Tag: Taraiffs

NAFTA Vs USMCA

In 2016 Trump and I had something in common…..we both disliked NAFTA….the only difference was he could do something about it and I could only bitch about it.

US, Canada and Mexico have come to an agreement on trade and NAFTA…..

Canada and the United States reached a deal Sunday night for Canada to stay in a free trade pact with the US and Mexico. In a joint statement late Sunday, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said the agreement “will strengthen the middle class, and create good, well-paying jobs and new opportunities for the nearly half billion people who call North America home.” The new deal, reached just before a midnight deadline imposed by the US, will be called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. It replaces the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, which President Trump had called a job-killing disaster.

The agreement reached Sunday gives US farmers greater access to the Canadian dairy market. But it keeps a NAFTA dispute-resolution process that the US wanted to jettison and offers Canada protection if Trump goes ahead with plans to impose tariffs on cars, trucks, and auto parts imported into the United States, the AP reports. “It’s a good day for Canada,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said as he left his office. Canada, the United States’ No. 2 trading partner, was left out when the US and Mexico reached an agreement last month to revamp NAFTA. US-Canada talks bogged down earlier this month, and most trade analysts expected the Sept. 30 deadline to come and go without Canada being reinstated.

Of course Trump’s new replacement for NAFTA has a nice ring to it……USMCA

America’s free trade pact with Mexico and Canada may be alive, but the same can’t be said for the NAFTA moniker. Once the new deal was arrived at Sunday night its new name was announced: the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. President Trump weighed in on the name during a Monday press conference, saying, “It has a good ring to it.” It’s also “a great deal,” he said per USA Today, one that should “pass easily, really easily … in theory there should be no trouble.” Congress needs to approve the agreement, and it needs to be ratified in Mexico and Canada as well. As for how one should say the name, Trump didn’t read it as a word a la NAFTA but spelled the letters out: U-S-M-C-A.

CNBC reports that while much of the deal echoes that of NAFTA, there are pivots in terms of how the dairy and auto industries are handled: US dairy producers’ access to Canadian markets will increase, while Mexico and Canada scored a win in terms of an exemption on passenger vehicles, pickups, and auto parts from potential tariffs. CNBC has much more, including details on changes that will could up the price of cars made in Mexico, which could push more of these jobs north of the border.

NYTimes op-ed states that USMCA is worse than NAFTA…….

North American business leaders are breathing a sigh of relief after Canada agreed, at the 11th hour, to join the revised North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Mexico. But before they break out the Champagne, they should look at the details.

Although the revised deal brings much-needed modernization in areas such as e-commerce and intellectual property, the media spotlight on Canada has obscured a bigger problem for the region: Under the new terms, North American trade is headed off the rails and, perhaps along with it, political stability south of the border.

But leave it to the master of business, the grad from the Wharton School, to negotiate a deal that has LESS trade in it……

The United States, Canada, and Mexico have completed their renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Being nothing, if not creative, negotiators named this revamp the “United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on Trade,” or USMCA for short. While the namers get an F for imagination and creativity, they receive an A for self-evaluation skills, as they aptly removed the term “free trade” from the title. The USMCA does not advance free trade in the world.

There are more than a few labor and manufacturing provisions in this bill that will, no doubt, lead to higher prices for American consumers. There is a sourcing requirement, which mandates that 75 percent of automobile parts be produced in North America, otherwise that automobile cannot enter duty-free. Not only are the costs of auto parts already rising due to President Trump’s trade dispute with China, they will now rise even further due to the requirement that manufacturers use more expensive domestic parts that could have been imported more cheaply.

https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2018/10/02/leave_it_to_trump_to_negotiate_a_deal_that_leads_to_less_trade_103433.html

Is that a technique known only to those that study at Wharton?

How to cut a deal where there is less trade than the previous deal.

Word Of The Week–Tariffs

There is a word that sent the world’s markets into a skid…..and that word is tariffs…..and our president pulled the “T” word……

President Trump announced new tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum—25% and 10% respectively—on Thursday, leading some experts to fear a global trade war, the New York Times reports. “Our Steel and Aluminum industries … have been decimated by decades of unfair trade and bad policy with countries from around the world,” Trump tweeted Thursday morning. “We must not let our country, companies and workers be taken advantage of any longer.” Experts say the tariffs could lead to retaliation from other countries (China is talking about tariffs on US sorghum and soybeans and the EU is considering tariffs on US cheese and bourbon), higher prices on goods using steel and aluminum, and possibly an economic slowdown. Nervous investors sent the Dow plunging 500 points immediately after the news broke, reports the AP.

According to Business Insider, the Commerce Department recommended tariffs of 24% and 7%, but it was reported Trump preferred a “round number.” The Times describes a “frenetic and chaotic morning” leading to Trump’s announcement. White House advisers have bitterly debated tariffs for months, and Trump decided only Wednesday to announce them, CNN reports. White House aides were still discussing if the tariffs will apply to all countries or just a handful as of Thursday morning, and a White House official says the policy is not ready to be implemented yet. Advisers were still debating Thursday morning if Trump could announce anything. “Maybe he wants to make an announcement, but the proclamation isn’t ready,” one White House official says. “Without the proclamation, nothing has legal force.” Despite announcing the tariffs Thursday, Trump said he won’t sign the trade measures until next week. At this point, the specifics of those measures are unclear.

Now that the word has been used can Trump make good on his threat?

The Heritage Foundation had a bit to say on this…….

This month, at least four major trade cases will cross President Donald Trump’s desk: (1) a Section 201 (of the 1974 Trade Act) case on solar panels and modules, (2) a Section 201 case on large residential washers, (3) a Section 232 (of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act) case on steel, and (4) a Section 232 case on aluminum. These cases seek to restrict imports from all countries, minus a few exceptions, as a safeguard against alleged unfair competition under Section 201, and on the basis of national security under Section 232.

While the four cases involve different products and sectors of the economy, they have a few simple things in common. First, the domestic industries lobbying the government in each case are trying to use the political process to overcome setbacks in the economic marketplace. Second, the remedies being sought have the potential to cause serious damage to other firms or sectors of the U.S. economy. Finally, any actions taken by the government will increase the prices of the products in question in America.

https://www.heritage.org/trade/report/four-guidelines-the-president-when-considering-tariffs

President Trump’s announcement that he plans to impose a 25% tariff on steel imports and 10% on aluminum is reverberating not just in the US but around the world in the form of jittery stock markets and worries about a trade war. A look at what’s going on:

  • Beer, autos: In theory, the move could make things such as beer, autos, and even baseball bats—essentially, anything made with the metals—more expensive, reports CNN. But as the Upshot blog of the New York Times explains, how much of a price increase is unclear. “If your favorite beer producers are looking at paying an extra fraction of a cent for each aluminum can, they might just take on the cost themselves, they might raise prices, or they might split the difference.”
  • Biggest suppliers: Brazil, Canada, and South Korea supplied the most steel to the US last year, while Canada, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates were the leaders in aluminum in 2016, per CNBC. One economist warned of “surgical strikes” in retaliation, meaning counter-tariffs on specific products.

Will Congress intercede or will they what cowards do….run and hide behind the petticoats of the president?  Or will the mamby pamby Trump change his mind…..you know like he has on immigration and guns….