Posted on 07/04/2019 12:42:33 PM PDT by Kaslin
President Donald Trump likes to keep score. Well, here's a score for him: America, zero; while the rest of the world keeps tallying up free trade points. That's right; while American consumers have been waiting for well over a year to see some resolution to the various trade disputes started by Trump, other countries have agreed to lower their tariffs against each other and signed free trade agreements with one another. Meanwhile, American consumers and exporters are drowning in a sea of high tariffs.
Let's recap. For the last year and a half, the president has unilaterally imposed tariffs on, among other things, imports of steel, aluminum and hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese products. Many of these tariffs fall on intermediary goods that American and foreign companies use to produce things here in the United States. Despite being told by the administration that no one would dare retaliate against us, everyone has. Canada, Mexico, Japan, India, China and the European Union have all since then retaliated with their own duties against U.S. exports.
From manufacturers to farmers, the industries in the downstream of U.S. tariffs (and in the crosshairs of the foreign duties) have been hurting. They've been shouldering high production costs and less access to foreign markets, and U.S. manufacturing just fell to a 32-month low. While we were told that this pain was worth it because it would deliver magnificent trade deals, it hasn't. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or "new NAFTA," is far from becoming the law of the land, leaving companies in limbo. And we're still waiting for a comprehensive deal with China, as well as a reduction to zero of the subsidies and tariffs between the EU and the United States.
Rest assured, though, other countries have not let this crisis go to waste. Taking matters into their own hands, other governments have been actively signing free trade agreements with one another. Recently, the EU, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay announced a free trade deal that covers 780 million people. This is a big deal because the South American trade bloc had relatively high tariffs against the EU. The EU and Japan have also completed a free trade agreement.
EU members updated their trade deal with Mexico as well and just signed a trade agreement with Vietnam to eliminate 99% of the tariffs on goods and services between European and Vietnamese markets. Meanwhile, the 12 Trans-Pacific Partnership nations, which includes Japan, have looked to finalize the deal with other potential partners after Trump rejected the deal on his first day in office.
Even protectionist China has been active. It has effectively been dropping its tariffs against U.S. competitors while it raised its duties against U.S. producers. Chad Bown of the Peterson Institute for International Economics calculated that China's tariffs against the United States rose from 8% on January 1, 2018, to 20.7% on June 1, 2019. Tariffs against all other countries, however, went down from 8% to 6.7% during that same period. As Bown writes, "Now, there is a 14 percentage point difference between the average Chinese tariff U.S. exporters face versus all other exporters."
None of this is to say that China and other countries aren't hurting as a result of this trade war. A growing number of global firms are shifting production out of China in response to the U.S.-China trade war. The world's top bicycle maker, Giant Manufacturing Co., acknowledged this fact loud and clear by announcing that the era of "Made in China" was over.
Does this fact mean the Trump strategy is working? No. The Trump plan was that companies would leave China and move back to the United States. But that's not what's happening. Instead, they're moving production to other Asian countries, including Vietnam. That is probably why the president is suddenly threatening to impose hefty tariffs against Vietnam. If he does, the Europeans, with their new free trade relationship with Vietnam, will be the winners.
Some of Trump's supporters have argued that the president is actually a free trader who wants lower tariffs all around. Well, if that's the case, he has succeeded in a way. Everyone is getting lower tariffs -- everyone except U.S. consumers, that is.
Why is this SHIT!! posted?
Not once but TWICE!! It is full of inaccuracies and a spin which counts on the total ignorance of the reader and of course the poster who decided this was appropriate.
Sorry Kas but this is a garbage post.
In all fairness, the other version was posted in Reason Magazine.
Different sources, is generally grounds for being acceptable.
I think it’s trash too, but it is a legit post.
I couldn’t agree more with an article. I am sick of subsidizing America’s blue collar manufacturing employees. If they can’t compete then too bad...adapt or else.
I go back to the free trade/nafta debate in Canada 30 years ago. Patriots thought that free trade hurt Canadians and every poll showed that anti-traders ahead...until the poll on election night. The free trade supporters won in the end because it is intellectually sound.
Give an example of these other countries. Are they major players in world markets or also-rans? Trade agreements with 780 million people with monthly incomes of 100 pesos per month doesn't mean much in terms of world trade with major players.
Many of these tariffs fall on intermediary goods that American and foreign companies use to produce things here in the United States.
Give an example, rather than a broad swath with no facts.
The EU and Japan have also completed a free trade agreement.
Have you read the agreement? Their agreement does not do away with tariffs.
"Now, there is a 14 percentage point difference between the average Chinese tariff U.S. exporters face versus all other exporters."
Instead of quoting rates on tariffs, show me the impact on sales. I could care less about the rate if my sales are the same.
None of this is to say that China and other countries aren't hurting as a result of this trade war. A growing number of global firms are shifting production out of China in response to the U.S.-China trade war. The world's top bicycle maker, Giant Manufacturing Co., acknowledged this fact loud and clear by announcing that the era of "Made in China" was over.
Exactly, which is what the tariff pissing contest is all about. The short run is not the goal, yet that's all we see here. Also, there's no mention of the real reason for the tariffs, and that's to level the playing field in terms of the tariffs we face in a country versus tariffs they face when trading with us. This is a poorly thought out report.
This is about fairly leveling a playing field, not about subsidizing America’s blue collar manufacturing employees.
China has been engaging in economic warfare on us for a long time, and we have let them do it. Even assisted them at a government level. It is time for all of us to face up to the truth that Trump apparently understands well, we are at, and have been for decades, engaged in a one-sided economic war.
You ever wonder why shipping is cheaper from China to Los Angeles for Chinese manufacturers than it is to ship from Los Angeles to New York? It is because our government has willingly subsidized shipping from China.
And that is simply ONE example. We are long past the time to fight back.
Tar sands oil extraction, for example, never would have happened without NAFTA. It’s no coincidence that Canada and Mexico both surpassed Saudi Arabia as the largest sources of U.S. oil imports just a few years after NAFTA was signed.
So, just to be clear, I would rather subsidize our own industry rather than subsidize the industry of a foe who means us ill.
This shipping farce which we as taxpayers pay for is a simple, lone example.
That’s a false dilemma. Reagan didn’t bring the USA back due to increasing subsidy for US industry, just for one big example; doing the opposite helped us win against the Soviets.
This is incorrect. Shipping is cheaper from China to Los Angeles because there are enormous economies of scale in marine transportation. A single container vessel with about a dozen crew members can carry 6,000-12,000 shipping containers. A truck can haul one. A double-stack intermodal train can carry several hundred at most.
They are adapting. One of the primary ways they adapt is by not having children. They rely on contraception and when that fails, abortion. So, you say contraception is from Satan, but, weellll, if that's a consequence of your short sighted, selfish, view of economics, playing into Satan's hand is just fine with you.
After all, we can just let an unlimited number of immigrants flow across our Southern border who will work for wages so low they cannot afford those children they don't murder in the womb as frequently as native born blue collar workers do.
But, that's no problem because their kids grow up totally dependent on the government because without government keeping them up they'd be living in the same sort of squalor they fled.
What other variants of Catch-22 do you endorse in the name of your unrealistic, incomplete, view of a perfect Free Traitor world, Milo??
Saying this hurts the US consumer more than it helps the relative trade balance in the world is one take on the level of tariffs that has been imposed. But the US remains the biggest market for just about everybody else, even in spite of the already imposed or threatened tariffs, and collection of these tariffs adds to the overall flow of revenue to the Treasury Department. So far as the imports of certain commodities may be concerned, the US is now a net EXPORTER of energy, and the world is still fighting over access to energy supplies, of which we have plenty. Sooner or later, they shall be coming to us, and Trump is betting on sooner.
Meanwhile, we are literally lifting ourselves by our own bootstraps, as the relative cost of imports makes full employment here in the US a very feasible outcome, to the degree that massive automation may not only be a possibility, but an imperative that must be undertaken.
Shifts and dislocations in market forces do cause some short-term concerns and even pain, but consider them to be growing pains, resulting in an even more robust economy than has ever been seen on earth. We have to either find new markets for this increased productivity, or adjust the mix of commodities to finished product that keeps the balance of prosperity flowing through all segments of the economy.
And no, “everybody else” does NOT enjoy free trade. They have adapted trade, which has the same relationship to free trade, as crony capitalism has to true capitalism.
If that were true, then it’d be just as cheap to ship in the other direction across the Pacific. But it is not.
“(I)n general, the protective system of our day is conservative, while the free trade system is destructive—it breaks up old nationalities and pushes the antagonism of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to the extreme point. In (other) word(s), the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favor of free trade.”So you are not sick of subsidizing Red China’s blue collar employees. Interesting way you think, comrade.
— Karl Marx
— From the list of 45 communist goals for the USA
- Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
- Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
- Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
- Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the UN. …
I think Marx’s view of trade is better than the view that you and Trump have.
When we have reduce tariffs our economic dominance becomes further solidified. We should be in favor of reducing tariffs even if our trading partners won’t do the same.
These items can’t be used for war. Of course I am opposed to free trade in military tech.
I am not surprised to see you say that, comrade. Thanks for being candid about your ideological alignment.
I think Marx’s view of trade is better than the view that you and Trump have.
That almost destroyed the US economy, because that is letting our “trading partners” fight a trade war against us where we do not even fight back.
When we have reduce tariffs our economic dominance becomes further solidified. We should be in favor of reducing tariffs even if our trading partners won’t do the same.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.