Posted on 04/09/2025 11:45:53 AM PDT by Jacquerie
Donald Trump is playing the long game with tariffs. His goal is to restore our industrial base by revolutionizing the way the United States trades with the rest of the world.
We no longer make antibiotics, and import much of our steel, computer chips, and cars. We must even import titanium sponge – a key component for weapons systems – from producers in China, Russia, and Kazakhstan.
As World War II was drawing to a close in 1944, the United States pledged its power and wealth to a new world order. Through the Bretton Woods agreement, and later, the Marshall Plan, U.S. taxpayers subsidized the reconstruction of Europe.
Part of that new world order allowed the Europeans to export their products to the United States without tariffs, while imposing tariffs on U.S. goods sold to Europe.
Similar arrangements were made with Japan. And for decades, no one mentioned them.
To protect the new international trading system, the United States built a massive blue-water navy to defend international waterways, and permanently deployed 300,000 U.S. combat troops to West Germany to defend NATO.
In the 1990s, the trade concessions were extended to Communist China, Mexico, and Canada with catastrophic results.
As Ross Perrot liked to say during the 1992 presidential election, the minute NAFTA went into effect (which happened in 1994), “there will be a giant sucking sound” of factories moving south.
And that is exactly what happened. It took another ten years or so for the Chinese to catch up, but they did — with a vengeance.
The real question we should all be asking ourselves is not why Trump just upset the world trading system with tariffs, but why he is the first American president to call out China, the Europeans, and others for ripping us off for so long?
(Excerpt) Read more at frontpagemag.com ...
Oh, and until the last few days, I don't recall Congressional concern with tariffs. The pre-Trump situation was fine with the Uniparty Congress.
We don't hate Congress enough.
Probably because he’s the first president since Reagan who didn’t personally benefit from China and the Europeans ripping us off. Ever since George H. W. Bush held the office, we’ve been exporting American jobs and importing Third World poverty.
It should be about primarily addressing currency manipulation and intellectual property theft on the part of China forcing trade secrets to enter the market. I agree with Navarro that is the most difficult angle to argue against.
I hear ya but just realize that 5 years from now, most (not all) manufacturing will be done via robots and AI.
“We don’t hate Congress enough.”
Even Rep. Dusty Johnson acknowledged that there are Knuckleheads in Congress. He just doesn’t realize how many Knuckleheads the Public could identify to help him out.
Impoverishing or higher prices, lower quality, less competition and fewer styles to choose from ?
“These tariffs adjust for the unfairness of ongoing international trade practices, balance our chronic goods trade deficit, provide an incentive for re-shoring production to the United States, and provide our foreign trading partners with an opportunity to rebalance their trade relationships with the United States.”
That moron Nixon started it.
American industry will not return until the profit levels at the retail level permit the use of American labor.
Also, the good old “Protestant” Work Ethic needs to return.
Nixon did it for geo-political reasons as opposed to economic reasons, it was Carter who really got the ball rolling.
EEEK! Yes it does.
He met with Mao, discusting.
.
Doubt it
Because all who preceded him got kick-backs. Trump is independently wealthy, with no need to steal from the citizens.
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