Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Trump’s Washing Machine Tariffs Stung Consumers While Lifting Corporate Profits
New York Times ^ | April 21, 2019 | Jim Tankersley

Posted on 04/22/2019 5:43:15 AM PDT by reaganaut1

President Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on imported washing machines has had an odd effect: It raised prices on washing machines, as expected, but also drove up the cost of clothes dryers, which rose by $92 last year.

What appears to have happened, according to new research from economists at the University of Chicago and the Federal Reserve, is a case study in how a measure meant to help domestic factory workers can rebound on American consumers, creating unexpected costs and leaving shoppers with a sky-high bill for every factory job created.

Research to be released on Monday by the economists Aaron Flaaen, of the Fed, and Ali Hortacsu and Felix Tintelnot, of Chicago, estimates that consumers bore between 125 percent and 225 percent of the costs of the washing machine tariffs. The authors calculate that the tariffs brought in $82 million to the United States Treasury, while raising consumer prices by $1.5 billion.

And while the tariffs did encourage foreign companies to shift more of their manufacturing to the United States and created about 1,800 new jobs, the researchers conclude that those came at a steep cost: about $817,000 per job.

Mr. Trump imposed the tariffs last year in response to a complaint by the Michigan-based manufacturer Whirlpool, which claimed foreign competitors were cornering the American washing machine market with cheaper models that threatened domestic manufacturers. The tariffs started at 20 percent per imported washer and rose to 50 percent late in the year, after total imports exceeded a quota set by the administration.

Mr. Trump, a self-proclaimed lover of tariffs, hailed the move as a way to help American production and jobs.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: tariffs; trumptariffs; washingmachines
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-96 next last
To: Buckeye McFrog

and the other major company... Samsung”

“Samsung Kicks Off U.S. Production of Premium Home Appliances
Samsung Newsroom (with U.S. Specific News Release) 01.12.18

HOME APPLIANCES, HYUNSUK KIM, MANUFACTURING PLANT, NEWBERRY COUNTY FACILITY, PUBLIC AFFAIRS, TIM BAXTER

Six months after announcing new South Carolina manufacturing plant, Samsung on track to produce 1 million washing machines in 2018 and create over 1,000 jobs by 2020”


41 posted on 04/22/2019 6:31:52 AM PDT by Pikachu_Dad ("the media are selling you a line of soap)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1
Any New York Times or Washington Post article:

"Derp derp DERP DERP derp Trump derp derp derp!!!"

"Derpity derp DERP DERP Trump!"

42 posted on 04/22/2019 6:32:38 AM PDT by an amused spectator (Mitt Romney, Chuck Schumer's p*ssboy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JonPreston
Tankersley looks like he'd enjoy the company of Mayor Buttgiggity:


43 posted on 04/22/2019 6:33:52 AM PDT by an amused spectator (Mitt Romney, Chuck Schumer's p*ssboy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: texas booster

“However, ask the ~1,800 people who gained job, and US appliance manufacturers who have a way to fight the Chinese governments job of boosting their companies, at the expense of the rest of the world.”

A $1.5 billion cost on the economy for 1,800 jobs makes those jobs too expensive.

The U.S. manufacturers in washing machines do not have the Chinese as their biggest competitors, its mostly Koreans - Samsung and LG. But, to the extent that the tariffs hurt the Koreans more than they do the Chinese (where wages are lower than in Korea), then look for the Chinese washing machine manufacturers (Haier) to start making inroads here against the Koreans (not what anyone was hoping for).

Where the discount (% difference) on wages, compared to the U.S., is larger than a tariff (% rate applied on an import), there is still some profit left for the foreign manufacturer. That is why, in spite of the tariffs, quotas on the imports were exceeded.

I think Trump should have reversed an Obama administration rule than prevented a merger of Whirlpool and Swedish owned Electrolux. Obama’s admin considered the merger as reducing competition in the U.S. and in doing so ignored that Whirlpool was losing not to other American manufacturers but to Koreans, and the gain to Whirlpool would have been greater access to Europe’s markets (U.S. labor is less cost than European labor). Whirlpool as a manufacturer would have been strengthened without tariffs.


44 posted on 04/22/2019 6:34:04 AM PDT by Wuli (30)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

Have you read the 192 page tariff list? It isn’t just washing machines. More like everything..foreign components used in American manufactured/ assembled products.


45 posted on 04/22/2019 6:34:39 AM PDT by sockmonkey (I am an America First, not Israel First FReeper.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sockmonkey

Interesting....... can you point to a link for the list?

I’d really like to see it


46 posted on 04/22/2019 6:38:27 AM PDT by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) Honduras must be invaded to protect America from invasion)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: an amused spectator

LOLOLOL!!!!


47 posted on 04/22/2019 6:39:38 AM PDT by JonPreston ( The GOPe is on board with the North American Union and the European Union.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

So is the Times moving away from impeachment and trying to start another battle!


48 posted on 04/22/2019 6:40:43 AM PDT by LoveMyFreedom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Buckeye McFrog

Yea i bought a new washer this time last year.
On normal settings it tries to wash a large load with something like a gallon of water.
To actually be able to fill the tub i have to set it to heavy duty which adds like 30 mins to the wash time.

I miss the machines from like 20 years ago...


49 posted on 04/22/2019 6:44:15 AM PDT by mowowie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Drew68

Trump’s Washing Machine Tariffs Stung Consumers While Lifting Corporate Profits
/////////////////

It’s better than being “taken to the cleaners” by the Chinese.


50 posted on 04/22/2019 6:47:00 AM PDT by photodawg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

Found your candidate for 2020 yet?


51 posted on 04/22/2019 6:48:45 AM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here Of Citizen Parents_Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bert

I think it has now been added to. Links to the various pdf’s should be here:

https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2018/june/ustr-issues-tariffs-chinese-products


52 posted on 04/22/2019 6:49:20 AM PDT by sockmonkey (I am an America First, not Israel First FReeper.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

There are things in which America needs to be self sufficient to protect its independence, regardless of the economic cost, but washing machines are probably not in that class.


53 posted on 04/22/2019 6:50:40 AM PDT by Socon-Econ (adical Islam,)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Buckeye McFrog

I just recently bought a Speed Queen washing machine. Made in the USA. Much heavier duty machine than the cheap plastic machines made by x, y or z that last about 5-7 years. It is a top loader commercial quality machine.

I was given an older Hotpoint dryer because that person bought a new set. The only thing I had to replace was the lint filter basket($39). I took the back off of it and vacuumed out all the lint I could with the shopvac before I brought it in the house. It replaced the GE dryer I bought in 1991.


54 posted on 04/22/2019 6:50:55 AM PDT by woodbutcher1963
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: semimojo

Oh BS, The issue if trade and tariffs hasn’t changes since 3000 BC. Adam Smith wrote his treatise in the 18th century does this make his work “out of date” also?


55 posted on 04/22/2019 6:52:01 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: mowowie

I can turn a knob halfway on my washer and fill it fast.

otherwise put a diverter on the back of the washer hoses and hose the water in.

This is the EPA at its finest.


56 posted on 04/22/2019 6:53:09 AM PDT by Chickensoup (Leftists totalitarian fascists appear to be planning to eradicate conservatives)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

I couldn’t agree with Trump more on tariffs.

He says he is for free trade, but when individual countries have higher tariffs on our equivalent products than we do on theirs, he tries to get them to lower their tariffs—and raises ours to match theirs until and unless they do.

Hard to argue with that.


57 posted on 04/22/2019 6:59:33 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

From the NYT? The only thing believable that they’d print are the tide tables; and then, maybe not even that.


58 posted on 04/22/2019 7:05:04 AM PDT by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Drango

“I feel dirty for agreeing with the NYTimes.”

As you should. It’s $92.00.

L


59 posted on 04/22/2019 7:06:59 AM PDT by Lurker (Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Chickensoup

I have a ‘deep fill’ knob but it only works with settings like heavy duty, light wash, blankets etc but NOT on normal setting which sucks.
On normal setting the machine weighs the load, adds a little water weighs it again adds a little water weighs it again....UGH

The separate hose is a good idea, i saw a video where a woman fills gallon jugs to add water to the load just so her clothes get wet and clean.


60 posted on 04/22/2019 7:07:25 AM PDT by mowowie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-96 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson