Posted on 06/19/2018 5:20:46 AM PDT by reaganaut1
In recent weeks, several major rounds of tariffs have moved from proposals to realities, and major new tariffs have been threatenedshifting the stakes for President Donald Trumps trade actions on the U.S. economy.
Tariffs raise the price of imported goods, increasing costs to consumers, and making domestic producers (who dont face the tariff) more competitive.
Examples of how new tariffs might ripple through the economy have already been provided by earlier, smaller rounds of tariffs. These earlier examples also show why broad effects from tariffs, on the otherwise booming U.S. economy, might be hard to detect.
One of the first to go into effect under Mr. Trump came in January, with the imposition of 20% tariffs on washing machines.
While tariffs are formally paid by whomever imports the goods, the importers can pass their costs along to consumers. In the case of washing machines, that happened quickly: The index for laundry equipment in the Labor Departments consumer-price Index, the nations main gauge of inflation, shot up by about 17% over the past three months.
...
Mr. Trumps steel and aluminum tariffs were announced March 1. For some countries they went into effect quickly. The European Union, Canada and Mexico were given more time to negotiate, but those extensions expired at the beginning of this month.
Prices for different types of steel and aluminum began to climb almost immediately, posting the biggest three-month price increase that has been recorded in years. While clearly inflationary and unwelcome for metal consumers, the jump in prices isnt that much larger than typical volatility in the metals. And only a small portion of the metals ends up in consumer goods.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
That’s the point. How about bringing good manufacturing back.
The tax has been on the US consumer. We used to manufacture stuff that lasted. Now we import crap that may be cheaper but you have to replace or repair 5x as often. No bargain.
The tariffs haven’t been fully laid on. The middlemen marketers have increased prices on product already in the pipeline from pre_tariff days.(kind of what happens to oil prices when some war threat arises in the Mideast that never materializes; the oil had already been pumped out at a pre threat price but the prices are raised to take advantage of the fears of scarcity).
My new washer and dryer: Maytag. Made in USA. Were planning a kitchen renovation. Consciously attempting to purchase made in USA products.
Labor costs in the U.S. can't compare with labor costs in Mexico or Asia.
I will give you an example of how tariffs work.
A US and German company decide to build X-bike. Everything is the same between the two bikes....technology, brakes, tires, etc.
So the US company sits down and figures up the raw material, labor cost, and company profit line (with taxes figured into this estimate). They come to a wholesale price that the middle guy will reach and pay. Let’s call this ‘Y’.
The German company does the same thing, figuring up the raw material, the labor cost, and company profit line (with taxes figured into this estimate). But we reach this interesting problem. You go and figure healthcare costs, personal taxes, VAT, cost of living, etc....and this German wholesale price is ‘Y’ + 15-to-20 percent. Because of gas taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, pension cost, etc....the German has a bigger umbrella to cover.
So these two bikes are delivered to a German store, and the US-made bike (without a tariff) would be probably 15-to-20 percent more....minus out the transport cost on the US bike to be delivered there.
Can these two bikes compete? No. Is it unfair competition? The German would say so.
So the answer, because the German can never compete on a fair and level field because of his cost of living and various taxes....is a tariff. You inflate the American’s bike cost to equal the German’s cost, and probably exceed it by 5-percent.
Imagine this across literally thousands of products and the nature of German tariffs...literally to cover up the fact that they can’t compete without the tariff existing.
So do other countries' tariffs hurt their consumers?
In fact, I'm against two things (in this case):
1) Unconstitutional spending.
2) Taxation for any purpose other than raising revenue to cover constitutionally mandated or permitted spending.
I'd be quite happy with abolishing the income tax entirely, and raising the necessary revenue for constitutional government by way of tariffs.
There is a way around it.
Don’t buy the product being tariffed. Or start making it domestically.
A local craft brewer came on the news saying that he was going under because of the tariff on Aluminum. You can buy Aluminum domestically, and the tooling exists to make kegs and cans.
“If I banged my brothers head against a dishwasher today it would break apart. Back then it was sturdy.”
What?! The dishwasher or your brother’s head?
(LOL...I know what you meant...just having a bit of fun is all!)
The article is broad to the point of meaningless.
There was no citation of a specific harmonized tariff item that was actually tariffed for a specific country.
Washing machines were cited but the tariff was restricted to korean washing machines. Such a narrow action should have no effect on washing machines across the board.
What an ignorant statement
You have no clue about what you speak
Some of the tariff will be born by the US consumer. Some will be born by the US importer/retailer. Some will be born by the Chinese manufacturer. On the flip side, 100% of income tax, corporate tax and sales tax effects 100% of the US. Additionally, the entire GDP (including the labor salary) stays in the US vs only a portion of it (the upcharge) with imports. No taxes are good taxes, but tariffs are far better than other taxes, other countries have these tariffs and several are quite hostile in general (IP theft, etc).
So do other countries’ tariffs hurt their consumers?
Got a 27 year old Maytag washer. Works fine and just keeps going.
I have no problem with imposing tariffs on goods from countries who impose tariffs on ours.
We are already paying the tax to keep a lot of people unemployed.
That is already baked into the cake. I would rather pay the cost to the manufacturing company to employ them.
Somewhat. Not all of it will be passed onto consumers (otherwise China wouldn’t care). The additional income coming back to the US will be good for consumers as well and the tax money can go to reduce our debt or lower direct US taxes (income, corp tax, etc).
Fixed it for ya.
Yes that’s the lie you’ve been sold. Yeah sure when America has the highest corporate and income taxes in the world.
Now we don’t and already business and manufacturing are coming back.
Maybe Americans want a living wage. They can have that without government interference.
Or we can import slave labor and products made by slave labor and screw Americans.
No taxes are good, generally speaking, but tariffs are better than other forms of taxation. If nothing else, it brings US firms back to parity in forms of required cost that we require US firms to operate under (labor, reg, environmental, etc) and it also brings labor back in addition to generating tax revenue.
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