Posted on 12/22/2016 8:12:46 PM PST by Rockitz
As the FT first reported yesetrday, in a dramatic development for Sino-US relations, Trump picked Peter Navarro, a Harvard-trained economist and one-time daytrader, to head the National Trade Council, an organization within the White House to oversee industrial policy and promote manufacturing. Navarro, a hardcore China hawk, is the author of books such as "Death by China" and "Crouching Tiger: What China’s Militarism Means for the World" has for years warned that the US is engaged in an economic war with China and should adopt a more aggressive stance, a message that the president-elect sold to voters across the US during his campaign.
In the aftermath of Navarro's appointment, many were curious to see what China's reaction would be, and according to the FT, Beijin's response has been nothing short of "shocked." To wit:
The appointment of Peter Navarro, a campaign adviser, to a formal White House post shocked Chinese officials and scholars who had hoped that Mr Trump would tone down his anti-Beijing rhetoric after assuming office.
“Chinese officials had hoped that, as a businessman, Trump would be open to negotiating deals,” said Zhu Ning, a finance professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing. “But they have been surprised by his decision to appoint such a hawk to a key post.”
Shortly after the announcement of Navarro's appointment, the US Office of the Trade Representative yesterday put added more fuel to trade tensions with Chine when it put Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce platform, back on its “notorious markets” blacklist of companies accused of being involved in peddling fake goods.
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
The Taiwanese already charge an import tariff. Looks like we are in a war right now with them.
The overall average nominal tariff rate for imported goods was 6.35% in 2015. U.S. industry continues to request that Taiwan lower tariffs on imports of many products, including large motorcycles, wine, canned soups, cookies, savory snack foods, vegetable juices, potatoes and potato products, table grapes, apples, fresh vegetables, and citrus products.
It is the USA that is caught in a trade war. Our markets are open to all. The overall tariff rate for imports TO the USA is 1%.
TEN WON’T DO CRAP.
35 MUCH BETTER.
10% is a good starting place. Raise it 4% per year until we reach 30%. The last 5% hold in reserve.
We nor the rest of the free world can afford trading with the biggest most powerful communist nation on earth.
China is taking all that trade and turning that money into spending on military and space.
Trump should ask for an international ban on trade with China.
Tarrifs partly or completely negate comparative advantage, driving up prices in other sectors and costing America jobs. Is this what we want?
It’s China that needs to heed the ‘evils’ of tariffs.
Comparative advantage works when countries trade in goods. That's not what we are doing. China is selling us goods and buying our equities and debt. We are liquidating the US to buy Chinese cheap imports.
Comparative advantage also doesn't work in times of high unemployment. Only 60% of our working age population is in the workforce. And China literally still has more than 200 million more people wanting to come in from the fields to a manufacturing job that pays $2 a day.
High unemployment is one of those exceptions to comparative advantage you must have overlooked in your introductory macroeconomics course.
Even when comparative advantage works and both countries trade an equal amount of goods, there may still be strategic reasons not to engage in trade. One important reason is to maintain a manufacturing base so that you can produce the weapons of war. And an agricultural base so that you can feed your people and an army.
Jefferson learned this lesson. At one point he thought America should remain an agricultural economy and just trade for manufactured goods and anything else we need. Then in his words "the unthinkable happened". Europe cut us of from manufactured goods. And that was the point when Jefferson realized that a strong manufacturing base was critical to the survival of a free state.
You must live completely off the grid if you're not a "consumer". All taxes take money from your pocket and your family then transfer your wealth to government regardless the method. Fuel taxes, phone taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, or tariffs. By supporting tariffs you are adding to the tax burden paid by you and your consuming neighbors.
Tariffs promote domestic industry and keep Americans employed and were the foundation of the making America an industrial power.
You have absolutely no Constitutional right to open and free commerce with other nations across international borders. Actually the opposite is true.
You are awesome Danny.
It’s an interesting debate, and one we’ve had before as a nation. Google the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930:
“It should be obvious that an effective limit on imports also reduces exports. Without the dollars obtained by selling here, foreign countries could not afford to buy our goods (or to repay their debts). From 1929 to 1932, U.S. imports from Germany fell by $181 million; U.S. exports to Germany fell by $277 million. Americans also had little use for foreign currency, since foreign goods were subject to prohibitive tariffs, so the dollar was artificially costly in terms of other currencies. That too depressed our exports, which turned out to be particularly devastating to farmers-the group that was supposed to benefit from the tariffs.”
Take the money from the Tariffs and use it to reduce Individual and Corporate taxes. That will make the taxes revenue neutral. Or do you oppose tax cuts?
The thing is, it won’t be tax revenue neutral. As people go back to work government revenues will soar from the income taxes coming in from those people re-entering the work force.
Plus government payments to support the unemployed and indigent will start going down.
Government will then be able to use the surplus to start reducing the national debt.
What’s more, there will now be more funds left in the American economy and spent in the American economy to boost the wages of all.
If increasing tariffs was the economic elixir that fixes everything, why hasn't every nation from time immemorial raised them?
They do.
Imports/Exports were an insignificant part of the US economy in the 1930’s. Less 4% of the GNP was import/Export.
The smart ones do.
America had tariffs for 180 years. Worked great for us!
The smart ones do.
America had tariffs for 180 years. Worked great for us!
- Milton Friedman
http://www.hoover.org/research/case-free-trade
Funny, I never thought of George Washington, signer of the first tariff act, as a bad President.
Jefferson didn't contemplate 90,000 pages of government regulations from OSHA, EPA, FDA, and a miriad of other federal monstrosities. Slashing these burdens on commerce would have a far greater impact on jobs and economic growth that increasing tariffs.
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