Posted on 03/08/2016 7:31:07 AM PST by reaganaut1
Donald Trump has pitched himself to voters as a proud protectionist, intent on punishing the Chinese companies that he says are hurting American workers. In his January meeting with the editorial board of the New York Times, he said he would impose a 45 percent tariff on all products imported from China.
Luckily, we don’t have to guess how such a tariff would impact the economy, because the Obama administration attempted a version of Trump’s idea seven years ago. It did not go well.
“It’s basically a real-world case study on what would happen if we imposed 35 percent tariffs on Chinese imports,” says Scott Lincicome, an international trade attorney and adjunct fellow at the Cato Institute. “In this case, we saw huge costs for consumers, gains by other foreign competitors, and almost no gains for American workers, even under the most generous of assumptions.”
By 2009, the United States was importing tires from China at a rate of about 50 million per year. The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial, and Service Workers International Union complained to the Obama administration that there was a “large, rapid, and continuing” increase in the number of Chinese-made tires entering American markets. In September of that year, Obama approved relief for domestic producers by increasing tariffs on most new tire imports for three years.
...
Economists Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Sean Lowry note that the number of Americans employed in tire manufacturing increased from 50,800 in September 2009 to 52,000 in September 2011. If all 1,200 jobs were attributed to the tariff — an exceedingly generous assumption — they calculate that Obama’s move could be credited with saving or creating $48 million of additional worker income and purchasing power.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
It does seem that a real lot of the "saved" money is going into someone else's pockets. Meanwhile, where it isn't going is the pockets of US workers.
Globalism is a race to the bottom for a very high percentage of world-wide population.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adeKc6dbsI0
Maybe if you heard it right from Trump, you might look at it from a different angle...
I am generally opposed to tariff’s; however, in a “tariff free paradise” we would have a sane, non-corrupt regulatory environment, we would not allow countries using slave labor, government subsidies and currency manipulation to bludgeon American workers into submission to the “cheap labor express”. Also, free trade does not require multi-thousand page trade agreements (NAFTA for example). We do not have free trade in any respect. We have managed trade stacked in favor of establishment clients. Lately, I haven’t heard any free traders objecting to tariff’s on cane sugar or sugar based ethanol imports. BTW, I have been an academic and industry economist for over 45 years, my opinion isn’t strictly based on emotion.
Make it here, hire Americans => NO TARIFF
The author sounds pro-foreign labor.
Wow....National Review are staffed with idiots.....Trumps political declarations are the beginning of negotiations.....
Hardline over-the-top stance...move slightly back for great concessions....sign deal....
They (Chinese, et al) have to believe he’ll either go back and get stronger tariffs or stick firm....
Agree. So what is Japan’s tires become a better deal?
As long as our balance of trade improves with bi-lateral negotiations .
Yep. We charge a tariff on Chinese goods, they retaliate by charging a tariff on US goods. Prices go up and consumers pay more for everything. Demand for products fall when prices rise and we loose more jobs.
Birdbrain China already heavily tariffs our exports. Quit spreading the Free Traitor™ manure.
Many free market advocates have made the point that trade deficits are not bad. Here are three articles by Walter E. Williams arguing that case.
Refute them if you will, but your post is essentially an ad hominem attack on National Review, instead of a reasoned response to a compelling argument. Let's remember that conservatives are supposed to be the reasonable ones. Leftists are the ones who respond with ad hominem attacks to arguments that they cannot rationally refute.
Trumps's comments on tariffs are almost always linked to discussions of negotiating more favorable trade deals for us. They are a bargaining chip.
National Review since the 1960s has tended to sneer at Conservatives who did not accede to the NR version of what was a politically correct (or acceptable to them) stand. For a long time, more complete Conservatives tolerated their "attitude, because they did a lot of good with come college aged moderates, who were tilting in our direction. Lately, there has seemed less justification for tolerating their attitude. On the subject of Trump they continue to miss the essential points to no good purpose.
My article, Trump: Metaphor For American Conservatism, frankly, is intended as a rebuke for their "reasoning."
Gee, must be a lotta young folks here.
Some of us grew up in an America that bought almost nothing from China. Or Japan, unless you counted cheap radios.
Oddly everything seemed to work. And it was affordable.
Houses, cars, radios, airplanes, even tires...
Now guys like you tell me that an enemy country that we have only been doing business with for 30 years is “indispensable” and that this is the “conservative” position.
We used to call it Trading With the Enemy and it was a serious Federal crime.
Funny how age colors your thoughts.
Buy Made in USA and eliminate the gloBULList cabal middle men.
Yes. Unlike the deliberate ignorance at NR, you clearly understand what is involved.
That is EXACTLY what this clown is doing
National Review notoriously has it in for Trump, which makes it difficult to trust anything they say about him.
Don’t agree.
Free trade is great as long as it is fair trade. Most of our trading ‘partners’ screw us - there is very little fair trade.
The US is a huge market and we do not really need external trade. We should raise tariffs with each country until we reach a balanced trade position with them. And those few countries that run deficits with us should do the same.
We cannot continue to run trade deficits. That is permanent wealth transfer.
I get that free markets are best. But we don’t have free markets. We have manipulated markets that we can no longer tolerate.
IBTSHL = In Before the Smoot-Hawley Lie.
NR discredited itself as an honest news source, no different from the NY Daily news. If you still wish to read their daily Trump hit piece feel free, I choose to expose them for what they are.
The depression started with the Smoot-Hawley tariffs and the resulting trade (tariff) wars. Tariffs, though they sound good, are no panacea.
Ways to help the working man.
Reduce the corporate income tax to a rate that is competitive in the world. That way US corporations can compete better.
Let unions fade away. Unions do not help the consumer. If you’re not competing for consumers, they will shop elsewhere.
Check job-killing environmental laws. Do they really help the environment? CO2 is necessary for plant life on earth, and the EPA calls it a pollutant. Check job-killing environmental laws again. Are they worth it?
Get rid of Obamacare as it kills jobs.
Stop attacking the 1%, 10% and so on. Private sector investment has always been a major source of our prosperity.
Get rid of Fannie Mae as their meddling in finance and housing gave us a financial and housing crisis and drove us into the great recession.
Stop illegal immigration. Americans should not have to compete against foreigners on US soil.
Reduce excessive regulation. This applies to more industries than you or I know. For one, allow more medical schools and American born doctors. Regulation is especially hard on small business. There are economies of scale in dealing with regulations and regulators. So it is the biggest companies that skate by as others go belly-up.
For black Americans especially - allow the minimum wage to fade away. It cuts off the bottom rungs of the ladder of success. It drives up teen, especially black teen, unemployment.
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