In for a penny, in for a pound—Donald Trump says he’s considering tariffs on everything China sells us:
President Donald Trump has indicated that he is willing to slap tariffs on every Chinese good imported to the U.S. should the need arise.
“I’m ready to go to 500,” the president told CNBC’s Joe Kernen in a “Squawk Box” interview.
The reference is to the dollar amount of Chinese imports the U.S. accepted in 2017 — $505.5 billion to be exact, compared to the $129.9 billion the U.S. exported to China, according to Census Bureau data.
Thus far in the burgeoning trade war, the U.S. has slapped tariffs on just $34 billion of Chinese products, which China met with retaliatory duties [Jeff Cox, “Trump Says He’s ‘Ready’ to Put Tariffs on All $505 Billion of Chinese Goods Imported to the US,” CNBC, 2018.07.20].
In his continuing insulting portrayal of the greatest country on Earth as a weak victim being “ripped off” and “taken advantage of,” Trump fails to explain just how the millions of Americans who buy goods from China are being harmed. Nearly every product we buy is labeled with its country of origin (except our beef and pork, and why have you not taken action on that, Donald?). Consumers can see if they’re buying products from good patriotic American workers or evil Chinese Communists, and most of us keep buying the Chinese products.
From a free-market perspective, things seem to be working just fine. Donald Trump is taking a big-government stance, imposing big taxes on consumers to punish them for their marketplace choices.
Related: Creighton University economists Ernie Goss, who has never struck me as a big liberal, says the tariffs Trump has already imposed are hurting grain prices and depressing prospects of economic growth in the Midwest.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/economy/article-us-slams-canada-others-in-wto-case-for-retaliating-against-trumps/
Drumpf swears it is not fair for nations to retaliate against him.
Comrade trump put a washing machine tariff right out of the chute. Let us see how that is working for the head cheerleader, Whirlpool. Oops, not so good on their workers, their plans for expansion and their bottom line. Bummer, trade wars are easy to win according to the Putin/trump regime.
“American firms cheering for protectionism in the form of tariffs on their foreign competitors should be careful what they wish for. As they say, “What goes around comes around.” Case in point: The American washer and dryer manufacturer Whirlpool Corp.
Last January, the Trump administration imposed a penalty on Americans who buy foreign-made washers. The administration argued that the need to protect our domestic washer makers from competition required the imposition, for a period of three years, of a 20 percent duty on the first 1.2 million imported washing machines each year and a 50 percent duty on quantities above that threshold. Whirlpool loved the idea of getting a leg up on two of its most fierce competitors and increasingly consumer darlings, South Korean Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. Why bother trying to produce goods that your consumers want to buy when Uncle Sam can make your competitors’ stuff artificially more expensive?” https://reason.com/archives/2018/07/19/trumps-tariffs-injure-another-american-b
Soybean and corn producers, while you are cheering Comrade trump and thinking that this is gonna get better, it will start when you put Tim Bjorkman in office. Until then, bupkis, just like you were warned about.
Hey, he didn’t go bankrupt multiple times for no reason. He tends to follow his guy, but that is just excess KFC and Big Macs. You all voted for it. Here it comes! :-(
Canada once again reaps the wind of Comrade trump’s war against agriculture. This time, seafood. How is that agriculture you might ask, well, for one, it is food that is harvested and cultivated. Anywho:
“Now that China has responded, it’s likely the administration will further escalate the fight with tariffs on more items, including quite possibly seafood from China, something southern US state shrimp producers have been asking for, trade experts agree.
China is the US’ second-biggest source of seafood, sending it $2.7bn in 2017, based on NOAA’s trade data. Only Canada, which sent the US $3.3bn worth is a larger source. https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2018/06/18/canada-poised-to-seize-more-of-china-lobster-market-in-trump-trade-spat/
Show of hands: Who really believes that Trump will impose tariffs that impact his daughter’s business? Anyone? Hello?
Comrade NOem claims that she has this solved for the ag producer. She says that you all have to go broke to show those pesky Chinese that we mean business. She says that you guys are gonna like being broke because you went over the cliff with her and Comrade trump. Meanwhile, Comrade Putin is selling soybeans with a grin of grin’s to go along with his record breaking oil sales.
Does Trump know how trade works?
This may be a silly example, but it’s one I know. The Kizer Basalt folding knife is manufactured in China by Kizer, a Chinese company. The knife’s blade is made from CPM-S35VN steel which is manufactured in the US. Is the tariff on the whole knife or just the titanium handle?
Many products are assembled in country A with parts from countries B, C, and D, so will the tariff be on the whole product or just the Chinese produced parts?
Also, let’s be honest, Trump’s bluster allowed the Chinese to buy US soybeans and other ag products before the last round of tariffs hit. Now they have to time to create trade agreements with other ag exporting countries and US producers will be squeezed out. The same will be true of US manufacturers who supply parts used to produce Chinese products.
One of my former administrators frequently warned us that one can be stupid or one can be stubborn but one can’t be both. Trump is living proof of that bit of wisdom.
Kas Lis,
Do you Know what the tariffs were on the US before Trump became President?
One of my former administrators frequently warned us that one can be stupid or one can be stubborn but one can’t be both. Trump is living proof of that bit of wisdom.
Isn’t Drumpf an exception to that rule?
Are all of the Democrats OK with China stealing US intellectual property?
I actually don’t mind Trump picking a fight with China. Kinda wish he hadn’t picked a fight with everyone else at the same time, though. It would be much easier to leverage better behavior from China (particularly given the recession they find themselves heading into) if our allies were aligned with us rather than steaming about our tariffs on them as well.
Jason,
Here’s the best info I could find quickly.
Dicta,
Totally agree, crapping on our allies is not a wise choice.
Don’t forget to google Chinese theft of US intellectual property Kas Lis.
Jason,
Until today I have ignored you silliness for the same reasons I don’t engage in urination contents with skunks or get to close to monkeys when they are throwing feces.
Intellectual property theft is a serious issue but you don’t want to discuss it seriously, look for the truth, or see if there is a solution beyond tariffs. You merely enjoy trolling.
God promised me threescore and ten years. I’m past the threescore, so I have developed a short attention span when it comes to feeding trolls and you’ve exhausted my tolerance for today.
Since my last link didn’t teach you how to use Google and I am unconvinced you want to have a serious discussion, I’ll go back to ignoring you.
Uranium tariffs are now being considered by the Trump Administration.
Less than 7% of the uranium we use comes from domestic sources, so there is an argument (particularly by domestic uranium manufacturers) regarding natural security interests.
About 14% of what we import comes from Russia…the rest is mined in friendly nations like Canada and Australia.
There is pushback from the nuclear power plant industry, as it would make nuclear more expensive at a bad time for them in the electricity markets. So we’ll see if this spurs more domestic uranium production or the use of recycling.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/18/trump-administration-opens-uranium-import-probe-new-tariffs-possible.html
A similar national security argument could be made for wind energy: We neither mine neodymium nor recycle it, but Republican states in particular are dependent on wind.
Note that we have more coal and gas than anything else at the moment.
I would be happy to discuss anything with you Kas.
I didn’t ask you to tell me what the tariffs were. I asked if “you” knew what they were before Trump was President.
The theft of intellectual property is an issue. I invested a few thousand dollars in a local company, American Superconductor. It had the best technology for converting wind into electrical energy and was used in wind turbines. I bought it low and hung onto it. The company wasn’t getting very far at the time doing business in America, because we are a backward nation. The European markets had other good European options, though I think protectionism had a part. China was ramping up its wind production, so AMSC made a deal with China. It was going well, and AMSC stock took off, until the plans for the technology were lifted from AMSC. It was partly and inside job. It wasn’t long before the contracts were voided, and the stock tanked, and China was producing the same technology.
Put your money into the video lottery, Mr. Pay. You’ll help society in South Dakota far more.
Oh, Donald, Jason, who cares about industrial espionage? The Chinese do it, we do it, everybody does it. China scores one. Get over it. You guys sound like a bunch of Sinophobes.
[Readers, you must click on the links to understand this comment.]
Jason – do you understand that it is PRIVATE business that owns patents, copyrights and so on – and that it is PRIVATE business that decides who to partner with or do business in exchange of goods and services – NOT nation-states. Nation-states only decide TAX policy. Private businesses have to deal with and react to TAX policies – like Trump’s tariffs. Trump makes statements that are broad and simplistic over-generalizations about how global trade/economics about how to “fix” things for US companies (I.E., those who are evidently lacking some business acumen re: global trade – or in Trump’s own definitive terminology – LOSERS) – and you eat it up like the gospel.
Let me ask you this further – have you ever performed a service for a GLOBAL business – US- or otherwise based? From what direct application of your knowledge of economics/trade/finance do you draw the experience that informs your opinions? Or is it all based on what you’ve read about somewhere? (Ivory tower academician approach) Just curious.
RIchard,
The US has a right to retaliate for what China is doing regarding intellectual theft.
That’s not an opinion. That is a fact.
Comrade Jason, China also has a right to retaliate against the US regarding tariffs. Also, can you explain why a soybean farmer in Mitchell, South Dakota must be punished while the Chinese company ZTE is bailed out by US taxpayers to keep jobs in China? While you are ignoring that, here is something else, what will be the end result of all this retaliation?
For the trolls- tired of winning, yet?
http://juanitajean.com/trump-destroys-us-lobster-industry/
mfi, now that China is winning, you can bet that Putin/trump will now be rattling sabers saying that China is at war with the United States. We have forgotten history and are bumbling stumbling back to the very reasons we got into World War I and II. If the Evangelical Christians all want to Rapture, let them drink the same kool-aid that Jim Jones had to offer, but leave me the hell alone.
In the meantime, soybean farmers look like they are gonna have a tremendous crop…that will not have a market. Some of the west river wheat is showing weights of above 60 with high protein. So now what? Who knows, with NOem in the republican congress, you can bet that there will nothing happening except more screwing of the ag producer…with a smile.
This maybe overgeneralizing but US corps refuse to pay US workers so they manufacture in China, then ask us to protect their intellectual property property rights from China?
“China is not dependent on US imports. Quite the opposite. America is an import led economy with a weak industrial and manufacturing base, heavily dependent on imports from China.
Imagine what would happen if China following Washington’s threats decided from one day to the next to significantly curtail its “Made in China” commodity exports to the USA.
It would be absolutely devastating, disrupting the consumer economy, an economic and financial chaos.
“Made in China” is the backbone of retail trade in the USA which indelibly sustains household consumption in virtually all major commodity categories from clothing, footwear, hardware, electronics, toys, jewellery, household fixtures, food, TV sets, mobile phones, etc.
Importing from China is a lucrative multi-trillion dollar operation. It is the source of tremendous profit and wealth in the US, because consumer commodities imported from China’s low wage economy are often sold at the retail level more than ten times their factory price.
Production does not take place in the USA. The producers have given up production. The US trade deficit with China is instrumental in fuelling the profit driven consumer economy which relies on Made in China consumer goods.”
Go on down and check on a new washing machine and then tell me we are winning. NOem is fully on board with this trade scam. Hurts farmers, NOem says who cares. Hurts America, NOem says who cares. Helps Russian agriculture, NOem/Putin/trump says we are now doing our jobs…to make Russia great again.
Retaliation, it turned out, was best served through lawsuits. AMSC sought redress through the courts and won. It settled the case for $59 million. Donald Trump’s trade war is not necessary to protect intellectual property. Participation in international efforts to address the issue is.
Mr. Pay, if this trade scam was meant to protect intellectual property, we would have put an end to ZTE. When Comrade trump gave it a lifeline and said it was about saving Chinese jobs, then the scam was shown for what it is, a con.
“Production does not take place in the USA. The producers have given up production.” only those who do not know anything about production have given up on production.
Manufacturers Are Hiring, and Hiring: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-03-09/manufacturing-keeps-adding-jobs-amid-trump-s-tough-talk
How ya gonna wear a pair of pliers? Go on into your favorite retail stores and check out where they are manufactured. Retail makes the world go round Comrade Old Soviet, when retail dries up, you can manufacture all the pliers you want and there will be no one who can wear them.
Comrade Old Soviet, Carrier is not hiring, they sent those jobs Comrade Pence and Comrade trump promised to keep, to Mexico.
“This job decline is true across the U.S., which saw nearly 6 million manufacturing jobs disappear from 2000 to 2010 — about a third of the sector’s total. Hardest hit were the Rust Belt states; Michigan alone lost 440,000 of these jobs.
Arguments abound in the Rust Belt as to where the manufacturing jobs went. Some support the narrative, spun loudly by Donald Trump, that free trade has allowed countries like China and Mexico to steal jobs; others blame unions.
There’s no easy explanation for what happened to places like Flint. But the influence of technology, particularly automation, is conspicuously absent from many debates taking place at the highest levels. Trump never mentions it when talking about reversing manufacturing job losses. His Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, questioned last year about the threat of automation and artificial intelligence, said they were “so far in the future” that they were “not even on my radar screen.”
We could put every one of those folks who have lost jobs to work tomorrow, building America’s roads, airports, renewable energy, schools with great jobs. But no, we are in a pissing contest that we are getting our arse’s handed to by a blowhard that keeps lying. When you dummies gonna realize that the game is over, the trade scam failed and in its wake, we will have broken the backs of our farmers and made Russia billions of our dollars.
Jason – the US government does not OWN any intellectual property. That’s a fact sir – not an opinion. Maybe the big strong US-based global businesses ought to try to look out for themselves UP FRONT when they make “deals” with China, vs. trying to drag the US government/military into the scene as their “enforcer” after the fact.
OS mentions manufacturing jobs, and sure, they are up, although, as usual, OS presents no evidence that his random factoid is connected the topic at hand; in this case, tariffs couldn’t have cause most of that increase, since tariffs have only recently been imposed, and we have yet to see the impact of the trade war on more expensive imported goods that will drive down the ability of manufacturers to hire.
But since OS brings up numbers with dubious connection to Trump’s random actions, let’s do some more numbers: since Trump took over, real weekly wages are up 1.2%, the consumer price index is up 2.7%, and corporate profits are up 10.1%. Ah, trickle-down, a synonym for peeing on the working class.