Posted on 06/03/2019 2:26:23 AM PDT by reaganaut1
President Trump believes, not without good reason, that the Mexican government is not doing its utmost to stop the illegal flow of Central Americans crossing the U.S. border. And so he has responded with . . . a $17 billion–a–year–and–rising sales tax on Americans.
The president loves tariffs. He believes that they are an effective means of protecting American firms from unfair overseas competition and a good negotiating tool as he works to reform trade agreements that he believes are disadvantageous to Americans. But the question of who ends up actually paying any given tax is complicated. The price of those tariffs, and the retaliatory tariffs they have provoked, is very high for American companies: For example, the tariffs Beijing imposed in response to Trump’s have cost American farmers an enormous part of their export market (half of exported U.S. soybeans used to go to China; the tariffs have been a gift to Brazilian producers), but the U.S. tariffs themselves are an enormous problem, too. Many American manufacturers import raw materials and components from abroad, and complex products such as automobiles and electronics may cross the border several times in the course of production.
A 5 percent tariff on Mexican goods would notionally amount to about $17 billion on U.S. imports from Mexico, touching everything from industrial components to fruit and crude oil. In reality, it is difficult to say how much money would be raised, because buyers respond to tariffs in unpredictable ways. In any case, many of those costs will be borne by American consumers and — this cannot be emphasized enough — American businesses that rely in some part on imported inputs. More important, it would cause uncertainty around a North American supply chain that has evolved organically over many years
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
STFU NRO. Go after Congress. Trump is doing this because they aren’t doing their jobs.
It is not that Trump loves tariffs.
It is one of the few tools he has with limited Congressional interference.
Money talks. He understands this more than most. Mexico can stop this quite easily - if the Government has any control unless the Cartels really do run the show.
Maybe if Congress did their job. (/sarc!)
Some of US actually place country before the worship of that ‘wall’ street golden bull.
Of course these traitors are against it.
One peek at who funds their “foundation” would curl anyone’s hair. They are great pals with all the wrong Russian oligarchs, etc.
Oh they are just so smart at NR...Perhaps they’ll bone up on economics by reading their “The Economist” magazine next, and become even smarter that we could ever be!
Extreme sarcasm
I guess treaties such as NAFTA, CAFTA and SHAFTA just spring from the earth, or so the NR would make you believe.
There is nothing "organic" about capitalism. It comes from hard working people applying their skills.
This guy is one beer short of a six pack. The tariff is going to hurt Mexico a LOT more than it’s going to hurt US consumers.
If it ratchets all the way up to 25%, that country will implode.
Tariffs are the only thing left.
I’ve been critical of Trump on some tariff policies, but not this one. It meets all the fundamental standards I would use in establishing trade policy. I also suspect this is less about pressuring Mexico than about pressuring Congress.
And if it implodes then where are many of the people going to want to go?
How ironic that at the time of the year that we reflect on the anniversary of an event ( D-Day ) where so many people sacrificed their lives and did without on the home front that you have weasels worried about a little inconvenience for a REAL invasion in front of their eyes.
“And if it implodes then where are many of the people going to want to go?”
Hopefully to Mexico City with torches and pitchforks.
L
They sure as hell won't be coming here. Trump will see to that.
As usual NRO is anti
There is no sales tax on a Non-purchase.
Bump
The amazing amount of money involved here makes me unsurprised at the number of people coming out against the tariffs - almost all of them are friends of the Mexican government who know full well that the price paid by receivers in the US won’t change for oil products, that it’s all going to come out of the pockets of the government down there.
And they also know full well that it’s going to take more than an 8 billion dollar hit to the government’s budget before they decide to do something about the illegal parade.
So they’re squawking up a storm to try to quash this as that 8 billion will swiftly turn into 16 billion and possibly even 24 billion - that’s beyond all the money Mexico likes to spread around to their friends.
No bueno. The citizens of Mexico have long wanted the illegal parades to be halted, and the US is finally doing things to put a halt to the open southern border - time for Mexico to step up to the plate and do it as well.
Alternately, I suppose they could simply choose to pay 5 billion a year for a wall across the US southern border. It’d probably be cheaper than this political game of chicken that Mexico won’t win.
Oh, and as for the soy bean crops? Brazil benefited by finally having a market, US farmers ended up with better European contracts, and China’s paying more for the crops. Been a real drain on the economy that one was...
Perot was right!
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