Opuscula Business 101: Negotiate From position of strength

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN at least 8 years, the U.S. is negotiating from a position of strength.

This is not a Democrat party position, at least since Jimmy Carter. GOP candidates have been hardly more aggressive in negotiations with America’s “friends” and non-friends (“enemy” is not PC until January 20, 2017.)

Now comes the brash, blunt businessman who has successfully negotiated contacts at home and abroad.

Boeing, which makes billions as a defense contractor, is seen by Trump as padding its bill for a new (modified?) 747 – an old design. Boeing would have been better served by offering POTUS a new 777X. Trump COULD, as Obama did, go outside the U.S. for his transportation needs. Airbus has an equally large offering, the A350 series compares nicely with Boeing’s options.

(For his 2011-2012 campaign, Obama bought two $1.1 million (each) motor homes made in Canada, ignoring a competitive American)-made motor home; otherwise he campaigned from AF1 on the taxpayers’ dollar – as other politicos seeking re-election have done.)

CHINESE leaders are piqued off because Trump -– still only “president elect” — had a telephone conversation with Taiwan’s lady president. The Chinese consider Taiwan part if China. Being a despotic government that violates its citizens — and guests — human rights it considered the call was a slap in the face.

Well it should be. China has been manipulating its currency against the dollar,

It routinely sends shoddy, dangerous materials (dry wall, tires, toys, clothing) to the U.S. and sends fish fed on feces for our tables.

One of the issues with tilapia farmed in China is that smaller, independent farmers face economic pressures to use animal manure rather than more expensive commercial feed for farmed fish, a practice which contaminates water and makes the fish more susceptible to spreading foodborne diseases. A July 2009 report from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the safety of food imports from China noted that in that country "Fish are often raised in ponds where they feed on waste from poultry and livestock" and cited an increased rate of FDA rejection of fish imports from China between 2000 and 2008.

Similarly, an October 2012 Bloomberg article observed that the FDA had rejected 820 Chinese seafood shipments since 2007, including 187 that contained tilapia, and furnished examples of the practice of using manure as feed for farmed fish in China.

Talking to Taiwan’s president might have upset the Chinese leadership, but it put them on notice that, like Boeing, there is a new negotiator in town; one that has a long and successful history at the bargaining table.