‘Business as Usual’ – Peace / Safety / Destruction / Economic Collapse

Jesus said the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah (Matthew 24:37-39). The thing about the days of Noah is that even in the midst of terrible apostasy, evil, violence, and rebellion against God, the people went ahead with their normal lives. They planted fields, they harvested crops, they built houses, they got married, and they had children. They went about business as usual, until the very day that Noah entered the ark, and then destruction came and took them all away

1 Thessalonians 5:3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

Revelation 13:16-17 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Business as Usual? Convergence of Economic Signs: South Korea seeks $350 mln trade sanctions against U.S. Budding South Korean – US Trade War.

Reuters•July 30, 2019

GENEVA, July 30 (Reuters) – South Korea is seeking an annual $350 million in trade sanctions against the United States in an Obama-era dispute over tariffs on steel pipes, it said in a World Trade Organization (WTO) filing published on Tuesday.

South Korea went to the WTO in 2014 to challenge U.S. tariffs levied on oil country tubular goods (OCTG), a type of steel piping used in the energy industry.

Washington said its tariffs aimed to stop South Korea exporting the product at unfairly cheap prices. After South Korea won a partial victory at the WTO, the United States had until July 12 to comply with that ruling.

South Korea said the United States had failed to do so and it was seeking sanctions equal to the level of trade harm done.

“Based on available data, this level is estimated at $350 million annually. This amount will be adjusted by applying the annual growth rate of the OCTG market of the United States,” it said in the sanctions request published by the WTO.

South Korea plans to impose the sanctions by putting tariffs on certain types of U.S. goods, which it said it would announce at a later date.

South Korea’s OCTG exports to the United States were worth $818 million in 2013, benefiting from a boom in the U.S. shale oil and gas industry.

South Korea has put the request for sanctions on the WTO agenda for Aug. 9, but the United States is likely to contest that, triggering a further round of legal wrangling.

The WTO system is designed to encourage parties to settle disagreements amicably, and the imposition of trade sanctions is a rare outcome.

But South Korea has previously used the system to get a sanctions award.

In February it won the right to impose annual sanctions worth $85 million on Washington after a dispute about washing machines.