Rodong Sinmun warned on Thursday that "two-faced" officials would face the "stern judgment of the revolution".

"It is an anti-Party, anti-revolutionary act to pretend to be revering the leader in front of him when you actually dream of something else," it said in a commentary.

Hong Min, a senior fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said it was possible Kim Hyok Chol and other officials faced some penalty but further verification was needed.

"Executing or completely removing people like him would send a very bad signal to the United States because he was the public face of the talks and it could indicate they are negating all they have discussed," Hong said.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee and Hyonhee Shin; Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in BERLIN and Hyunjoo Jin in SEOUL; Editing by Paul Tait, Lincoln Feast and Darren Schuettler)

Above is from:  https://www.yahoo.com/news/north-koreas-kim-jong-un-230019893.html

WTO may rule against Trump auto tariff

Adjudicator says any security defense of U.S. auto tariffs at WTO 'very difficult'

Tom Miles

4 MIN READ

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States will find it “very difficult” to defend President’s Donald Trump’s proposed car tariff against any challenge at the World Trade Organization, a veteran trade adjudicator who has ruled on a related case told Reuters.

FILE PHOTO: Workers assemble vehicles on the assembly line of the SEAT car factory in Martorell, near Barcelona, Spain, October 31, 2018. REUTERS/Albert Gea/File Photo

Trump said this month that some imported vehicles and parts pose a “national security” threat, justifying tariffs under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, the basis for tariffs put on steel and aluminum last year.

The car tariff of up to 25 percent, applying to vehicles and components from everywhere else in the world, would be automatically illegal were it not for a WTO exception granted in cases of national security.

Until 2016, using the national security clause was taboo because trade experts feared it could become a common way to get around the rules and erect the kind of trade barriers the WTO was designed to remove.

But it has arisen in disputes between Russia and Ukraine and between Qatar and several of its neighbors, as well as in Trump’s tariffs.

In a rare comment by a senior trade arbitrator, Georges Abi-Saab, a former chairman of the WTO’s Appellate Body, the world’s top trade court, said he doubted the national security argument for cars would withstand a legal challenge.

“Frankly I think, if I were a lawyer (working on the case) I wouldn’t accept to take such a case – not only on moral aspects, but I think it would be very difficult to make it prevail,” he said.

The car tariffs have not yet materialized, since Trump has given the European Union, Japan and other major exporters 180 days to negotiate. A legal challenge from any of the parties cannot be considered until tariffs are active.

ACTUAL WAR

Last month Abi-Saab chaired a dispute panel which issued the only ruling in WTO history on the national security question, settling the dispute in favor of Russia, which was found to have a bona fide legal defense against Ukraine because of an armed conflict recognized by the United Nations.

But the ruling set a high bar for national security claims, saying they needed to be based “objectively” on an emergency in international relations, and the less a claim had to do with actual war, the harder it would be to make the case.

“I would say strategic raw materials may be easier to prove than a final product like a car,” Abi-Saab said. “The further you get away from it (armed conflict and the breakdown of law and civil order), the more you have to prove how this relates to national security.”

That contrasts with the U.S. view that national security claims are “self-judging” and WTO adjudicators must automatically dismiss any challenge.

WTO rulings do not set formal precedents, but adjudicators routinely refer back to previous cases, so the Russia-Ukraine ruling could influence the handling of ongoing challenges to the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs by China, Turkey, Switzerland, Norway, the EU and India.

They reject U.S. claims that protecting metals output is needed for “defense requirements and critical infrastructure”.

Two other complainants, Canada and Mexico, lifted their opposition this month after reaching a deal with Trump.

Above is from:  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-autos-wto/adjudicator-says-any-security-defense-of-u-s-auto-tariffs-at-wto-very-difficult-idUSKCN1SX1I7