Posted on 03/13/2011 3:14:37 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
What that means is their own citizens will no longer need to pay top dollar to (comparatively) inefficient domestic producers ~ which is how poor folks get new clothes at Wal-Mart ~ they are imported from low cost producers.
China is a special case. It's a very broad spectrum producer so you can go there and buy EVERYTHING you might need at a very low price. At the same time the Chinese have few needs for higher cost or technologically advanced items so they do not reciprocate the buying of things from us, or the other countries. The Chinese also buy lots of basic commodities, so only commodity producing nations get reciprocal buys for the things they purchase from China.
The cold hard facts are that Chinese produce ordinary goods so cheaply that Americans can purchase them AND pay a tariff and still beat the domestic price, and to a considerable degree, the price of those nations where we are involved in free trade arrangements.
At the same time unemployment here will skyrocket ~ crowds of unemployed Americans will wander from city to city like hungry locusts searching for handouts to tide them over.
“the tea party and its intellectual limitations”. Kind of like the limitations of our TOTUS I ask?
That's so correct, FRiend. The symbiotic relationship between the unions and the 'RATS is a good part of why America has lost her economic might.
Right to work should be the law all across America. I think these two maps illustrate what happens when union coercion is abolished. In states without forced unionism, the Palin ticket was victorious. Where union thuggery reigns, the 'RAT usurper prevailed.
muawiyah, the Chinese are not interested in free trade. They're crooks.
American companies have many vexing trade issues with China, where inexpensive labor, government subsidies and predatory pricing can prove lethal to competitors. Companies like Mid Continent turn to the government's International Trade Commission when they see evidence of "dumping" — exporting products at artificially low prices in hopes of killing the competition. If companies prove allegations of dumping or unfair subsidies, the Commerce Department orders duties to bring prices on imported goods in line with the cost of U.S.-made goods.
But Chinese manufacturers routinely evade the duties by shipping through third countries in schemes that Customs officials often are slow to unravel. That translates to Chinese products flowing illegally into U.S. markets, American jobs lost and hundreds of millions of dollars in uncollected duties.
From mid-2008 through December, Customs and Border Protection — part of the Homeland Security Department — received some 300 complaints about evasion of duties, according to congressional sources. But a relatively modest $13 million was assessed in fraud penalties last year, with just $117,000 collected so far.
Companies in Missouri join effort to limit Chinese 'dumping' -- 13 March 2011
Chinese Rare Earth Monopoly a Full-Circle Object Lesson. The best example of the damage dumping can bring in a commodity market is what's happening today in the rare earth business. In the 1980s and 1990s, the domestic rare earth business was squeezed out of existence by a combination of dumping by China and stranglehold by the US EPA. Twenty years later, China has a 95% share monopoly position in these minerals that are key not only to technology manufacture but to expansion of the green manufacturing agenda. Only when the Chinese used their rare earth trade as a political threat in 2010 did the West recognize the risk of not fighting back in a trade war that was declared on the US decades ago.
Chinese Drill Pipe Imports: Dumping and Subsidy Tariffs Confirmed-- 7 January 2011
Shoddy Chinese-made consumer products may be welcome by budget concious, cash-strapped Wal-Mart shoppers, but in the larger arena they're not competing. They're waging a subversive economic war based upon fraud and deception.
Bingo. The issue is going to become even more pressing now that many service sector jobs are being offshored. There are very few jobs that require actual physical presence in the country where the product or service is sold. The future of the American worker seems to be “want fries with that?” Oops, I meant “Quieres papas fritas con esa?”
That was my first thought too. The other thing is the original anti-tariff tea dumping that gave the group its name (from the Heritage Foundation):
In 1773, American colonists dumped 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor. Their unwillingness to pay duties on imported tea made them our country’s original free traders.
I believe in free trade. Free trade, however, is a two way street. Some trade, in other words, is less free that other trade... We don’t have access to the Chinese market, for instance. Not like they have access to ours. They own much of our debt, artificially manipulate their currency on world markets to make it appear superior to the US Dollar, and sell us defective and poisonous products at prices that undercut our markets made with slave labor in virtual concentration camps by political prisoners.
Free trade, when not governed by moral principles, is merciless. And while I PREFER Laissez Faire as compared to Socialism, the United States shouldn’t see the choice of “free trade” and “free market capitalism” as the absence of moral restraint on economic policy. We are not a merciless people — but a virtuous people. For that reason, our virtues should guide our FREE trade policy. There is no contradiction between a free and a moral trade.
As a watch manufacturer in Switzerland, I experienced the almost complete destruction of the Swiss watch industry by a disparity in salary between 1970 Switzerland and Japan. Seiko was able to produce excellent watches all hand made with salaries that were 1/10 of the Swiss salaries at the time. The market was a world market, so any trade restrictions or protectionist measures didn’t help. Since that time, three factors brought the Swiss watch industry back to dominance. First manufacturing went from manual to robotics for the low end watches, and the watch became an ornament, that could be changed like a pair of shoes or a tie (Swatch). The second factor was that Japanese labor became more and more expensive and the playing field was equalized. Thirdly, high end Swiss watches were sold as pieces of jewlery, and to own a Rolex or a Patek Phillip became a status symbol, similar to owning a Mercedes Benz.
For the United States, the main market is foremost the domestic market, and secondly the world market. In order to be able to compete with countries such as China, Taiwan and Malaysia there must be a mechanism to counteract the disparity in salary. Normally this would be done by a gradual appreciation of the monetary currency, witgh other words, as the above mentioned countries develop, their currency would appreciate versus the dollar. The problem is, the leadership and economic advisers in those countries are very smart and tag their currency with the US dollar. If the dollar goes down, then the value of the renminbi goes down proportionally. The only way to fix that problem is to impose tarifs on all products manufactured in those countries, until their currency is left to float naturally on the market. Imagine if every product that is made in China were taxed 50 %. Within a short period of time, the United States economy would be comeptitive again and multinational companies would refrain from sending jobs offshore.
Why has this not happened? Why has the congress or the executive branch not imposed any tarifs? Several reasons can named, but the mantra that is immediately brought forth is: “Do you want our products to be double the price” and “this would lead to an economic war”. The answer to these two arguments is simple. In case of the first, if the prices were double, then people would buy less, yet unemployment would be greatly decreased, and the deficit could be reduced with the increased income. The for the second argument, we already are in a protracted economic war, and China is winning. Mao used to say “international trade is war with peaceful means”.
What forces are keeping the USA from implementing tarifs?
1. Making Ronald Reagan a political messiah. Ronald Reagan was a staunch free trader. Since Ronald Reagan is the heart and soul of the modern Republican party, everybody is aping his free trade stance. But what happened to trust but verify, Ronald? Yes free trade is optimal, but if the other side is cheating, then you must compensate. That is never done, because everybody, including the George W. Bush, Rush Limbaugh and many other mainstream republicans have swallowed Ronald Reagan’s free trade hook, and they do not truly critically review it. Only a few voices, notably Ross Perrot and Pat Buchanan spoke up for fair trade and trade barriers. But they were marginalized and laughed at. Unfortunately, public opinion often goes with the laughers!Finally there are two main foes of tariffs that work behind the scenzes to defeat
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