If we could do it I am all for throwing a scare into the ChiComs by making it clear that on any given day we could decide that they’ve just made their last shipment to WalMart.
It would also no doubt earn Obama a lot of populist brownie points from people who have lost jobs in manufacturing.
Unfortunately you need to do some strategic planning if you are going to cut off a specific source country at the knees, and we are woefully unprepared for that. We should have been encouraging retailers to diversify their supply lines for years, and preparing to at least save some of the infrastructure needed for domestic manufacturing. We have not done this, and hence I think the ChiComs know that we would be bluffing.
“If we could do it I am all for throwing a scare into the ChiComs by making it clear that on any given day we could decide that they’ve just made their last shipment to WalMart.”
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No. No. No. Too much talking. Just do it.
Have the US Coast Guard start turning back container ships. Don’t talk about it. Do it.
When negotiating one does not talk about walking out of the store if the price doesn’t come down. That’s the most unlikely tactic to succeed.
One instead heads firmly, and some small degree of just plain apathy, for the exit.
It is then, and (only) then, that the price comes down...
Or if it doesn’t, it never was going to.
Either way, walking out is the best approach. Always.