Posted on 03/02/2018 5:45:21 PM PST by jfd1776
Right. And sometimes they worked, and sometimes they didn’t. But when they didn’t, it was mostly because the POTUS at the time didn’t have the spine to keep them in place long enough to have the desired effect.
Well put. Though I wrote to someone earlier today in response to some “trade war” rhetoric that if there is to be a trade war, it is not due to tariffs, but to failed trade policies of prior administrations.
The dishonest practices were borne of trade agreements authorized here at home.
Shaking things up to be in a better negotiating position is just what’s needed, but I still dream of the swamp being drained...
The part I quoted is blatantly dishonest.
Steel will probably cost about 10% more considering the choices US and foreign providers and vendors have.
Tariffs are indeed tricky; punitive tariffs are usually well-deserved and beneficial overall.
A conservative supports tariffs that are needed for our security.
Europe 2016: Guardian report:
An EU action plan to help Europe’s struggling steel industry to be announced on Wednesday is expected to include a proposal to levy punitive tariffs on subsidised Chinese imports, a move the UK government will oppose. Axel Eggert, director general of the European Steel Association (Eurofer), said the situation for Europe’s steel industry was now critical. The UK is one of the hardest-hit countries, he added, with the strong pound and relatively high energy prices raising the cost of British steel.
The industry in Europe blames the crisis on state-owned steel companies in China – and to a lesser extent Russia and Belarus – that benefit from loans and subsidies that allow them to produce below cost. As a result, EU producers have not benefited from Europe’s rising demand for steel as the car industry and construction sectors rebound out of recession.L
Okay. I’d have been more politic had I known you were the author. It’s not easy to put one’s thoughts out in public
“relatively high energy prices “.. ahem!
This is an example of a problem that would have been (in 2016) better solved by addressing the energy costs than by a protective tariff.
Fake news.
I generally disagree with using Tariffs on one industry for the sole purpose of boosting jobs at home. There’s a trickle down of those costs that impact many many more jobs at home.
Targeted Tariffs may be needed from time to time but should only be used to “Send a message” to the target that we are serious and are willing to take steps to force them to end their “dumping” policies. This is always dangerous because it invites retaliation on other industries.
From what I understand US Steel producers already supply 70% of the market and China ranks 11th in steel imports into the US. If these Tariffs are targeted to the concern that China is subsidizing their steel producers and dumping “Low cost” products than it seems to me that the overall economic impact of these Tariffs would be negligible.
American consumers don’t buy steel directly from China. American manufactures buy the steel and they make stuff that consumers buy. Higher costs for their materials will have a negative impact on their ability to remain competitive as it would result in higher prices. I don’t know how big this impact will be.
In any event, if an American manufacturer is buying “Low cost” steel from China because there is no American manufacturer that can deliver the product and those prices?
I say, So what.
Good for them.
Who cares?
If the Chinese Government is subsidizing their steel producers and taking a loss in the process.... I say we should buy more from these idiots. They are a pin prick in the overall market.
At the end of the day, The Chinese work for US.
It’s my understanding that VAT applies to the increase in value of a product as it moves through various stages or production. Something like taxing the increase in value gained by going from pig iron to automobile body. The result is that the retail price of the item contains the VAT it attracted and no further taxes are required.
Stuff we make here should be cheaper because all that tax is not loaded into the final price. Companies pay tax on their profits, which can vary wildly. I don’t see any double standard. VAT is insidious because it is a hidden tax, thus easier to be raised without public outcry.
Fiscally, tariffs are not that great an idea because they go into government coffers, reducing pressure on the govt to reduce spending. Economically, it is a transfer of money from the consumer’s through higher prices, which stifle demand. As an instrument of trade policy, it will be interesting to see the fallout.
The Chinese Govt OWNS their steel and aluminum mills. Every time you buy a Chinese made item you are paying for another missile, aircraft, or ship aimed at America
Oh look an opinion from Illinois. Yes, Illinois the state where poor folks work to prop up their democrat overlords through egregious taxation and funnel the money to illegals and gang bangers.
The Chinese Govt OWNS their steel and aluminum mills. Every time you buy a Chinese made item you are paying for another missile, aircraft, or ship aimed at America
OK, so what?
They are producing products, steel in this case, at a LOSS.
Do a little math.
How can their sales of a product, at a loss, produce money to pay for those military expenses?
No matter how you slice it, they are going into debt whether they sell steel products or they don’t.
If you recall, we defeated the Soviets buy bankrupting them in an arms race.
Your assumptions are incorrect.
Pelham and Mr Smith get it. Thank you.
For the rest... let me put it this way:
You have a thousand people in a mall’s food court who need to eat. Every day, a hundred eat in the food court, and the other 900 go outside and drive to the restaurants and fast food places in the area.
This bugs the food court vendors, so they convince the town to put a 25% additional tax on the outside restaurants and fast food places. Effective this morning.
So the next morning all 1000 try to go to lunch at the food court, and 800 are turned away because the food court can’t handle all the business. they don’t have space, they don’t have staff, they don’t have ingredients. they’re out of food by 11:45am.
So those 800 now have to go to the restaurants and fast food places outside the mall, like usual. So that’s no change for them... except that now they’re being charged at 25% surcharge.
Now, over the long term, given enough time, maybe the mall could expand the food court and buy enough ingredients and hire enough staff to accommodate a thousand people...
...but that construction job will take a year or two. And in the meantime, these completely innocent 800 people have to pay 25% more to eat lunch. Through no fault of their own.
This is my objection to the 25% steel tariff that Trump announced. He doesn’t understand the economy at all. He doesn’t realize that the American steelmaking industry can’t accommodate a massive influx of new orders overnight... so his 25% tax is a massive and unfair penalty to this completely innocent group of customers.
This is the problem with a sudden imposition of a 25% tariff.
JFD
This advocates America Last globalism.
The tariff is simply a shot across the bow — a signal that Trump is serious and that the glory days of Non-Fair Trade practices by our competitors are being ended. And, by the way, Trump who has decades of successful international business practice DOES understand economics.
Unless this is very very very selective all it’s going to mean is that whatever that product is if made out of something being subjected to that tax.
It’s going to cost you more.
Plus the country affected will retaliate but putting taxes on stuff we send them and it will cost them more. Usually it hurts our Agri business. Creating inflation and slows down economic development.
It strikes me what Trump is looking at are those thousands of small manufacturers who’ve gone out of business because of the expansion of cheap Chinese imports (of which many were design knock offs) into this country. Remember the Obama quote on manufacturing.
But that was a slow gradual process when it began. Then accelerated by policy. So it should be when as we’re trying to bring small industry back.
Certain key manufacturing and re-manufacturing processes essential to defense should be targeted first and done on a very very limited basis. Because a wholesale approach would wreck our economy.
I don’t agree with your understanding of the VAT at all. The VAT is like a sales tax. The consumer pays the full tax. The producers pay their incremental portion along the production line but recoup their added contribution as it passes on down the line. Hence the consumer eventually pays it. The value added tax countries don’t have income taxes. They have the VAT. VAT countries levy the VAT on domestic and foreign goods equally.
The United workers and companies pay income taxes on goods they make before they are sold domestically or overseas.
When we buy a product from a VAT country it is sold to us without the VAT added on to the cost. When we sell our goods to a VAT country, they add on their VAT. In effect they are levying tariffs on us. If tariffs are so debilitating to the economy, explain how China has roared to the front of the line in world manufacturing?
Interesting analogy (makes the ‘national defense’ case though).
Match it up to this info https://www.trade.gov/steel/countries/pdfs/2016/annual/imports-us.pdf
and it might make a good column.
Seamless pipe.
Spent 30+ years in the mechanical contracting biz and was told in the 1980s by our pipe and fitting supplier that ASTM A53 ERW (pipe with a seam made by electric resistance welding) was more trustworthy in performance than true seamless pipe (ASTM A106). The mandrels used to pierce and form the bore for seamless pipe/tube were so worn they produced wide variations in wall thickness.
I think this has changed drastically for the better because of the furious business in the domestic oil patch spurring our mills to upgrade equipment.
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