Tag: Tariffs

Tit For Tat Tariffs

Even if you are a Repub you know that Trump has fired the shots of a tit for tat tariff war with China first and others to come…..and China will not roll over for Trump……

The United States hiked tariffs on Chinese imports Friday and Beijing announced it was retaliating against American goods in a technology dispute between the world’s two biggest economies that President Trump says he is prepared to escalate. Washington imposed 25% tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese imports, a first step in what could become an accelerating series of tariffs. Retaliatory measures “took effect immediately,” said a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Lu Kang. Hu gave no details, but the Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily said the customs agency was carrying out a plan announced last month to impose 25% tariffs on a $34 billion list of American goods including soybeans, pork, and electric cars, reports the AP.

The AP reports the first exchange of tariffs is unlikely to inflict much economic harm on either nation. Indeed, Asian financial markets took Friday’s developments in stride. Japan’s main stock index, the Nikkei 225, gained 1.1% while the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.5%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.8%. But President Trump said Thursday that he’s prepared to impose tariffs on up to $550 billion in Chinese imports—a figure that exceeds the $506 billion in goods that China actually shipped to the United States last year. Escalating tariffs would likely raise prices for consumers, inflate costs for companies that rely on imported parts, rattle financial markets, cause some layoffs, and slow business investment. A full-fledged trade war, economists warn, risks tipping the US economy into recession. See the AP for more, including the impacts the tariffs have already had .

I feel this is all just a feel good war…..there will be NO winners…..just workers losing…..

I would think that if someone was a graduate of the Wharton School they would understand the complexities of a trade war….but then I could be mistaken and Wharton does not teach such things.

The EU will be next on the targets of the Trump Tariff Train…..

Int trade4.jpg

Closing Thought–03Jul18

You know that there is humor in DC….you just have to know where to look…..

For months now the big story has been the tariffs that Trump has decided to punish our allies and neighbors with…….his newest attempt…….

Take the Fair & Reciprocal Tariffs Act……what shall we call it for short?  How about the FART Act?

President Trump is no fan of the World Trade Organization, and Axios reports that he ordered his advisers to work up a bill that would give him broad power to circumvent WTO rules and negotiate his own deals. The story by Jonathan Swan uses the words “insane” and “stunning” to describe the bill’s scope, though it adds that the measure has virtually no chance of becoming reality. Trump reportedly was briefed on the working draft in May. CNN confirms the existence of the leaked proposal, called the United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act. And, yes, the emergence of that name has led to a barrage of social media jokes and commentary about the FART Act, notes the Guardian. “WTO has its flaws, but the ‘United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act,’ aka the U.S. FART Act, stinks,” writes Anthony Scaramucci. “American consumers pay for tariffs.”

And this from a New York Post staffer: “As an editor who writes some headlines at the NY Post can I just say I’m really psyched about the FART Act,” writes Seth Mandel. The Axios report says most of the Trump officials who worked up the proposal think it’s unrealistic, and that has led to speculation that staffers gave it the unfortunate acronym on purpose, notes Business Insider. A White House spokesperson confirmed that Trump asked his team to work up ideas to “remedy” what he sees as unfair trade laws. “The only way this would be news is if this were actual legislation that the administration was preparing to roll out, but it’s not,” says Lindsay Walters. “Principals have not even met to review any text of legislation on reciprocal trade.”

You just cannot make up this shit……DC has better than the Late Nite TV shows……they do it all to themselves……gotta love it.

Following the close of a second quarter that will be best remembered by President Trump’s vacillations on trade, Axios has dropped a Sunday night bombshell that may spook markets hoping for a respite from the daily escalating trade war rhetoric as the second half of the year begins: White House reporter Jonathan Swan has obtained a copy of a draft bill, purportedly ordered by Trump himself, that would allow the US to “walk away” from its commitments to the World Trade Organization.

http://theantimedia.com/trump-blow-up-world-trade-organization/

Good times coming!

Closing Thought–25Jun18

The past week the screaming and yelling on the news and in most so-called conserv blogs has been about the border situation….if I need to catch you up then try Google I will not waste my time…..but the news that the corporate Americans would be watching have very little to do with the border…..

Following tariffs recently imposed on steel and aluminum, U.S. businesses have been forced to pay more than $110 million in tariffs in just 13 days according to the Customs and Border Patrol. The U.S. took in $82.2 million in steel tariffs and $28.3 million in aluminum tariffs between June 1-14.

The unintended consequences of tariffs are vast, and have a harmful ripple effect throughout our economy. In just two weeks, U.S. businesses could have spent $110 million in a much different way. Consider the following:

$110 million is enough to hire 2,000 out of work Americans at $55k salaries for an entire year.

$110 million is enough to purchase 4,000 brand new, American made, Jeep Wranglers using the MSRP of $27,495.

https://freedompartners.org/press/report-tariffs-cost-u-s-businesses-more-than-100-million-in-just-two-weeks/

Apparently “Freedom Partners” is not here to cover the horrible policies to this man we call “president”….

I realize that economics is not something most conservs can get a grip on…but all the yelling about the border has done nothing to strengthen our economy and neither has the policies of the dude in the White House.  (Please do not taunt the stock market as proof….there is more to an economy than the markets….if you need a quick refresher course on economics…..https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/economics)

Time for a change…..period!

A Trade Update

We all have heard or read or watched the game being played with international trade…….BAM!  Trump has levied tariffs on international steel ans aluminum….and then the president goes to the G7 and blows up everything…..

First floated the idea of scrapping all tariffs……

President Trump reportedly asked world leaders at the Group of Seven Summit on Friday to consider “no tariffs” at all amid growing tensions over the administration’s trade moves.

Politico, citing officials who listened and took notes of the discussions, reported that Trump told assembled world leaders that “we should at least consider no tariffs, no barriers — scrapping all of it.”

(thehill.com)

Did I miss something?

After saying that nugget……Trump threatens to end ALL trade……

Leaving the G7 summit on Saturday, President Trump said that the U.S. might end all trade with America’s closest allies if those countries don’t submit to his demands over reduced trade barriers. Trump also confirmed that he had told the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Canada, and Italy that there should be no tariffs between them and the U.S. of any kind. Whether Trump’s characteristically hyperbolic threat, or overarching proposal, will be taken seriously is another matter.

Referring to what he called “ridiculous and unfair” tariffs on U.S. imports, Trump said, “It’s going to stop — or we’ll stop trading with them. And that’s a very profitable answer, if we have to do it.”

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/06/trump-threatens-to-end-all-trade-with-allies.html

Okay what part of any of that sounds like something that would be taught at the Wharton school?

Why did he waste time pissing everybody off?

BTW just a reminder where the trade goes here in the US….

Then there was some good news (at least for me)….

Before I begin let me say…..my more Right leaning brethren have accused me of hating our president, Donald J. Trump.  They are mistaken I may dislike the man but I hate very few people.

With that said there are a few policies that Trump espoused that I could agree with….some of his campaign thoughts on war and foreign policy and a few domestic things…the problem is that when he became president he back peddled on the ones I liked….that fed my dislike.

Everyone knows about the trade war that Trump is about to start with the rest of the world, right?  Well he has made a statement that I fully agree with….he has said that he wants to ban German luxury cars.

President Donald Trump is hoping to effectively ban sales of Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and other German cars, according to reports from a German magazine.

A report in WirtschaftsWoche cites unnamed diplomatic sources who say Trump told French president Emmanuel Macron he would maintain his trade policy “until no Mercedes models rolled on Fifth Avenue in New York.” The trade policy would seemingly affect any German automaker, though, putting sales of Porsche and Volkswagen (and its Audi luxury division) at risk as well as Daimler.

Trump has long held a hardline position toward German automakers. Last January, he underscored this in comments that appeared in the German magazine Bild.

“When you walk down Fifth Avenue, everybody has a Mercedes-Benz parked in front of his house,” Trump said, according to a Wall Street Journal translation of the comments. “You were very unfair to the U.S.A. It isn’t mutual. How many Chevrolets do you see in Germany? Not many, maybe none, you don’t see anything at all over there. It’s a one-way street.”

(yahoo news)

This will not sit well with the pretentious twats that own one of these cars….I say let these self-centered slugs buy American.

Since I am an Italian sports car enthusiast, Ferrari, Maserati, Alfas I cannot disagree or fault Trump for his vendetta against the Germans.

Let me leave you with a small joke…..

What is the difference between a porcupine and a BMW?

A porcupine has all the PRICKS on the outside.

(rim shot)

Not to worry if you are wealthy enough for one of their pieces of scrap metal then you will find a way around the ban…..they always do.  Their money will buy lots of privilege.

More bad news about these new tariffs….economist say that the dollars saved by people because of the tax cuts will be taken away because of increase in prices…….

Your trade moment is done….I return you to your regular reading habits….

Be well, be safe…..chuq

Trade Wars Cometh

Just last month Pres. Trump let it be known that he would enforce tariffs on steel and aluminum……the first shots were fired in the new trade wars…..these will effect Americans in several ways….cost of cars and even their addictive sodas…..but what will Asia do in response?

The Bangkok Post had an op-ed on this situation……

Over the past five decades or so, Asia’s economies have relied largely on an export-oriented development model to support rapid economic transformation and growth. But with US President Donald Trump fulfilling…

In the past year, Mr Trump has withdrawn the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), renegotiated its free-trade agreement with South Korea, and raised “safeguard” tariffs on imported washing machines…

https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1439051/how-asia-can-tackle-us-trade-wars

China has made it official that it will respond…it has notified the WTO of its intentions…..

The notification came in a WTO document that was dated last Thursday but posted only after the Easter public holidays.

It came after China said late on Sunday that it has increased tariffs by up to 25 per cent on 128 US products, escalating a dispute between the world’s biggest economies.

China has now fulfilled its legal duty to notify the WTO and other member states of its retaliatory measures.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2140113/china-will-give-good-it-gets-trade-war-united-states

The great Trade Wars of the 21st Century have begun….

This is the warning shot of the end of the “Pax Americana” (a bit melodramatic)…..do not know what that means then stay tuned for I will cover the “Pax” in an upcoming post.

Free Trade Or Fair Trade

Just the other day Pres. Trump signed his EO on tariffs on steel and aluminum imports  in doing so he has started a debate on free trade….many do not see his tariffs as good for the notion of free trade and still others think that free trade is a cornerstone of conservatism…..but is it, that cornerstone?

The American Conservative spotlights this in a recent article….

According to a recent analysis in the New York Times, President Trump’s “isolationist” trade policy is “at odds with longstanding conservative orthodoxy about the benefits of free and open markets.” The reader is further told that the president is under pressure from his working-class base, which is obstreperously demanding that protectionist taxes be placed on imported steel and aluminum.

I say not so fast.

The Times presents the GOP base’s supposed impatience with free trade as a departure from almost sacred Republican beliefs, and free trade itself as a permanent conservative characteristic. Their evidence is that large corporations favor free trade while labor unions have generally been more protectionist.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/free-trade-shouldnt-be-a-litmus-test-for-conservatism/

TAC also takes a look, a historic look, at tariffs…..

America’s first great protectionist political figure was Alexander Hamilton, George Washington’s treasury secretary. And compared to later mercantilist politicians in our history, Hamilton wasn’t even that much of a protectionist. His original U.S. tariff bill imposed an average taxation level of just 8.5 percent on imported goods. And Hamilton argued that any protection encompassed in those duties, as opposed to revenue requirements, should be discontinued as soon as protected industries established themselves in the American economy.

Hamilton’s opponents, the early American free traders, feared he had created a monster, while northeastern industrialists, particularly in Pennsylvania, predictably argued that protection should be substantial and permanent to ensure national prosperity.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/americas-tumultuous-history-with-tariffs/

It is too early to tell if the Trump tariffs will be good for the country or not…..steelworkers union seems to think it will be but many economists see it doing the opposite for the country.

Trump has already exempted some countries from his tariffs….that right there tells me that he is not serious.  If you are going to impose tariffs then it should be on all involved not a select few.

Time will tell whether good or bad.

Here A Tariff, There A Tariff

The word of the week….both this week and last is….TARIFF.

And as I always do I will look into the history of this country to explain the term of the week…….

The year was 1930 and the Congress enacted the Smoot-Hawley Act.

Okay what the Hell was the Smoot-Hawley Act?

The Smoot-Hawley Act is the Tariff Act of 1930. It increased 900 import tariffs by an average of 40 to 48 percent. Most economists blame it for worsening the Great Depression. That means it also contributed to the start of World War II.

In June 1930, Smoot-Hawley raised already-high U.S. tariffs on foreign agricultural imports. The purpose was to support U.S. farmers who had been ravaged by the Dust Bowl.

Rather than helping, it raised food prices for Americans who were already suffering from the Depression. It also compelled other countries to retaliate with their own tariffs. That forced global trade down by 65 percent.

Smoot-Hawley showed how dangerous trade protectionism is for the global economy. Since then, world leaders advocate free trade agreements that promote increased trade for all participants.

Our president has decided that he likes the idea of imposing tariffs on steel ans aluminum….and no matter which party one aspires to there is few that see any good coming from tariffs (my favorite part of this is to listen to a lying bitch thumping the cheap drum to the positive works that these things will do).

“Trade wars are good,” tweeted U.S. President Donald Trump, “and easy to win.”

And just like that, we’re back in the thick of it: Trump, looking to Make America Great Again, has threatened to use section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to impose tariffs of 25 per cent on steel imports and 10 per cent on aluminum, suggesting it’s a matter of U.S. national security. That would have a heavy impact on Canada, as it is the number-one supplier of both steel and aluminum to the United States. Of course, those proposed levies may just be more bluster for the ongoing NAFTA negotiations; indeed, Trump has said that a “new and fair” NAFTA deal would prompt the U.S. to consider an exemption.

But several things indicate things could be serious, including the Dow’s initial slump in reaction and many Republicans’ frenzied opposition to the decision. More worrying, even, is the fact that it’s entirely consistent with the rhetoric Trump campaigned on—namely, getting blue-collar workers in distressed industries back on the job with protectionist measures.

http://www.macleans.ca/opinion/what-we-can-learn-from-a-disastrous-1930-u-s-tariff-on-canadian-goods/

Some think that it will cost jobs……With economists warning of a potential 146,000 American jobs lost due to the proposed tariffs, Business Insider reveals the US states that could be hit hardest, including Louisiana, Connecticut, and Missouri.

There are some that think that this is just a tactic the president is using to keep the Rust Belt in his sphere of influence and that he will roll everything he has said back……an election ploy for the mid-terms.

We can hope that is his play but some of us do not think he is that clever.

I will do something that my Right wing brethren seldom do…..To be fair…..there is some positive news about the tariff thing…..

US Steel Corp says it will soon restart a blast furnace in Illinois that has been cold for over two years thanks to the 25% tariff on imported steel announced by President Trump last week, Politico reports. US Steel President David Burritt blames “unending waves of unfairly traded steel products” arriving in the US for the poor fortunes of steel workers in Granite City. He believes the planned tariff will turn that around. Restarting the blast furnace at Granite City Works will take up to four months. And while some believe Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum will be political winners, many experts are predicting harm to the US economy.

Finally…… Noah Smith at Bloomberg writes the tariffs could be a “self-inflicted wound” for Trump. He says tariffs typically don’t end up improving American industries. Rather they prevent industries from figuring out how to keep pace with global competitors, may lead to their products being seen as shoddy, and might hurt US manufacturers.

Has the GOP become an anti free trade party?

What say you?