According to Levin, tariffs look good at first, but would ultimately destroy our steel production. Basically, while they would make our steel more competitively priced domestically, they would make it uncompetitive internationally and destroy our ability to export steel, thus opening the door for China to take a bigger share of the export business.
I do not understand economics enough to have an intelligent opinion on this.
But the main point, I think, is to get the issue of steel production, and Chinese vs. US steel, into public discourse. So in that regard it worked. I am thinking about it.
Using the Japanese model that exports are good for the nation, the congress returns to the manufacturer any and all taxes incurred in the production of the export. This immediately lowers the export cost of the item and makes it competitive on a global scale.
This was called many names in the seventies and eighties, government kickbacks, government subsidies, etc. All this policy does is level the import/export playing field. The result is that American products and the American worker (the most productive in the world) win. Workers keep jobs, company makes profits, welfare ends, pride in self and America grows, standard of living improves, THIS IS NOT GOOD FOR LIBS OR GLOBALISTS! MAGA!
We have faced unfair competition for decades with steel. Trump is doing the right thing.
Well, I did take a lot of economics and finance classes, and I did a lot of reading on free trade. In fact our debate team spent a whole year debating Reciprocal Free Trade (Pro and Con) - but that was long ago.
I know that there are cheaters in the world. I also know that the reciprocity is often lacking. In addition, I know that American Companies have to pay higher wages and incur more expense to keep our environment clean, compared to the competition.
So it is not a level playing field. In addition, China cheats. It’s no surprise to me if the steel is poor quality. I recall a certain dog food issue.
IIRC it was a melamine substance that they could put in the food so that quality control test for protein would pass.
They kept increasing the amount, until it was too much and dogs got sick and died.
So I would just ask the Great One if he would tell us the solution to how to get out of this problem, instead of just saying it doesn’t work.
Because there is no doubt to me that it is a National Security Issue. And we darn well needed it solved decades ago.