Posted on 09/11/2009 6:31:49 PM PDT by traumer
Obama decides to impose tariffs on Chinese tire imports for 3 years
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama has decided to slap punitive tariffs on all car and light truck tires entering the United States from China.
Obama had until Sept. 17 -- next week -- to accept, reject or modify a U.S. International Trade Commission ruling that a rising tide of Chinese tires into the U.S. hurts American producers. A powerful union, United Steelworkers, blames the increase for the loss of thousands of American jobs.
The federal trade panel recommended a 55 percent tariff in the first year, 45 percent in the second year and 35 percent in the third year. Obama settled on slightly lower penalties -- an extra 35 percent in the first year, 30 percent in the second and 25 percent in the third, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
just what the u.s.a. needs,
a trade war.
/s
the Chi-Coms won’t like that....
Helping out union rubber workers in Akron at our expense? That’s how I see it at first glance..
what a dunce.
Tariffs. Heck, they helped the last time we had a terrible recession, didn’t they?
paging smoot haley
We are setting off a trade war with the Country that has all our debt? What a doofus!
Got to keep the unions happy.
Soaring Chinese imports of American chicken meat already have been mentioned by Chinese state media as a possible target. Beijing also could sell some of its extensive holdings of U.S. Treasury debt, which could unsettle markets.
Yeah, this recession-thing is boring. Let's go for Depression!
Don’t tread on me
Yeah, this is really going to help the economy.
If the economy were still in a recession (/s), this would be very Smoot-Hawley-ish. But since the recovery is in full bloom, its not such a problem.
Well, he has managed to piss off almost all the non-muslem governments in the world, why not get the Chinese in a twit. Go for it Obamadumbass.
They could probably BUY the tire factory in USA with worthless US dollars... shut it down and then jack up the price of the tires from China...
Real smart decision there, Obama.
Obama names union adviser as manufacturing czar.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/industrials/article6824804.ece
The White House has named Ron Bloom, a top Treasury Department official and a senior member of President Obama’s auto industry taskforce, to head a drive to revitalize America’s hard-hit manufacturing sector.
Mr Bloom, a former United Steelworkers union adviser and an ex-investment banker, is to work across a number of government departments including Commerce, Treasury, Energy and Labor to develop new initiatives affecting the manufacturing sector, the White House said in a statement.
Here's how it will play out: 1. The Chinese will balk and stop buying our T-Bills 2. Obama will quietly back down (without fanfare). He may even give a speech spinning it as a victory. 3. The Union will express its displeasure by INCREASING their contributions to the Democratic Party next year. 4. From #1 on, the MSM will ignore the entire spectacle of incompetence.
LOL, where is the story about china saying it was going to default on derivatives. Start the count down!!
JOIN THE TAX REVOLT
STOP YOUR SPENDING
Don’t give to Washington
Don’t give it to Wall Street.
Don’t put it in the Local Bank
Take your extra cash and bury it in the “back yard”.
And above all tell your “career politicians” why you have stopped spending.
Tell Washington to stop their out of control spending.
Obeeee will shi# when China starts selling our T bonds back to US.
Why haven't they done that already? Because if they did we would print even more dollars to "monetize" the Chinese U.S. dollar holdings, which are in the trillions. That's what they're most afraid of, so they won't squawk too much about this tire decision.
Doubt me if you will, but China is absolutely the last country that we need to fear in a trade war. We can ruin them almost overnight. What would they do in response, embargo Wal-Mart?
One of the first things George W. Bush did when he was President was to sharply raise tariffs on steel, in order to protect the Steel Workers Union and US Steel.
And people still think that GWB was a great president. That’s rich.
I know! China is not going to be happy with ZERO. :)
But, isn’t mercantilism a clear winner for the US? What is the history of mercantilism?
They can ruin us too—now that they make most of our stuff. Its really not clear to me who has the upper hand.
But, like I said, I expect “The One” will back down before things really spin out of control.
"China strongly opposes this serious act of trade protectionism by the U.S.," the statement on the Ministry of Commerce Web site said. "This act not only violates the rules of the World Trade Organization but also violates the relevant commitments made by the U.S. government at the G-20 financial summit."
By taking "this unprecedented action, the Obama administration is now at odds with its own public statements about refraining from increasing tariffs above current levels," said Vic DeIorio, executive vice president, GITI Tire (U.S.), the largest manufacturer of tires in China.
So, they are squawking, but what can they do about it, except for complaining to the WTO? Their running giant trade surpluses with us and simply can't afford to rock the boat. They can't afford a trade war (although it's not at all clear that Obama has the cojones for one).
Also, they don't want their protectionist and dumping activities, which are substantial, to be publicized.
I didn't like that then.
A generation or so ago, they used to say that in times of trouble, the USA produced great leaders. That hasn't been true for a while, now. GWB was flawed in a lot of ways, but I think Gore and Kerry would have been worse. Obama is worse still, but the other available choices (Hillary early, McCain in the finals) were not of the order of say, Reagan, Kennedy, or Eisenhower.
Not many people think that. Although Reagan is held in high conservative regard, he created steel tariffs too. It's an ugly political calculation. Pennsylvania and West Virginia are swing states with steel jobs.
With emerging robotic manufacturing technologies, we will soon have issues with American factories that are highly automated decimating union factories on price. The geographic cost advantage of manufacturing in China will decline so manufacturing will slowly return to America, but the blue collar physical jobs are not coming back.
No question that Gore or Kerry would have been much worse than GWB. But Bush was almost like a one-man wrecking crew when it came to the Republican Party.
I think it is safe to say: No GWB would have meant no Obama as President. And Obama is really a Marxist, with the same political instincts and beliefs as Van Jones.
He had some serious problems. His instincts about protecting the country were good; but he had absolutely no sense of fiscal responsibility, and little to no interest in protecting the borders. He thought--or didn't think--that throwing tens of billions of dollars at Africa and speaking Spanish would buy him some love with the Black and Hispanic voting blocs. He couldn't speak clearly, which led to the impression that he couldn't think clearly. His lack of fiscal responsibility set the stage for Democratic spending on a hitherto unimaginable scale. He only weakly complained about CRA, Fannie, and Freddie, when he should have known a disaster was looming. And so on...
I'm not sure that GWB alone meant our destiny was Obama. A Democratic President was likely after a war period, but not such an overwhelming Democratic Congerss and Senate. Hillary was always there, and although we didn't know it, so was Obama. And, the Pubbies were, as you pointed out, totally split, and without strong, well-known leadership.
McCain was an amazingly strong candidate in terms of moderates and Independents liked him. Conservatives didn’t but they were going to vote Republican anyway.
“He couldn’t speak clearly, which led to the impression that he couldn’t think clearly?” You mean like this?:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ux3DKxxFoM
Yeah, but would he have been any good as a President, and would he have repaired or further damaged the GOP? I'd say he would have been at best mediocre--he has admittedly no interest in economics, and is very pro-amnesty. The GOP would have fallen into further disrepair if he was elected. Of course, there's something to be said for legislative gridlock with the President and the Legislature held by opposite parties.
There is no way in a million years that John McCain would have appointed Sotomayor to the Supreme Court or Van Jones as one of his tsars, so your question is a little bit silly.
Oh well, water under the bridge.
From a Whisper to a Shout: Tim Pawlenty in ‘12
And that's why I voted for Juan, although not enthusiastically.
So, they are squawking, but what can they do about it, except for complaining to the WTO?
If the Chinese will stop buying our T-Bills they will become UNEMPLOYED.... :o)
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