Posted on 04/21/2017 4:46:16 AM PDT by reaganaut1
...
Take steel, a Trump preoccupation. One reason for exceptions is that domestic manufacturers have limited capability to produce steel of certain strengths, thickness and flexibility. Most higher-strength steels used in thin-walled pipelines are made overseas. Retrofitting plants to produce a type of steel for one or two projects could delay construction and increase the cost. More U.S. workers would have to be retrained, which may not be practical in the short-term. So contractors often have no choice but to import foreign substitutes.
The American Petroleum Institute chronicled some of these supply challenges in its response to Mr. Trump’s earlier executive order on domestic sourcing for pipelines. On one pipeline project, only five domestic companies were capable of making a particular grade of steel, but none could produce the required quantity, accommodate the pipe diameters and meet the customer’s delivery schedule. Only one U.S. pipe mill bid on another project, and its bid was double that of two international suppliers. It also couldn’t meet technical and safety requirements.
Thanks to the North America Free Trade Agreement, Canadian and U.S. companies can integrate their supply chains. Many steel makers operate subsidiaries in both countries. American raw exports—e.g., iron ore from the Rust Belt and coal from Appalachia—made up 85% of Canadian steel inputs last year, and some were re-imported. Many U.S. pipe mills use Canadian steel slab and coil made from American scrap metal.
Mr. Trump says Nafta is “a disaster,” but the reality is that cross-border economic integration improves efficiency and reduces costs for federal contractors and taxpayers. It also supports jobs in U.S. manufacturing, coal and steel.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
And it’s worse to kill American jobs and manufacturing by allowing subsidized or protectionist products into our country. That cost is greater.
I don’t buy establishment economic theory. It is premised on globalism and not on sovereign nation states.
Even shipping commercial products to Canada via UPS and other carriers can be a nightmare for smaller businesses - but I have no doubt the big players get all the NAFTA benefits with no problem, as the treaty's authors intended. I know of several decent-sized firms in our industry who have simply stopped trying to sell to Canada because they can't find any way to make money doing so.
Meanwhile, we seem to let Canadian firms export whatever they want to the USA. In my experience, Canada is just as big a part of NAFTA's unfairness as Mexico. They have both rigged the system so they get all the benefits and the USA (outside of politically connected major players) gets none.
Why is it either or? Why can't we reduce regulations, taxes and have a 20% import tariff? What's wrong with doing it all? Nothing is wrong with that. What the USA is doing now is killing the middle class.
That is a classic globalist trick, if someone is in favor of tariffs then that means that they are against cutting regulations and taxes. That's BS. Where dos that disingenuous logic come from? It is sad to say this but WSJ uses Alynsky tactics.
Well stated and worth repeating.
Republicans ARE in the business of rebuilding America, not the NAFTA hogs who have taken our jobs.
For anyone who remembers what America accomplished in the Second World War, this article is bullcrap. We CAN and WILL be capable again of building ANYTHING we need in our country without having to appeal to some other country for help. The GLOBALIST want the US to have to be subordinate in many of the businesses in which we were once the leader and often the inventor. I am sick of this America CAN’T attitude that is NOT part of my mental process. I am a lifelong believer in AMERICA CAN and it’s high time the CAN DO mentality returned here.
Whatever tariffs are needed to buy a little time to let us catch up once the regulations imposed by Obama and others are lifted (being done by the Trump Adm. at this minute) should be approved by the citizens as well as the government. Level the playing field with tariffs and we WILL catch up and become the leader again. America has been bled dry by the idea that if it is CHEAPER it is better. I believe you get what you pay for! Building back OUR economy is worth a few pennies from me. In the long run, competition will take over the pricing.
The WSJ is just as Globalist as the NYT. Only the opinion page is a bit different.
Learn from history. Read about Smoot-Hawley. We had lower taxes and fewer regulations. The tariffs caused the great depression. Did you forget about that?
We need competition, not more taxes
That wasn’t my question.
Try to keep your eye on the ball.
bfl
Tariffs are the one constitutional power (unamended) that the federal government has to raise money, and up until the last century they were how the Federal Government was funded.
This tariffs are inherently evil is just dogmatic nonsense from the same people who brought you the idiotic “free” trade agreements that let despotic regimes extort our wealth.
This tired old free trade is inherently good in all ways dogma is dead, and these nonsense folks trying to keep pushing it are morons.
Every time you put up one of those posts that is intended to insult me, I refrain from making my regular FR contributions for another quarter.
You've been saving me a lot of money since last year, but I don't think that is going to work very well for the future of FreeRepublic. Quite frankly, I can't imagine why anyone who runs a commercial enterprise would keep people around who insult the "customers" on a regular basis.
Personally, I would think it would be extremely difficult for U.S. firms to sell almost anything north of the border for several reasons, including a small customer base up there, a weak Canadian currency, and low disposable income among most potential customers up there.
I see how it has suddenly depressed steel stocks in America, NOT!
The WSJ is leftist. Does that answer your question? Keep your eye upon the donut and not upon its hole.
Just because a publication is deemed to be ‘left’ ‘right’ or something else doesn’t in itself make what they write correct or incorrect. Either what the author is reporting is accurate or it is not. Easy enough question.
I’m not one of those who dismisses out of hand what someone says or thinks because I don’t agree with their worldview.
At any rate, I asked cba123 for clarification on what he said, not you. Let him answer for himself - if he can.
What's unacceptable are "targeted" tariffs which reward those companies which are the most skilled at playing the K Street game.
Ah yes the Smoot - Hawley lie/globlaist propaganda. It's you that needs to read.
Protectionism Didn't Cause the Great Depression
The debate over free trade is riddled with myth after myth. One that keeps resurfacing, no matter how many times it is discredited, is the idea that protectionism caused the Great Depression. One occasionally even hears that this same protectionism -- specifically, the Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930 -- was responsible in significant part for World War Two! This is nonsense dreamed up for propaganda purposes by free traders, and it can easily be debunked.
You Free Traitor™ need better stuff. Your old lies are tiresome.
Buzz off.
Americans need jobs not globalist bs like your selling.
Fair trade or tariffs, Trump gets it as do most who voted for him.
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