Posted on 03/08/2018 10:37:31 AM PST by reaganaut1
The European Union on Wednesday released its target list of retaliatory tariffs on American exports worth $3.5 billion if President Trump pushes ahead with his steel and aluminum tariffs. This is how Mr. Trump’s trade irruptions could imperil American exporters and become a destructive spiral.
The EU is acting with some restraint—for now—in crafting a narrow list of items on which to impose tariffs, including bourbon, orange juice, corn, ladders and motor boats. None are vital to European industry, but they are politically shrewd in targeting exports from states represented by Republicans on Capitol Hill. The point is to punish voters in states Mr. Trump carried in 2016 and Republicans running for re-election this year. Too bad Europe can’t impose a tariff on Wilbur Ross and Peter Navarro, the architects of this fiasco.
The danger for the EU is that this will inspire Mr. Trump to indulge his schoolyard impulses and hit back at the EU again. “The European Union has been particularly tough on the United States. They make it almost impossible for us to do business with them,” Mr. Trump said at a White House presser with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven. He’s also threatened tariffs on European cars.
Since White House aide Gary Cohn soon won’t be around the White House to explain how unconnected to reality this is, we’ll try. It is not “almost impossible” for American companies to do business in Europe. The bilateral trading relationship between the U.S. and the combined EU states is the largest in the world. In 2016 American companies sold goods worth $270 billion in the EU and services worth $231 billion. America has a bilateral trade deficit in goods with the EU—$147 billion in 2016—but a services surplus of $55 billion.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Free Republic has its own cadre of scum too.
You nailed it. And there is no such thing as “free trade” with communist, slave, socialist cultures. NONE. Trade with evil countries promotes only evil. Capitalism has to be done by moral people—for without virtue, there can be no freedom. Evil capitalists/monopolists are destroying freedom and virtue which used to be embedded in our curricula but the communist John Dewey destroyed our “educational” system for a Marxist, brainwashing, “group-non-think” one. Virtue is being destroyed in our children intentionally with Lukacs type explicit “sex ed” and promotion of perversions to very young children. Get your children out of public skools.
We need tariffs to protect our vital industries that have been decimated by evil, communist and socialist countries dumping their polluted, subsidized products, so they can kill our industries here, which will evolve into our slavery, and the “NWO” where all Christians are silenced or killed—no free will, no natural rights from God-—no private property rights.
We are flooded with polluted, plastic crap-—making the masses so happy for cheap cr*p and meaningless lives-—just materialists, who spend time with cr*p literally, instead of with family and friends and educating themselves (true purpose of leisure).
It is EASY to take the cheap, toxic road....always, but it will result in complete slavery (vice). A true Justice system only promotes virtue-—so trading with evil, socialist/communist people would be unconstitutional anyhow.
Notice nothing has been said about the EU suit against Microsoft, Intel, Google, Apple for the sole purpose of “Protectionism”
Other than the Ford GT350, I can’t think of an American car I’d like to buy.
Nor a EU car for that matter.
Government “support” (read “force”) does not ensure a strong economy and over time - look at Russia. The only thriving areas of China are the areas like Shanghai set aside for the free marketplace. The more a government interferes in the marketplace the weaker the economy. We don’t have to do the same stupid stuff. There are plenty of markets for high quality, low price products.
In the meantime, focus on the REAL causes of American economic malaise: THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, not the EU, China, or the Man in the Moon.
The MAIN reason for our failure to compete in the marketplace are fedral acts to implement
-federally protected unions,
-high taxes,
-regulations,
-minimum wage,
-subsidies, and
-a weak dollar
all converging to “bind and gag” American business and drive industry from our shores. Kill these mostly unconstitutional and boneheaded acts and policies and you’ve gone a long way to fixing the problem.
The "experts" were telling us it's a good thing, and we will all have nice clean "service industry" jobs instead of dirty manufacturing jobs. They sold it to Americans, and we believed them. Now we have no manufacturing, and the service jobs are being grabbed by illegals or outsourced (call centers in India etc.).
:)
This is a hard one for me. I am ideologically a free trader, but I find it unpalatable that the Euro weenies would target Trump states. I am also no fan of the globalists at the Wall Street Journal. If what Trump is doing is just a little bit of levelling the playing field, then I think nothing too bad could come of it.
I know that trade wars are destructive and counter productive, but I think the US still has the upper hand here.
You sum up my main opposition to serious tariffs. It is not done to enrich consumers or workers, but for the bottom line of those “close” to the halls of government.
>> The MAIN reason for our failure to compete in the marketplace are federally protected unions, high taxes, regulations, minimum wage, subsidies, and a weak dollar all converging to “bind and gag” American business and drive industry from our shores <<
Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes to all that.
BUT:
Merely alleviating all those problems — so as to make the USA more competitive in the world marketplace — will not eliminate the so-called “trade deficit.”
Now to be sure, if we could fix most or all of your problems, the American economy could boom like never before. Moreover, our rate of return on invested capital would probably be the highest in the world, bar none. I’m all for those outcomes. No question about it.
On the other hand, a booming American economy and the concomittant increased profitability of American firms is likely to attract hugely increased amounts of foreign investment. Foreigners already love to invest in the USA. They’d love to invest even more over here if we could take all of the steps you suggest.
Still, as long as our domestic savings rate stays low, that new investment would just add to our existing “capital account” surplus. And if you understand the double-entry bookkeeping used in National Income statistics, you’ll know that the “merchandise trade deficit” is simply the mirror image of the capital account surplus.
Therefore, a booming economy is more likely to lead to an INCREASED merchandise trade deficit, than to a decreased deficit.
This is not theory. It’s not hypothesis or speculation. It’s not the result of some evil plot by foreign countries. It’s just a matter of the way things like “deficit” and “surplus” are defined in National Income accounting statistics.
>> a trade deficit is not inherently bad <<
You’re correct, of course.
>> It just means that country A has more of something that country B wants to buy than vise-versa <<
Yes, but for the USA’s deficit with the rest of the world, it also means that foreigners “in total” would rather buy American bonds, equities and commercial real estate, as opposed to buying American merchandise and services.
Nah, never! ;-)
Understand, yet the EU has been much more predatory than the US. Their markets have thousands of restrictions compared to our hundreds.
I would very much like to see a more balanced association.
Hope you like lots of shop time and running around in rentals/loaners. Mercedes quality has taken a dive since their heyday.
My dad’s 2014 CL550 is a great example. It’s been to the shop less than most according to owner forums, but it’s still needed tens of thousands of dollars in warranty work.
And consumed 136 million tons of steel last year.
Based on 2017 consumption 82 million leaves about 40% of our consumption in 2017 to imports, something that makes no sense in just national security terms. With Trump pushing to do the work that's required on our infrastructure, it makes even less sense because so many US mills aren't just shuttered, they've been torn down meaning most of the increase in demand would go to imports.
In years when there is lower consumption, the percentage that's imported increases because producers here layoff workers since that's easier than upsetting their supply chain contracts by altering contracts with exporters.
Japanese auto manufactures built plants here to build their autos starting when Reagan reigned them in. Japan, South Korea, and other countries can all build plants here to make steel if they want a significant share of the market. At least Japan and South Korea would have no problem doing so right away in hopes of taking market share from China if they don't have to fight the EPA for a decade before they can even start building.
The tariff bogey man is just that, a bogey man that's kept Americans grazing like docile cattle while US manufacturing was shipped overseas. Anyone who wants a share of the US market can come here, make their products here with US labor, and sell here. That's what we're told the US has to do in order to be in the Chinese market but for some reason what's good for the goose just can't possibly be good for the gander when it comes to building plants here to sell products here.
The overwhelming majority of imports come from Canada, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Brazil, Germany. All of whom are, at least for now, strong allies of the U.S. I don't see where that poses a national security threat to the U.S.
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