Wilbur Ross Hits Chinese Cabinet Manufacturers With $4.4 Billion Countervailing Duty

Conservative Treehouse ^ | August 7, 2019 | sundance

[BeauBo]

Go Wilburine! U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has slapped a whopping $4.4 billion countervailing duty on Chinese cabinet manufacturers... U.S. Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits from importers of the wooden cabinets and vanities from China based on subsidy rates of as much as 229%...

China has no substantive tools in their economic armory to defend against President Trump in a one-on-one battle. And Trump keeps landing body blows, the latest was the seizure of all Venezuelan assets. The number one investor in Venezuela is China (by a mile). China owns 49% of PDVSA Venezuela’s state owned oil company as an example.

The labeling of China as a currency manipulator opens the door to even more sanctions, and Beijing has no measurable way to respond.

[BeauBo]

I think we will go to 25% across the board, but targeted actions like this will protect the industries/products that China is currently in the process of stealing.

They have been rolling through our economy for the last quarter century, stealing one after another, simply by subsidizing the dumping of cheap products like this, until the American manufacturers go bankrupt, or abandon that market. Then they let the price go back up, and move on with new targets.

[max americana]

Navarro is the most anti-China of them all. Even “uber hawk” Bolton went limp-wrist on sanctions on China in the last round...

[billyboy15]

“Say hello to my lil’ friends”

[EagleUSA]

Maybe someday the ChiComs will learn that lying, cheating and stealing are not the best policies. Just maybe.

[heshtesh]

Sure looks like a SuperStar team to me!

[Tenacious 1]

I have to display my ignorance a bit and ask a question.

So China manipulated their own currency to devalue it against the dollar. I assume this is to hold a price point from it’s own manufacturers to offset the taxes and market price increase here in the USA. But I’m struggling to grasp how that doesn’t also hurt China’s economy.

If they artificially devalue their money, doesn’t it also increase the cost of international commodities (like energy) for their investors and citizens? It seems like that would do more damage to their economy than just losing sales in one industry.

I’m sure I am missing something or am confused. A smarter FReeper is welcome to explain the China Strategy to me.

[semimojo]

Again, a fine move if we want to hurt China but it will probably be a net negative for the US consumer.

“Many of the companies who filed this case import products from China themselves and won’t bring back jobs to the U.S. if duties are imposed on imports, but will instead shift more of their production to already established supply chains in countries like Vietnam and Mexico,” the American Coalition of Cabinet Distributors said in a statement.

[Brian Griffin]

There are many American/Chinese joint partnerships in China that China might fully buy out using Chinese-held Treasury bonds.

We need to be careful about seizures.

[ConservativeMind]

So companies that don’t produce anything are complaining and they still won’t produce anything?

[Fhios]

American Consumer comes 2nd, right after American workers. You’ll do well to remember that.

[pepsi_junkie]

They’ll find out on the morning after election day next year. If Trump loses they will say “lying and cheating worked again! Hooray for our strategic process!”

[BeauBo]

If the substantial money that China must invest to subsidize a dumping strategy (for the few years that it takes) doesn’t pay off, they will be dis-incentivized to keep spending that money.

How else to stop the systematic targeted theft of whole industries?

It is simply enforcing long standing laws, that have been neutered by Chinese corruption and influence operations.

[central_va]

North Carolina small towns were economically devastated when the furniture manufactures were off shored. Devastated.

When you look at it like this it REALLY is a physical war.

Textile mills and furniture factories relocated overseas or moved south of the American border through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The empty shells and abandoned buildings remain in various states of decay

[semimojo]

American Consumer comes 2nd, right after American workers. You’ll do well to remember that.

And how does having these jobs shift from China to Vietnam and Mexico help the American worker?

[central_va]

Yes, my globalist FRiend, it is a slow process to reeducate Patriots and wake them up. Uniform across the board tariffs are coming which WILL make repatriation of industry a reality..

[central_va]

Free Traitors™ think we can fix all the economic destruction they caused in 2 years.....

[Cobra64]

What do you think about America’s sacrifices during WWII?

[semimojo]

Uniform across the board tariffs are coming which WILL make repatriation of industry a reality..

England's going to be bummed.

[catnipman]

one thing about cabinetry is that it’s so low tech, that it’s relatively easy to fire up U.S. domestic production ... the next thing they should do is jack up the tariffs on chinese sheetrock and synthetic quartz countertops ...

[Black Agnes]

IIRC, these companies were given tax incentives to literally pack up all the equipment, pack it on trains & ship to ports & thence to China.

Why did we do that?

(how much did it cost china to buy our elected officials to pass that legislation?)