It is simply nonsense.
The U.S. has been in a Trade war since the start of NAFTA. Do liberals even know what’s going on with “free trade”? All our laws designed to protect workers are now competing with foreign slave labor. It can’t win. We need to even the playing field, and stop supporting foreign slavery.
I live in Alberta and I’m all for Trump taking that moron Trudeau out behind the woodshed.
The downside is, I’ll have to buy firearms made here or pay more.
Tariffs were a sideshow during the Great Depression.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot%E2%80%93Hawley_Tariff_Act
{Tariff levels
In the two volume series published by the US Bureau of the Census entitled “The Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Bicentennial Edition,” tariff rates have been represented in two forms. The “dutiable tariff rate” peak of 1932 was 59.1%, second only to the 61.7% rate of 1830. However, in 1933, 63% of all imports were never taxed which the “dutiable tariff rate” does not reflect. The “free and dutiable rate” in 1929 was 13.5% and peaked under Smoot-Hawley in 1933 at 19.8% which is significantly below the 29.7% “free and dutiable rate” that the United States averaged from 1821 until 1900.[22]
The average tariff rate on dutiable imports [23][24] increased from 40.1% in 1929 to 59.1% in 1932 (+19%). However, it was already consistently at high level between 1865 and 1913 (from 38% to 52%). Moreover, It had also risen sharply in 1861 (from 18.61% to 36.2%; +17.6), between 1863 and 1866 (from 32.62% to 48.33%; +15.7%), between 1920 and 1922 (from 16.4% to 38.1%; +21.7%), without producing global depressions.
After enactment
At first, the tariff seemed to be a success. According to historian Robert Sobel, “Factory payrolls, construction contracts, and industrial production all increased sharply.” However, larger economic problems loomed in the guise of weak banks. When the Creditanstalt of Austria failed in 1931, the global deficiencies of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff became apparent.[15]
US imports decreased 66% from $4.4 billion (1929) to $1.5 billion (1933), and exports decreased 61% from $5.4 billion to $2.1 billion. GNP fell from $103.1 billion in 1929 to $75.8 billion in 1931 and bottomed out at $55.6 billion in 1933.[25] Imports from Europe decreased from a 1929 high of $1.3 billion to just $390 million during 1932, while US exports to Europe decreased from $2.3 billion in 1929 to $784 million in 1932. Overall, world trade decreased by some 66% between 1929 and 1934.[26]
Using panel data estimates of export and import equations for 17 countries, Jakob B. Madsen (2002) estimated the effects of increasing tariff and non-tariff trade barriers on worldwide trade during the period 1929–1932. He concluded that real international trade contracted somewhere around 33% overall. His estimates of the impact of various factors included about 14% because of declining GNP in each country, 8% because of increases in tariff rates, 5% because of deflation-induced tariff increases, and 6% because of the imposition of non-tariff barriers.
The new tariff imposed an effective tax rate of 60% on more than 3,200 products and materials imported into the United States, quadrupling previous tariff rates on individual items, but raising the average tariff rate to 19.2%, in line with average rates of that day.
Unemployment was at 8% in 1930 when the Smoot–Hawley tariff was passed, but the new law failed to lower it. The rate jumped to 16% in 1931, and 25% in 1932–33.[27] There is some contention about whether this can necessarily be attributed to the tariff, however.[28][29] It was not until World War II, during which “the American economy expanded at an unprecedented rate”,[30] that unemployment fell below 1930s levels.[31]
Imports during 1929 were only 4.2% of the United States’ GNP and exports were only 5.0%. Monetarists, such as Milton Friedman, who emphasize the central role of the money supply in causing the depression, note that the Smoot–Hawley Act only had a contributory effect on the entire U.S. economy.[32]}
Canada is America’s leading source of foreign steel”
Yes, and much of it comes from China through Canada.
Our great “allies” of Mexico and Canada have been teaming up with China to screw America.
I think it’s also important to note that:
1) Steel is an input for consumer goods, not a final good. As such, in most products, it represents a small percentage of the total cost of production. This will increase the demand for domestic steel, even at a slightly higher price, but the impact on consumers will be relatively small.
2) The tariffs were placed on those raw materials goods because Trump wants to level the playing field for our manufacturing industries. This gives those countries affected several options by which to avoid or lessen the tariffs.
” How can China or Canada put tariffs on American goods that they don’t actually buy? They can’t...”
Sums up the “trade war” perfectly.
FINALLY someone in the conservative press acknowledges what us rubes knew all along.
It's like they have turrets, trade war, trade war, trade war, as if it's the end of the world, but they never explain.
I wish Free Trader apologists would quit thinking they are patriots. They are traitors.
America can win any trade war given that the US is now energy self sufficient. The risks are Democrats taking control of Congress and China having the patience to outlast Trump and his policies.
I agree. Negative effects from a trade war could be higher inflation, higher unemployment and weaker GDP.
The Fed, back in the bad old days of the early Obama administration, was fighting the serious issue of Deflation. Their goal was to get inflation up to 2%. We are at about 2.8%....no problem. It’s not high, it’s barely healthy. Unemployment? Gimme a break. We are setting records. Weaker GDP? The Atlanta Fed just raised their estimate of Q1 to 4.8%, up from 4.7%. That is NOT a typo. Thanks to Trumpanomics our country could not be in better shape for a trade fight to obtain fair and free trade.
It is simply nonsense.
Yep - but try telling that to some of the folks who don't think they're paying more due to a Three Quarter Trillion (or so) deficit in trade but who are convinced they will go broke because of some leveraging tariffs designed for a long-term solution....