Trump's Tariffs Worry A Small Steel City In Pennsylvania

https://www.npr.org/ ^ | ASMA KHALID | June 8, 20185:00 AM ET

[InterceptPoint]

Tariffs are disruptive to both sides of the trade.

Americans pay more for imports and that is going to hurt marginal enterprises who are heavily dependent on imported goods.

And of course the foreign exporter to the U.S is hurt by the reduction in demand for his products due to their higher price in the U.S.

So I’m against tariffs as a long term method for trying to make trade “more fair”. And ... I THINK THAT IS TRUMPS POSITION AS WELL. He is basically a free trade, may the best man win, advocate.

So I’m betting that Trump believes he can use tariffs to force us that direction.

But I could be wrong. It has happened.

[henkster]

The United States produces about 78 million tons of steel annually. We rank 4th in world production, having recently been passed by India. China produces 850 million tons of steel annually, over half of the world’s production (wrap your head around that number, if you will).

We consume about 40 million tons per year more than we produce. Seems to me that we need to produce more steel.

[henkster]

He knows what it is like to lose a steel mill job. This is the third mill he has worked at in recent years. One of the previous mills went bankrupt; the other moved most of its jobs to Mexico. Along the way, Almashy lost his home, his pension and his 401(k).

The mills he worked at were production mills. They closed as U.S. steel production has been in decline for many years. The "mill" he works at now is not a production mill, its a second-level processing mill.

The tariffs are designed to produce more steel domestically. The Russian company that owns his processing mill will either close, sell to another company, or start buying American steel. But even if it closes, if the product he makes has a demand, another American mill will have a job for him to pick up the slack.

[oincobx]

>>>The Russian company that owns his processing mill will either close, sell to another company, or start buying American steel. But even if it closes, if the product he makes has a demand, another American mill will have a job for him to pick up the slack.

Unless the Russian company closes the mill, produces the goods in Russia and exports them to America tariff free since the tariffs are on raw steel.

[trebb]

We have our share of folks on FR who also get stuck on the short-term and personal picture and who would rather we keep getting screwed to the tune of over $800 Billion a year as long as they don’t have to adapt to anything new - even if the longer term new stuff is heavily in their favor.