Free Republic

President Donald Trump is responding to a trade war — not starting one — he inherited by pursuing a “level playing field” via tariffs, wrote former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Monday. Palin pointed to comments made by Breitbart News’s Senior Editor-at-Large Rebecca Mansour last Thursday about Trump’s proposals to combat “economic warfare” waged by China to destroy America’s steel and aluminum manufacturers.....The “Trump Doctrine” illustrates the president’s wisdom via his “private sector experience,” wrote Palin: President Trump inherited this trade war, and he’s an atypical politician determined to actually do something to fix the problem. The Trump Doctrine involves...

US President Donald Trump's vow to step-up protectionist policies to boost the US car industry could lead to a 10-percent drop in profits for German automakers, Germany's Center for Automotive Research (CAR) has warned. The trade barriers would see the European Union's alliance with America "deteriorate significantly," the center's director, Ferdinand Dudenhöffer told DW. He said Trump's desire to "punish" Washington's main trading partners in Europe would inevitably end in a messy divorce that would hurt US car manufacturers more.

BERLIN (Reuters) – German engineering orders jumped 14 percent in January from a year ago, driven by strong demand at home and from euro zone partners, the VDMA industry group said on Monday, a further sign that Europe’s biggest economy is on track for solid growth. Contracts for ‘Made in Germany’ goods from both domestic and foreign customers jumped by 14 percent in real terms, VDMA said. While orders from countries outside the euro zone climbed 10 percent, those from countries in the single currency area jumped by 24 percent.

President Trump’s proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports horrify Republican leaders in Congress — but they could yet pay political dividends. Trump’s move, cast by the White House as an effort to protect American manufacturing, has significant appeal in the Rust Belt states that were pivotal to his shock 2016 election win. Some Democrats in the region worry that senior figures in their party, especially those whose bases are in affluent coastal cities, are underestimating the political potency of Trump’s announcement. “It worries me as a Democrat that the national Democrats don’t see that Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa and...

The German government warned Monday that a transatlantic trade war would harm both Europe and the US, urging Washington not to take a “wrong path” after a weekend of aggressive trade rhetoric. “I don’t want to judge how close to or far from a trade war we are. Such a trade war would not be in German, European or American interests,” Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin. However, “closing oneself off and protectionism are the wrong path,” Seibert added, after President Donald Trump at the weekend threatened to impose tariffs on car imports from the European...

U.S. steelmakers say Chinese steel companies are purposely avoiding U.S. import tariffs by routing their shipments through Vietnam – and they want the Commerce Department to take action to stop it. U.S. Steel, ArcelorMittal, Nucor Corp., and AK Steel plan to file petitions today and Monday with Commerce, which will have 45 days to decide whether to take up the cases. If Commerce eventually finds that China is evading U.S. tariffs, it could expand tariffs on steel that originates in China but is shipped through Vietnam. And as the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, the American steel companies appear...

President Donald Trump has caused yet another uproar as he calls for a slew of tariffs and taxes to be charged to countries which tariff and tax US exports. If we were to rely solely on the complicit media, this would appear to a disastrous bit of policy making that will doom American industry…But that ignores the reality of how trade imbalances actually work. This all began with a Tweet from the president that soon turned into an alleged policy. He said: “We must protect our country and our workers. Our steel industry is in bad shape. IF YOU DON’T...

Ronald Reagan was the protectionist Donald Trump might want to be, yet didn’t provoke market panic or a trade war. Reagan slapped import quotas on cars, motorcycles, forklifts, memory chips, color TVs, machine tools, textiles, steel, Canadian lumber and mushrooms. There was no market meltdown. Donald Trump hit foreign steel and aluminum, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 600 points on Thursday and Friday. Reagan was no genius administrator ( Herbert Hoover was) so that’s not the difference. Though he promised Michigan auto workers help with Japanese imports and was grateful when they voted for him, he...

If the U.S. were to exit NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), the price you pay for most foodstuff at the grocery store would drop 10% in the first quarter and likely drop 20% or more by the end of the first year. Here’s why: Approximately a decade ago the U.S. Dept of Agriculture stopped using U.S. consumer food prices within the reported measures of inflation. The food sector joined the ranks of fuel and energy prices in no longer being measured to track core inflation and backdrop Fed monetary policy. Not coincidentally this was simultaneous to U.S. consumers seeing...

Last week President Trump announced a new 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent hike on aluminum imports. Foreign leaders like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the move "unacceptable" and the European Union threatened to respond to the U.S. with their own tariff. Try it, Trump dared. He'll just add a new tax on European cars.British Prime Minister Theresa May shared her own "deep concerns" with Trump directly in a phone call on Sunday. What he should have done was pursue "multilateral action," May reportedly told the president.At least one person sees where Trump is coming from.Sen....

One of the ironies of trade protectionism is that tariffs and import quotas are what we do to ourselves in times of peace what foreign nations do to us with blockades to keep imports from entering our country in times of war. Or consider that we impose sanctions on U.S. enemies such as North Korea, Russia and Iran because we want them to feel the economic pain of being deprived of imports. But now we are imposing sanctions on our own country by punishing with tariffs in order to make Americans more prosperous. If ever there were a crisis of...

One of the ironies of trade protectionism is that tariffs and import quotas are what we do to ourselves in times of peace and what foreign nations do to u‎s with blockades to keep imports from entering our country in times of war. Or consider that we impose sanctions on U.S. enemies such as North Korea, Russia, and Iran because we want them to feel the economic pain of being deprived of imports. But now we are imposing sanctions on our own country, putting up tariffs supposedly to make Americans more prosperous. If ever there were a crisis of logic,...

There was a simple reason why Donald Trump won the 2016 election. It wasn’t because Vladimir Putin was changing votes (though he didn’t.) It wasn’t because evangelicals voted for him in necessary numbers (though they did.)The reason I felt strong enough about it the week of the election that I drew a map predicting how he would win—which states—and was correct, was far simpler than the wildest conspiracies you’ve heard. He connected with working people, and they trusted him. Particularly they trusted him in states with a lot of empty production plants. Like making a solemn vow, they trusted him...

After announcing plans to impose a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum, President Trump tweeted that “trade wars are good and easy to win.” I have protectionist sympathies and I believe manufacturing still matters. The decline of steel and aluminum manufacturing in the US has had a devastating effect on many communities– such as Ashtabula and Youngstown, Ohio. I’m not sure how good or winnable trade wars are, but there’s no doubt that countries which export steel to the US will retaliate in kind– making it harder to sell American-made products and...

Capitol Hill Republicans went into an emotional meltdown after President Trump announced plans to impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. “Let’s be clear: The President is proposing a massive tax increase on American families. Protectionism is weak, not strong. You’d expect a policy this bad from a leftist administration, not a supposedly Republican one,” Sen. Ben Sasse said, according to NBC News. But Sasse and other Republicans pouncing on the White House because of the tariffs are engaging in a bit of historic revisionism. Far from being a deviation from Republican orthodoxy, Trump’s tariffs have very clear precedents in...

It's amazing.  Even a topic as dry as tariffs gets the press's bias wheels turning.  Here's one example, from Reuters: Toyota Motor Corp said on Friday U.S. tariffs on imported steel and aluminum would substantially raise costs and therefore prices of cars and trucks sold in America. "The (U.S.) Administration's decision to impose substantial steel and aluminum tariffs will adversely impact automakers, the automotive supplier community and consumers," the automaker told Reuters. Toyota added that more than 90 percent of the steel and aluminum purchased for cars built in the United States is sourced from the country. Substantially?  In making this claim, somehow,...

President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports have many economists and lawmakers worried about a coming trade war. But workers and others in this community, where steel has been made for well over a century, see a chance for more jobs and bigger paychecks. ... He said workers have had a wage freeze since 2014, and added, “Hopefully better wages and benefits come from this.”

- Giant pile of aluminum was discovered two years ago in central Mexico - Measures one million metric ton; six per cent of world's aluminum stock - Industry exec is convinced it is related to Chinese billionaire Liu Zhongtian - Believes China has been routing aluminum through Mexico to avoid tariffs

Donald Trump doubled down Friday on his plan for steel and aluminum tariffs, telling his advisers he won’t exempt any countries from the new blunderbuss border taxes, and issuing on Twitter one of the greatest displays of economic nonsense in presidential history. “When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win. Example, when we are down $100 billion with a certain country and they get cute, don’t trade anymore-we win big. It’s easy!,” Mr. Trump tweeted Friday morning. Let’s parse that...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican President Donald Trump’s market-jolting promise to slap heavy U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports has earned him praise from an unusual quarter - Democratic lawmakers. Some Democrats, mainly from Rust Belt states, but from other areas too, hailed the president’s plan for tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum.