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The trouble with tariffs
Washington Times ^ | Monday, February 19, 2018 | Ed Feulner

Posted on 02/21/2018 11:47:25 AM PST by TBP

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To: TBP

We put tariffs on softwood lumber coming out of Canada last year. Lumber prices went from $350 in June to now over $500.

http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/agricultural/lumber-and-pulp/random-length-lumber.html

But employment in wood products manufacturing was lower in Jan 2018 than in January 2017.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm


21 posted on 02/21/2018 1:18:38 PM PST by oincobx
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To: TBP; All
Historical perspective of US tariffs:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariffs_in_United_States_history

22 posted on 02/21/2018 1:39:37 PM PST by Cobra64 (Common sense isn't common any more.)
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To: TBP

Ideologically I agree with you.


23 posted on 02/21/2018 1:44:03 PM PST by Sam Gamgee
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To: oincobx

Actually, wood products went up 1.3% according to your link.

FYI, sawmill employment has not gone up much because there is actually a shortage of timber over the last year. The only production increases are starting to happen in the southern US pine mills.

It is very difficult to find people who want to work in a sawmill. Most are in remote towns with a small labor pool. In Oregon and Washington it is hard to hire people that can pass a drug test. People do not want to do physical labor.

The same factors affecting hiring in the wood products industry are similar in the trucking industry. Trucking companies are offering signing bonuses and can not find enough drivers. Would you want to put a pot smoker behind the wheel of a $150K tractor pulling a $75K trailer hauling 48m lbs of cargo?

Everyone is holding out for a management position.


24 posted on 02/21/2018 1:44:59 PM PST by woodbutcher1963
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To: central_va

Actually it hampered the mercantilist British economy and lead the way for America to take over as a leading manufacturer.


25 posted on 02/21/2018 1:45:20 PM PST by Sam Gamgee
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To: TBP

“The trouble with tariffs. Tariffs are taxes.”

Maybe, but if other countries are placing tariffs on you, you have to tax them back. Trade is not a one way street.


26 posted on 02/21/2018 2:32:29 PM PST by ScottfromNJ
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To: MrEdd

I’m bert

Actually,I feel close to the President who like me is a man of the world and understands even better than me, that business makes the world go round. So far as I can recall, I never opposed Trump.

I never believed he would impose blanket tariffs simply because they would not be tolerated by those platoons of CEO’s that one after another came to be heard early on. He has imposed specific tariffs and that will be his way forward.

Many here are so hung up on their narrow and often just ignorant views of international trade that they can’t grasp the scope and breadth of American business involvement. It is impossible to educate such folk because their individual situations do not permit the time and hands on experience necessary for an understanding.

I can’t quite grasp how you would think I favor Amnesty. I guess I’m like Rush and have detractors that just make stuff up. Your failure to grasp my thoughts illustrates my point. You simply do not grasp the reality and complexity of world affairs to effectively and correctly comment


27 posted on 02/21/2018 2:39:16 PM PST by bert (K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP .... The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column)
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To: Sam Gamgee
Sam you couldn't be more wrong. Tariffs in the USA are what protected US industries in the 19th and half way thru the 20tht century. Those industries flourished because of the protectionist system and there was also no need for an income tax!

Again you are showing your stupidity about trade and economics. But you knew this already so really you are another globalist liar.

28 posted on 02/21/2018 3:46:07 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn)
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To: oincobx

Everything is dynamic. If domestic timber is worth that much more supply will catch up. I have faith in the laws of economics and the law of supply and demand. Too bad you don’t. You Free Traitors™ like to portray everything in economics as static. That is your game.


29 posted on 02/21/2018 3:51:01 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn)
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To: ScottfromNJ

Free Traitors™ are like rapists. They hate it when the bitch complains and doesn’t just lay back and enjoy it. Same mentality.


30 posted on 02/21/2018 3:53:05 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn)
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To: TallahasseeConservative
Tariffs are not good, but then again, how does an American worker survive on what they are paying these folks overseas and in Central and South America?

Take off the tariffs I currently have to pay for imported goods that I can no longer get manufactured in the USA, and I will be be hiring quite a few more Americans to work at good operations and logistics and sales and even IT jobs.

Raise them higher (as many on this site demand) and American factories will not magically appear to meet the demand - because people like me will be out of business and unable to buy their products, anyway.

31 posted on 02/21/2018 3:54:05 PM PST by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
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To: Mr. Jeeves

Jeeves if you bothered to do ANY research at all there are basically no duties collected on goods and services imported to the USA. It’s a sick joke. The rate that USA sets it’s import tariffs are so low they currently only collect 1% on the total value of imports. ONE PERCENT. Our imports OTH face, on average, 8% duty overseas. So now you know the truth. Please stop spreading misinformation.


32 posted on 02/21/2018 4:01:14 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn)
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To: woodbutcher1963

>>>Actually, wood products went up 1.3% according to your link

That was the month-to-month growth. I was referring to year-over-year data.

So if timber is hard to come by and it’s also hard to find workers, why are we punishing home buyers? It seems the only ones benefiting from this are the shareholders of the lumber companies.


33 posted on 02/21/2018 4:07:04 PM PST by oincobx
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To: central_va
I pay 32% duty on most of my imports. So do all of my peers in the industry. All to protect a few antiquated, foreign-owned factories in Los Angeles with workforces of extremely dubious legal status. Americans - like the ones working for my company - aren't benefiting one bit from these tariffs.

I'm not sure where you get this 1% number, but it must be for some product Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are making buckets of money on.

The curious can find all of the tariff rates in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States.

34 posted on 02/21/2018 6:07:44 PM PST by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
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To: gr8eman

So we need permission to do business?


35 posted on 02/21/2018 6:46:45 PM PST by TBP (Progressives lack compassion and tolerance. Their self-aggrandizement is all that matters.)
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To: Mr. Jeeves
Jeeves, you are lying again or plain ignorant. Here is the average rates for the USA. This graph only goes to ~2014. The USA rate shown on total imports is about 2% but it is fact much lower than that.

So know you know the truth. Please stop spreading lies.

36 posted on 02/21/2018 10:30:31 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn)
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To: oincobx

You are correct. Lumber is at or very close to all time record high prices. The duties are just not the only reason. There are multiple factors involved. One of the biggest is demand is up in the US and Canada.


37 posted on 02/22/2018 6:03:06 AM PST by woodbutcher1963
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To: central_va
Who would need to lie about something that is all laid out for the world to see? The duty rates are in the Tariff Schedule link I posted, and are quite easy to look up. Often the rate is zero from countries with which we have a free trade agreement. Goods imported from Great Britain or our other allies, for example, often have a minimal duty rate. This is why your graph shows such a low "average" rate - Great Britain is still our #1 trading partner.

But you aren't talking about using tariffs to punish Britain or Japan, are you? The rates on goods from the country you do want to punish are already much higher than 1%, and a search of the schedule will easily show this.

38 posted on 02/22/2018 6:39:52 AM PST by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
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To: Mr. Jeeves
Th USA collects around 1% on all imports of goods and services. This is fact. The schedules and rates on specific items does not matter. We can have a 100% tariff on imported armadillos but if we only import one per year IT DOES NOT MATTER. Get it?

What matters is the overall collection of duties which annually amounts to almost NOTHING. You are acting like an obdurate moron and as such are making it impossible to have civil conversation about a very important and complex subject.

39 posted on 02/22/2018 11:42:29 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn)
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To: Mr. Jeeves

This explains my secondary opposition to tariffs. The idea they are their to “protect workers” comes right out of union propaganda. They exist to protect certain industries with close relations with the government. To the detriment of consumers, and yes, businesses that rely on over inflated inputs.

Not again nominal tariffs as a way to raise government revenue of rates under 10%.


40 posted on 02/23/2018 11:40:24 AM PST by Sam Gamgee
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