God Bless DJT for standing up for America. Finally, a president looking out for the average American citizen and NOT Wall Street.
$400 billion trade deficits with China PER YEAR. They require IP from American companies to do business there. They require joint ventures to sell anything there. Very difficult to take profits out. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Now China is going to put tariffs on imported food. Go right ahead. Food riots in about 3 months. China is NOT self sufficient in FOOD or ENERGY.
The fact is China has everything to lose. China needs American trade and products to SURVIVE. America doesn’t need China. Yeah, OK - my HDTV will be $10 more expensive. We will get through it. And then import cheap electronics from other nations or, maybe, even start to make things again in America.
Tick - Tock China. You are about to get schlonged.
Pretty much right on. The export industry now supports millions of Chinese with a standard of living the old central planning Communist system could never do. Those in this growing middle class do not wish to go back and be peasants again, and Chinese leaders know it. That’s why they are despearate to find new export markets like Africa, and why they cannot afford a trade war with the US that will instantly cause internal tension to rise.
They need US more than we need them.
Tariff anything with a micro chip in it as well as seafood.
Bingo. This is exactly the core of Trump's economic and trade policy. Some nations have advanced industrial economies. Some nations are self-sufficient in food production. Some nations have the capability of being self-sufficient in energy.
VERY FEW nations have all three of them. The United States is one of them. China is not. We hold more cards.
That’s my take too. In fact the American people could do this on our own if we’d all just spend a few extra bucks on items that are made here. The jobs that would return would improve the economy, raise wages, and we’d be fine.
China needs to be confronted about some of its practices (we have won against them in the WTO on many things but they just ignore the rulings), but many “average Americans” will also take a hit on their businesses and this will result in a loss of jobs even without the tariffs due to uncertainty - not to mention consumers getting less bang for their buck.
In addition, “trade deficits” aren’t just a number on paper - the part of it pertaining merely to the purchasing of goods is not a loss of wealth but an exchange of wealth. For example, if they are truly running the prices down on goods like steel to be less than their actual worth, then on that product they actually would have a trade deficit with us. But, there are also other aspects to a trade deficit than just this - such as them imposing tariffs on our own products and not opening their own market to our products.
The economics are far more complex and far reaching than you are describing. Bush also imposed steel tariffs which did not have a positive effect and caused more people to lose their jobs than those that gained and did damage to US GDP. That is not helpful to the “average American citizen” by any stretch of the imagination.