Posted on 09/14/2009 4:19:42 AM PDT by SonOfDarkSkies
A full-blown trade row erupted between the US and China after Beijing accused Washington of “rampant protectionism” for imposing heavy duties on imported Chinese tyres and threatened action against imports of US poultry and vehicles.
Trade relations between two of the world’s biggest economies deteriorated after Barack Obama, US president, signed an order late on Friday to impose a new duty of 35 per cent on Chinese tyre imports on top of an existing 4 per cent tariff.
In his first big test on world trade since taking office in January, Mr Obama sided with America’s trade unions, which have complained that a “surge” in imports of Chinese-made tyres had caused 7,000 job losses among US factory workers.
Chen Deming, China’s minister of commerce, condemned the decision, saying that it “sends the wrong signal to the world” at a time when Washington and Beijing should be co-operating to deal with the worst economic and financial crisis in decades.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
Tire prices are going up!
Hard to choose a side here.
It would be a lot better recieved if he would slash taxes on American manufacturers at the same time.
Personally I’ll choose American made every time.
It may save some jobs in unionized tires plants but it kills jobs in chicken and vehicle plants...and raises prices all round, hence putting a downward pressure on the economy in general.
And that's the free market at work!
But Obama doesn't trust you to make the best decision for yourself. He wants to remove that choice from you and essentially require (through prohibitive taxation) that you buy a now more expensive American-made union product.
Obozo starts a trade war with China over 7,000 UNION jobs...............have you ever noted that “Zero” rhymes with “Nero”?
I’d rather by an American made union product that send money to communists who in turn send weapons that kill our troops.
““This is a grave act of trade protectionism,” Mr Chen said in a statement. “Not only does it violate WTO rules, it contravenes commitments the US government made at the [April] G20 financial summit.””
Obama LIED!?!? Wow, who would have thought.
Now I’m all for those 7000 jobs being back in America, but since they were union jobs, I’d imagine that the 35% increase in tariff could have been avoided if unions weren’t involved and made the tire business more competible.
Exactly, although I’m relunctant to rah rah “Cheaper goods is better for everybody!” because that is kind of what got us in this unemployment mess in the first place. Cheap is useless if you have $0.
“Obozo starts a trade war with China over 7,000 UNION jobs...............have you ever noted that “Zero” rhymes with “Nero”?”
Nothing like poking a stick in the eye of those financing all of you’re debt!!
That’s a good point. 7000 out of half a million a week isn’t much. Considering how screwed this country is if China says yanks the plug on imports to the US.
We have NO MANUFACTURING IN PLACE. It would take so long to get it going, we’d be in chaos by the time it even started.
Someone has to pay for Obama’s excesses! Ultimately it’s going to be the US consumer.
Obama would screw up a two car funeral.
Quality from American goods is no longer the standard that it used to be. Thanks to robots, and automated assembly, American goods have still been able to compete with Asian and European goods in regards to quality, but the added cost of American labor and government regulatory overkill, has driven prices way out of proportion.
Add protectionism to that quotient and it adds up to economic disaster and grossly inflated prices to American consumers.
I still don’t want to support a communist nation that supplys weapons that kill our soldiers.
Reagan imposed import tarrifs and gave tax breaks to American industries to spur American manufacturing.
heheh...he makes Jimmah Carter look like almost intelligent!
It has been tried countless times in this country, and it has triggered economic chaos every time. It is what helped make the great depression of the ‘30’s much greater.
Wait until China retaliates by banning American goods, raising their tariffs on what we sell them or they demand the early repayment of the loans they have given us.
And you are wrong that cheaper goods is what got us into this economic mess in the first place. Cheaper goods had absolutely NOTHNG to do with it.
The circumstances around what Reagan did has no comparison to what is happening now. Reagan imposed moderate tariffs on goods that had no previous tariff before, and those countries were charging massive tariffs on American goods. Reagan leveled the playing field. And those countries lowered their tariffs, which allowed American goods to be sold in those countries again.
The difference here is, China and the US had a trade agreement, and ObaMao violated it. He also has doubled the taxes on American industry and given the Unions special favors and treatment. This will only increase prices on both imports AND American goods.
Wages will go down for nonunion, Americans will be less able to afford to buy goods, and this nasty economic situation will become much worse as a result.
Frankly I don’t care about trade agreements with communists that were forced on us. And I especially don’t care about trade agreements with scum who are aiding the killing of our troops.
Tires made by people who poison our pets and their own children, who obviously have QC Issues, are not something I want in the left lane.
Cheaper goods are most certainly what got us into this. The loss of jobs is catastrophic. I’m not saying that protectionism is the answer, but punishing American companies while encouraging imports all for the Golden Calf of “Cheap stuff” is how many people can’t afford ANYTHING.
Chinese made signifies crap. I wouldn’t want my kids riding a bus rolling along on chinese made tires.
I’m a lot less concerned about the industrial unions than I am the ideologically pure unions like the SEIU , teacher’s union, and govt employees. The industrial unions have their problems to be sure but they aren’t teaching our children, handing medicine to our sick, or filing our official paperwork.
from the article:
The decision to impose extra tyre tariffs followed a petition by the United Steelworkers union, which represents workers at many US tyre factories.
The reason why you get chinese tire imports is overpaid, underworked UNION LABOR.
Not to mention the globalists chicom masters fund war against out troops but the globalists don’t have the stones to comment on that.
“It is what helped make the great depression of the ‘30’s much greater.”
I hear people making that claim often when trade barriers are brought up but I have yet to see the data to support this.
U.S. GDP went from $103 billion to $66 Billion from 1930 to 1934 (the effective dates of Smoot-Hawley since legislation neutered it by ‘34). However exports declined from $4.4 billion to $2.6 billion in that time period and imports declined from $4.1 billion to $2.2 billion. That is a net GDP change of 100 million dollars. A 100 million dollar GDP change due to export/import business compared to the $37 BILLION (caps intended) loss due to the great depression is tiny enough to be statistically insignificant.
The effect of Smoot-Hawley (if you can even say it with a straight face) on our GDP was 0.27%, not 2.7%, .27%. Now factor in the reality that global trade decreased overall by 66% due to the great depression and you come to realize that Smoot-Hawley effects were even less significant than the little significance they had before.
You can go to the BEA website (http://www.bea.gov/) to confirm my numbers if you like and if you come to the same conclusion as you did before, then it’s blind ideology and not analytical thinking. Here’s a convenient graph posted with the BEA data:
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c190/unlawflcombatnt/10-11-07grphGDP1929-38T-X.gif
China holds the trump card here with the debt service.
Wonder what rates the US will have to pay if China doesn’t buy bonds?
Timmy “TurboTax” Geithner please pick up the white courtesy telephone....
Unions are a greater threat than China
So does that mean you’re OK with China helping to kill our troops?
“That’s a blanket statement to say the least. What Reagan does, is what is best.
The circumstances around what Reagan did has no comparison to what is happening now. Reagan imposed moderate tariffs on goods that had no previous tariff before, and those countries were charging massive tariffs on American goods. Reagan leveled the playing field. And those countries lowered their tariffs, which allowed American goods to be sold in those countries again.
The difference here is, China and the US had a trade agreement, and ObaMao violated it. He also has doubled the taxes on American industry and given the Unions special favors and treatment. This will only increase prices on both imports AND American goods.
Wages will go down for nonunion, Americans will be less able to afford to buy goods, and this nasty economic situation will become much worse as a result.”
You are right, there is no comparison. What China does is MUCH worse. They subsidize the hell out of most of their industries which give them one hell of a competitive advantage. Similar to what we do with agriculture that pisses off the rest of the world. In addition, they keep their currency artifically low which makes it harder for our goods to compete in China. This has been going on a long time and new tariffs on China are nothing new, GW slapped tariffs on China in 2007 to try to get a handle on the unsustainable trade deficit we have with them. http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/30/news/economy/china_trade/index.htm
One last thing to consider regarding China and a full blown trade war with them. In 2008, we imported $337 billion in goods from them and they imported $69 billion of goods from us. So if we completely severed trading ties with them, they face a GDP loss of roughly 8% which would sting like a son of a bitch and cause serious political unrest. On the flip side, we face a loss of .5% GDP from lost exports to China....who do you think fears a trade war more?
we are not at war with China but a state of war with unions is at hand
un ion meddling in Iraq killed more Americans than arms from china.
Whatever it takes to convince yoursef. LOL
He would rather play Chicago politics with the unions than take care of America's current bankers (China). As always, it's Obama first, America last!
IMO, the correct way to handle this would have been to cut taxes on all corporations, in fact the ideal would be to eliminate Corporate income taxes altogether(later eliminate individual income taxes also)and to eliminate many of the business killing EPA regs. This would not only lower prices of American goods it would encourage new businesses to start up.
Merely slapping a huge tariff on China made goods, and tires are probably just a start, is not going to do anything but hurt our economy. I too will never buy a Chinese made tire, and try not to buy anything at all made in China, but to try to eliminate trade with them is cutting our own throats because of the items we export to them.
Eliminate corporate taxes, kill the EPA and keep only a few enviro laws. This will do more for our economy than any amount of tariffs ever would. As for the Union problem, believe it or not they are almost dead in this country(private ones I mean). We need to pass laws forbidding any government entity, including schools, fire and police, from having Unions but that is another story.
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