Posted on 08/18/2020 4:06:53 AM PDT by Kaslin
It seems obvious that President Donald Trump is going to need a blockbuster economic revival if he hopes to win reelection in November.
Part of the equation to achieve that spring back is to resist trade protectionist temptations. But will he?
While everyone likes the sentiment of bringing manufacturing jobs back to America, trade barriers have never been very effective. What has been effective for Trump, as more than 1 million blue-collar jobs have come back to these shores, has been a competitiveness brought on by cutting taxes, slashing regulations and so on.
But protectionism against our friendly trading partners has started to rear its ugly head.
Here are three stark examples. First, steel and aluminum tariffs keep rising, and these have added to the costs of everything from beer to cars to building a new home. The cost of these tariffs, mostly against Canada, have been estimated by the Peterson Institute to cost consumers of $900,000 -- multiple times the salaries of the workers. Now beer and soft drink producers are claiming a shortage of cans, which will drive up prices at the grocery store.
Another emerging multibillion-dollar trade brawl involves mattresses and whether to allow their importation. Led by Leggett & Platt, Corsicana Mattress Co. and Elite Comfort Solutions, domestic companies are trying to manipulate U.S. trade laws and unfairly protect a dominant market share. It's a case study in corporate welfare under the guise of "protecting jobs."
On March 31, this cadre of manufacturers filed multiple petitions alleging that the importation of mattresses from strong U.S. allies and trading partners in Southeast Asia is causing material injury to the domestic mattress industry. It's a baseless claim, not to mention one laced with irony, as many of the petitioners, such as Tempur-Sealy, have expanded and watched their sales soar by nearly 20% in the current conditions.
If these companies succeed in securing the trade barriers, mattress distributors and retailers that import materials from partner countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam would see oppressive tariffs placed on their goods. This will eliminate thousands of domestic jobs, shrink margins for retailers and significantly raise prices for consumers.
A recent survey published in CivicScience found "71% of Americans indicated they are at least somewhat concerned about the impact of recent trade policies and tariffs on their household expenses in the month of April."
The mattress manufacturers have tried this ruse before. Many of these mattress manufacturers have paid hundreds of millions of dollars in heavy fines for attempts at price fixing and violating antitrust laws in the past.
The U.S. Department of Justice recently raised the issue of higher costs and asked trade officials to "take the competitive effects of the ongoing pandemic and its likely aftermath -- including potential effects on mattress prices for hospitals and other consumers and whether domestic supply can meet current demand -- into account when assessing the extent to which domestic industry may be harmed by the conduct alleged in this case."
Finally, there is the case of phosphate fertilizers. Mosaic Co., a domestic supplier, is requesting taxes on imported phosphate fertilizer of 71.5% for imports from Morocco and 31% for imports from Russia in response to alleged foreign subsidies.
The American Farm Bureau Federation warns, "If these duties are imposed, production costs to farmers across the country for corn, soybeans, cotton, wheat and other crops will increase for the next planting season." The Agricultural Retailers Association adds, "Granting this petition will very likely limit fertilizer supply options for America's farmers and ranchers and increase their input costs."
In each of these cases, consumers and some domestic producers get shafted and pay the price -- when Americans are already squeezed financially. This all comes at a time when China should be the target, given Beijing's rising threat to our economic and national security.
Even Trump conceded that "this is not the moment to engage in new trade fights with allies" in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal.
In this time of hopefully swift economic recovery, the Trump administration would be wise to resist special-interest trade protection rackets and concentrate on rebuilding American jobs through tax cuts and deregulation -- which worked before and will work again.
So manufacturing back to Communist China and jobs to India as most FreeTraitors want?
No thank you.
Blah, blah, blah.
Another corporate globalist heard from.
Raise tariffs so that foreigners pay for the privilege of selling goods here.
Lower personal income taxes in parallel with tariff increases.
If tariffs are barriers to trade, so are reductions in after-tax purchasing power by Americans.
Trump is literally, seriously, the ONLY reasom there is still a Republican presence in our leadership.
There are a couple now, who are starting to look like they could take the role in four years.
But Trump literally, saved the entire GOP.
They were poised to literally give away, our futures.
Single-handedly.
Guess what Lil’ Steven, a “v” shaped recovery has been in effect for five months now and holding China’s feet to the fire is doing just fine. In fact more please.
SO...owners of multi-nationals can get richer while the middle class loses more manufacturing jobs?
Whatever you do don’t take the label off the mattress.
What election did Stephen Moore win?
I am familiar with him, he is a multi-national Wall Street type. He could not care less how tightly the middle class tits are being squeezed.
Once “ 2-weeks to flatten the curve “ became indefinite, open-ended shutdowns of the economy at the whim of idiot/tyrannical governors, any chance of a ‘V-shaped recovery’ evaporated.
“Part of the equation to achieve that spring back is to resist trade protectionist temptations.”
Barbara Streisand.
The problem with “free trade” is that we buy everything from them while they buy nothing from us.
The trade is all in one direction. The sucking sound you here is the global leaches taking advantage of USA consumers while protecting their own economic labor. I am looking at you China, Mexico, France, Germany.
The trade imbalance has been going on for decades.
Doesn’t make sense to me, either.
And there are some on FR who think that’s a wonderful thing.
You are wrong. While there is an imbalance, the trade is not all in one direction with any of the countries you noted
The Presidents actions are to increase American exports and the related jobs
Moore would come across as less of a shill if he would recognize how vulnerable his simple globalist ideology has made the US and if he would acknowledge such national defense needs and effective counters where two of his three examples—the metals and fertilizer—are concerned.
Biden political campaign spamming this board again.
They still don't see the handwriting on the wall. If we didn't have Trump, the RINO would be extinct. Marxist rioting is the thing that is saving their sorry sad asses.
Shows how push polling works. I doubt this one is in the top hundred of any thinking persons concerns right now.
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