It is truly amazing that Buchanon rails against anyone who opposes tariffs, but doesn't seem to comprehend that that would only mask a tax system which, at its core and its foundation, confers a tax advantage on foreign producers above and beyond our own.
Trying to compensate for that with tariffs is like trying to put lipstick on a pig. We should enact the FairTax sooner, rather than later, so that US producers will no longer be handicapped by their own government's tax system. This would tremendously improve our balance of trade and, unlike discriminatory tariffs, would not invoke the wrath of the WTO and our trading partners.
Free trade dogma.
Buchanan cites facts, phil_will1 falls back on failed intentions and free trade theory.
We should enact the FairTax sooner, rather than later, so that US producers will no longer be handicapped by their own government's tax system.
Free trade subsidizes socialist economies. Tariffs and protectionism leaves them to twist in the wind, or rely on their own struggling economies for sustanance.
The US market is the market to be in for American producers or foreign producers. A NRST taxes American made goods at the same rate as socialist imports. The globalists still get their way.
I think one important point left out is not free trade but fair trade. Free trade works well when the living standard and business costs are of the same magnitude. Canada-U.S. free trade would fit in this example. Both are industrialized nations with not too dissimilar business and living environments. The playing field is level. Introduce Mexico and problems erupt. Mexican policies on salaries (very low and a maximum wage for foreign owned companies), banning foriegn real estate ownership, lower standards, etc., leads to an imbalance. Same with China. Free trade, with a level playing field, works by expanding the size of the market. Unlevel free trade, like with China or Mexico causes problems with employment, trade imbalances, etc. For example, how many U.S. companies are shipping goods to Mexico for Mexican consumers? If Mexico could grow their economy, then their citizens could be consumers of U.S. goods rather than cheap producers of U.S. goods for export since the producers can't afford the very goods they produce.
Uh, you must have missed this from the article
Kemp calls China our trade partner – surely a polite way to describe a regime that persecutes Catholics, brutalizes dissidents, targets 600 rockets on Taiwan, lets North Korea use its bases to ship missile and nuclear technology to anti-American regimes, and refuses to denounce racist riots designed to intimidate our Japanese allies.
We do not have trading partners...A trade partner is someone you trade with...That doesn't mean money on one side, goods on the other...
The Fair Tax is certainly one good proposal.That isn't enough, however. A UNIFORM revenue-raising tariff tax is an immediate, and effective additional step, however, that is fully-compliant with WTO rules and bylaws. (Granted, the rest of the Turd World will suddenly scream bloody murder...especially the Chinese...and who knows what the WTO would actually do...since it isn't about the rules, its about politics ).
The real problem, is that this imbalanced trade situation is looking more and more like a narcotic addiction...and the pain of withdrawal...recession/depression becomes ever more imminent even if we don't take any governmental steps to stop the hemmhorraging. We need to really address the political management issue here of the inevitable 'blow-back'...the pernicious and false perception that late-delivered cure is the CAUSE of the pain. The pseudo free traders will never relinquish their dogmatic creed. The economic reprecussions, being really severe...have to be taken into account...and a plan to deal with them implemented. I recommend slashing capital-gains taxes on U.S. investments, ...but leaving them on all our foreign investments. Give the WTO SOMETHING ELSE to bitch about.
And--to make the Cato crowd dance a jig...a regulatory "holiday" [ All OSHA, EPA, and other regulatory "enforcement" authority hereby suspended indefinitely until the crisis is declared over, and all existing activity "pardoned" pursuant a declaration of "economic crisis" .