“Mr. President please tariff oil imports NOW!!!”
Why? It isn’t going to change anything as we are slowly weaning off imported oil to begin with and especially from the middle east where this thread was investigating.
From 2005 to 2015, the United States’ reliance on petroleum imports fell from 60% to 25% of total consumption, while exports increased by over 300%. Since 2015, imports have remained fairly steady at approximately 10 million barrels per day, but exports have continued to increase, from 4.7 million barrels per day in 2015 to 7.6 million barrels per day in early-mid-2018 and have increased since then. The Energy Information Administration projects that U.S. import reliance for oil will continue to fall over the coming decade and our exports will thrive.
We are currently no longer locked on the oil for food program set up by Clinton in 1995 of which we purchased, roughly, 3% of our oil from the middle east. It ended as of 2006. But oil is a commodity, it is a tool. It is used to pacify the middle eastern countries so they won’t start wars and keep the peace. If they can’t eat, they will go next door looking for food. And we’re back into a civil war like Syria, Kosovo, and maybe larger. The contribution of the agricultural sector to the overall economy ranges from about 3.2 percent in Saudi Arabia of their GDP. But their staple crops are basically wheat and barley for edibles. A comparison is with the US whose share of the GDP is 5.4% with agriculture, food, and related industries contributing over $2 trillion even in our inflated economy.
Best to continue to feed them with oil purchases than send troops into the poison atmospheres and RPG’s like Afghanistan and Syria that we have diplomatic commitments to. And if we pull out, we will have another Vietnam result with the addition of weapons in Turkey and other places.
It isn’t that simple.
rwood