Honda prepared to airlift 2,000 tons of steel to U.S.

Auto Insider ^ | Saturday, June 29, 2002 | Amy Strahan Butler

[Black Powder]

WASHINGTON -- Honda Motor Co. is prepared to airlift 2,000 tons of carbon sheet steel to its U.S. and Canadian factories next month if the automaker can't secure adequate supplies from U.S. steel producers, the company said. The Japanese automaker's plans were prompted by steel-import tariffs of as much as 30 percent that President George W. Bush imposed in March to protect companies such as U.S. Steel Corp. and Bethlehem Steel Corp. As a result of the tariffs, steelmakers are renegotiating contracts, and Honda may face a shortfall. Honda's U.S. factories get more than 90 percent of the steel they use from domestic suppliers. Airlifting that much Japanese- made steel is a costly solution to what the company says it hopes will be a temporary problem. "It's not cheap," said Ron Lietzke, a spokesman for Honda in the U.S. "It's worth it for us to do this for a short time in order to maintain production at our plants in North America." Non-U.S. steelmakers, including Arcelor SA, the world's largest, the U.K.'s Corus Group Plc, and their U.S. customers are trying to avoid the tariffs by seeking a total of 2,000 exemptions for more than 1,300 different steel products. Trying to ship that much steel "would outdo the Berlin airlift," said Alan Wolff, counsel to domestic steel producers such as U.S. Steel, Bethlehem Steel and National Steel.

[biblewonk]

What a bluff.

[Blackyce]

We set up Tarrifs to protect and industry that cant even meet demand. This is easily the stupidest policy the Bush administration has made so far.

[biblewonk]

No it isn't. There is obviously an attempt to make it look that way, but it was a great idea. We can't let the market dictate us right out of the business of making arms, growing food, or making steel. The market is not God and we don't want to become dependent on foreign countries for certain things. TV's radios, cheap shoes and cameras, fine, but not steel, food and arms.

[patton]

plato told

him:he couldn't
believe it(jesus

told him;he
wouldn't believe
it)lao

tsze
certainly told
him,and general
(yes

mam)
sherman;
and even
(believe it
or

not)you
told him:i told
him;we told him
(he didn't believe it,no

sir)it took
a nipponized bit of
the old sixth

avenue
el;in the top of his head:to tell

him

ee cummings

[ContentiousObjector]

Here, let me lend you a flame proof suit, your going to need it.

[Willie Green]

We set up Tarrifs to protect and industry that cant even meet demand.

The industry can meet the demand.
This is just a pompous publicity stunt.
No moron would be dumb enough to airlift 2000 tons of sheet steel.
Much cheaper to simply pay the tariff.

[ContentiousObjector]

so you feel you have the right to steal money from the pockets of hard working americans and American business to be redistributed to failing american businesses.

In other words, you are a socialist.

[biblewonk]

You just don't get it do you.

[ContentiousObjector]

There is no middle ground, you are either a capitalist or a socialist.

[gcruse]

 We can't let the market dictate us...

...so we're going to dictate the market?

Look to the USSR for the refutation of
that  fallacy.  Clues for sale.

[gcruse]

ee cummings did some great stuff.

[biblewonk]

It's even dumber than usual around here on weekends.

[gcruse]

 We can't let the market dictate us...

...so we're going to dictate the market?

Look to the USSR for the refutation of
that  fallacy.  Clues for sale.
 

It's even dumber than usual around here on weekends.

That's the best you can do?  You must  have
thought this out.  I await comments on
the success of central planning.
Ad hominems are nothing more than
obfuscated surrender.

[liberallarry]

The market is not God

Isn't that a risky statement to make on this site? If the market isn't God then perhaps there are all sorts of good reasons to override, regulate, or second-guess it. Maybe socialism isn't so bad after all.

[Common Tator]

This is just a pompous publicity stunt.

The end of the earth is at hand.

I actually agree with Willie Green!!!!!

[patton]

Um, larry? See number 5.

I was the libertarian candidate for the VA assembly for my local district, but there are limits.

[Willie Green]

A number of people have been saying that lately, including Lazamataz.

It's beginning to make me nervous.

[dennisw]

Screw 'em. I could care less if a Japanese company squanders some money on such grandstanding. Hondo profits go to Japanese citizens not to US citizens. They make some autos here only because they got insane tax breaks to bulid factories and US labor is cheaper.

[liberallarry]

You're right.

#5 said it better than I did. But, after all, that was e.e. cummings.