Free Republic

Look around at the merchandise at a Wal-Mart. Nearly everything is made in China with the sole exception of the label that says "Made in China"; that's made in America. Joking aside, America has lost its industrial base. Over the past four decades, nearly all our manufacturing has gone overseas. Steel is dead, electronics dead, manufacturing of every kind fallen victim to cheap imports. How can a nation survive if it doesn't make anything? Have we degenerated to such a point that we are now a dependent colony to imperial nations? We sell our trees to China and Japan so...

Brazil moved on Monday to raise tariffs on a wide range of American goods, potentially igniting a trade war with the US over cotton subsidies after eight years of litigation at the World Trade Organisation.The decision takes effect next month, starting a 30-day period during which US and Brazilian officials will attempt to negotiate a solution to the dispute.Gary Locke, US commerce secretary, and Michael Froman, deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs, are due to arrive in Brazil on Tuesday. The cotton dispute is expected to be raised in meetings with government officials.Under the Brazilian plan, duties would...

I am a Computer Hardware tech. I bought a computer display replacement part through eBay. I received the part today. The eBay listing said it was coming from Bkyln, NY, and the post mark confirms that. Here's the issue...It bears a label that says..."Not for Sale in, Use in, or Importation into the United States." I bought the same part number that was in the unit, which is the same as listed in the Dell Service Manual, with the slight exception of the Revision identifier, and it cross references back to the original revision identifier, as well.

This very readable book is aimed at both ordinary concerned citizens and people with a bit of sophistication about economics. It is a systematic examination of why free trade is slowly bleeding America's economy to death and what can be done about it. It explains in detail why the standard economic arguments free traders use all the time are false, and what kind of economic ideas — well within the grasp of the average American — justify protectionism instead. It examines the history and politics of free trade and explains how America came to adopt its present disastrous free trade...

China denounced as protectionist new U.S. anti-dumping duties on steel pipes on Friday and called for Washington's swift recognition that it is a market economy, a week before a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama. The United States on Thursday slapped preliminary anti-dumping duties ranging up to 99 percent on $2.63 billion in Chinese-made pipes used in the oil and gas industry, in the biggest U.S. trade action against China to date. The Commerce Department issued its preliminary decision a week before Obama heads to Asia on a trip that includes stops in Shanghai and Beijing. It follows counter-vailing duties...

Since The Wealth of Nations appeared more than two centuries ago, the case for free trade has been stated thousands of times, but perhaps never with more direct simplicity and force than it was stated in that volume. In general Smith rested his case on one fundamental proposition: “In every country it always is and must be the interest of the great body of the people to buy whatever they want of those who sell it cheapest.” “The proposition is so very manifest,” Smith continued, “that it seems ridiculous to take any pains to prove it; nor could it ever...

Two weeks ago, both the administration and the Fed announced with straight faces that the recession was over and the signs of economic recovery were clear. Then last week, the president made a stunning decision that signals the administration’s determination to repeat the mistakes of the Great Depression. Much like the Smoot-Hawley Tariffs that set off a global trade war and effectively doomed us to ten more years of economic misery, Obama’s decision to enact steep tariffs on Chinese imported tires could spark a trade war with the single most important trading partner we have. Not only does China manufacture...

Last week, the POTUS announced that it would impose a tariff of 35 percent on $1.8 billion of automobile tires imports from China, acting on a petition from one of his major constituencies, Big Labor (the United Steelworkers union). As you may expect china did not react pleasantly. Zhou Wenzhong, China’s ambassador to the U.S., warned that President Barack Obama’s decision to impose tariffs on Chinese tire imports may set a “dangerous precedent” as other industries ask for protection. Zhou said U.S. textile and steel producers may file similar so-called safeguard complaints against Chinese exporters, testing Obama’s commitment to avoid...

Earlier today, Doug Bandow weighed in with some commentary on the problems that Buy American provisions are creating for both Canadian and American businesses. Let me reinforce his view that such rules are anachronistic and self-defeating with some thoughts from a forthcoming paper of mine about the incongruity between modern commercial reality and trade policies that have failed to keep pace. Even though President Obama implored, “If you are considering buying a car, I hope it will be an American car,” it is nearly impossible to determine objectively what makes an American car. The auto industry provides a famous example,...

BEIJING (AP) -- Beijing filed a World Trade Organization complaint Monday over new U.S. tariffs on Chinese tires, stepping up pressure on Washington in the latest in a series of trade disputes. The conflict is a potential irritant as Washington and Beijing prepare for a summit of the Group of 20 leading economies in Pittsburgh on Sept. 24-25 to discuss efforts to end the worst global downturn since the 1930s. The Chinese complaint to the WTO in Geneva triggers a 60-day WTO process in which the two sides are to try to resolve the dispute through negotiations. If that fails,...

In May, the United States slapped new tariffs on steel pipe imports from China. In June, China imposed new barriers on U.S. and European Union exports of adipic acid, an industrial chemical used to make nylon and polyester resin. In July, the EU also decided to restrict imports of steel pipe from China. The important question now is, do these events foreshadow spiraling protectionism and tit-for-tat retaliation that threaten a global trade war? Or is trade policy always like this, and we’re just noticing more now, given the global slowdown and heightened fears of Smoot-Hawley-style protectionism? [snip]The count of newly...

PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - The U.S. government will get tough with governments that don't live up to trade deals, including those with substandard labor practices, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk was set to announce on Thursday. The USTR and U.S. Labor and State departments will identify and investigate labor violations in countries with which it has free trade agreements and insist problems are fixed, instead of waiting for complaints to initiate enforcement, according to prepared remarks. "If they won't fix their labor problems, we will exercise our legal options," Kirk was set to say in a speech at a U.S. Steel...

Despite indications that much of President Obama’s agenda is meeting intra-party skepticism all over Capitol Hill, there is one policy nexus where congressional leaders are still doggedly determined to move the country left: energy and the environment. Speaker Pelosi will reportedly allow a vote on the controversial Waxman-Markey “cap-and-trade” legislation at the end of this week. And it gets even better. Not content to tempt political fate by imposing huge carbon taxes on the American middle class, Democrats have added a provision which imposes stiff tariffs on our trading partners if they don’t adopt aggressive carbon restrictions of their own....

Team Obama floats a carbon tariff. One of President Obama's applause lines is that his climate tax policies will create new green jobs "that can't be outsourced." But if that's true, why is his main energy adviser floating a new carbon tariff on imports? Welcome to the coming cap and trade war. AP Energy Secretary Steven Chu made the protectionist point during an underreported House hearing this month, when he said tariffs and other trade barriers could be used as a "weapon" to force countries like China and India into cutting their own CO2 emissions. "If other countries don't impose...

Talk about shades of Smoot-Hawley, the 1930 tariff act that was designed to protect American jobs but, not too surprisingly, crippled industries relying on international trade when other nations retaliated. Production kept on plunging and unemployment kept on rising, extending the Depression. In today's extremely global economy, we shudder to think how much worse the consequences today might be. The Mexican trade war may just be getting revved up, thanks to the Obama administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress ending a Bush administration pilot program that allowed a limit of 97 Mexican long-haul truck drivers into the United States (whereas, under...

Protectionism is always bad policy. But protectionism during an economic downturn, after taxes have already risen, and in addition to a massive $2 trillion tax on energy consumption is, well, not good.Yet that is exactly what Energy Secretary David Chu seems to be edging towards.In response to the notion that American companies will move overseas when CO2 is capped, Secretary Chu suggested that the U.S. simply levy a carbon tariff on imports.This is why Secretaries of Energy should stick with energy and not economic policy. This is why free-markets work and command and control economies do not.At any rate, the...

MEXICO CITY (AFP) — Mexico on Monday said it would place tariffs on nearly 90 US products after Washington canceled a program that allowed some trucks from Mexico to operate in the United States. There is to be an "increase in customs duty on almost 90 industrial and agricultural products," Economy Minister Gerardo Ruiz Mateos said in a statement. Ruiz said the increase would represent some 2.4 billion dollars, but did not name the products. . . . . . The move drew a sharp rebuke from US Senator John McCain, who said he regretted Mexico's decision and also lashed...

By the choices we make we define ourselves. We reveal our biases and beliefs. And so, too, do our institutions. In writing the $789 billion stimulus bill, Congress revealed that, for all its "Buy American" blather, it does not truly put America first. It does not believe that 10 million jobless Americans, in the country their fathers built, should receive any preference in hiring 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens who broke into this country and owe her no loyalty, allegiance or love. Is this a slur on the patriotism of some of our congressmen? You betcha. What other...

Imagine that you and I are in a rowboat. I commit the stupid act of shooting a hole in my end of the boat. Would it be intelligent for you to respond by shooting a hole in your end of the boat? [snip to fit the excerpt rule; read the full article. NVA] Both of these scenarios are applicable to the Bush administration's 30 percent steel tariffs imposed last year. Those tariffs caused the domestic price for some steel products, such as hot-rolled steel, to rise by as much as 40 percent. The clear beneficiaries of the Bush steel tariffs...

"Compare and contrast, what international trade mistakes made by Presidents Herbert Hoover and Barack Obama helped lead the US into great depressions?" If President Obama is not careful that may very well be a question on future Social Studies Tests. Back in 1930 The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act was signed into law. It raised US tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods to record levels. The Smoot-Hawley Act almost completly halted U.S.-European trade the start of the Great Depression. Although the tariff act was passed after the stock-market crash of 1929, historians consider the political rhetoric leading up to the passing of...