‘Straight up stupid,' 'incompetent' and 'misguided’: Economist Adam Posen rips Trump's tariffs

Is he now?

Then he should slap tariffs on something else. Steel from China accounts for 2% of all imports to the US.

Btw.....

Comparative advantage. Ricardo was opposed to tariffs and other restrictions on international trade. ... In the Principles of Economics, Ricardo states that comparative advantage is a specialization technique used to create more efficient production and describes opportunity cost between producers.

 

I could take an educated guess as to why you don't understand Trump is beginning negotiating with China to end their OWN UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES, but the post would likely get deleted by mods.

Steve

 

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt so you don't blow a gasket.

If this is about China then the tarrif will be applied to China and China alone.

 

I'm not foolish enough to second guess Trump but you certainly are. Have you considered the fact that tariffs haven't yet been applied? Is it possible Trump wanted you and others to draw attention to it, even it is for future elections not far away? The possibilities are endless and I'm sure outcomes will harm dems more than Trump.

Steve

 

How much steel is imported from China?

 

Trump Repeats Nixon's Folly
This president isn’t the first to embrace a “trade war” to bolster his populist credentials—but in the end, it’s ordinary people who will bear its cost.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/03/steel-tariffs-consequences/554690/


President Trump just raised the price of cars, beer, vacations, and apartment rentals.

That’s not what most headlines say. Those headlines say that Trump will raise tariffs on steel and aluminum. Higher tariffs mean higher prices for those inputs—and therefore for the products ultimately made from those outputs. Automotive and construction top the largest users of steel in the United States. Aluminum is heavily used to make airplanes, cars and trucks, and beverage containers, and also in construction.

The last time the U.S. imposed steel tariffs, back in 2002, the project was abandoned after 20 months. A 2003 report commissioned by industries that consumed steel estimated that the Bush steel tariffs cost in excess of 200,000 jobs—or more than the total number of people then employed in the entire steel industry at the time.

This time the cost-benefit ratio is likely to skew much worse. There are fewer steel jobs to protect this time. Auto sales growth has stalled. The first warnings of consumer price inflation are appearing.
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And he made the decision because the WH was having a bad week.


https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/02/trump-made-tariff-decision-in-a-fit-of-anger-nbc-news.html

 

Bush made this mistake in 2002 and it cost 200,000 jobs.

 

Not in steel.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/t...e-hardest-china-is-not-one-of-them-2018-03-01

These tariffs only apply to steel and aluminum. China isn't going to be moved by us taxing something they don't export that much of us to.

As for your claims on Chinese steel, again, they make a wide quality of the product to meet the various price points people in this country demand. Impurities in steel are what they are and their presence alone doesn't determine quality. Bending simply requires a certain amount of ductility, there is nothing special about American steel or anyone's steel when it comes to this property other than having a minimum amount of iron in it. At my job, steel gas pipeline work, we don't have any data indicating the Chinese steel is any worse than the American steel. Both have similar defect rates from manufacturers. The one difference? The price. And if we can serve the same gas at a lower price, well guess who benefits from that? Hint: It's not the Chinese.

 

And the tax cuts are gonna be Armageddon!!! Run for the hills!!!! AHHHH!

How many times will the media publish propaganda for the oligarchs?

 

He made a good point. Tin in the can costs about 10 cents, that's maybe a 2.5 penny rise or 1% of the $1.99 cost at 7-11.

 

The tariffs are on all imports! US imports rose 17% year to year in 2017. In 2016 imports rose year to year 26%. We can play whack-a-mole and chase tariff's from country to country or cover it all and end transshipments through other countries, be it originally from Taiwan, India, Japan or China.

US production has steadily declined over the last 40 years, as has the UK, EU's and Canada's. On average production has halved in each country or European Union over the last 30 years. China is now producing over 46% of all steel. No problem, but in looking at trade issues levied against China, the United States isn't the only one having to fight for trade remedies. Canada has 18 approved remedies and applied duties through the WTO against China's steel imports, the US has 24, Australia 10, European Union 12 etc..... happy traiding, right?

http://trade.gov/steel/countries/pdfs/exports-china.pdf

Steel Mill Trade Remedies in Effect Against China
Country AD CVD
Suspension Agreements
and Undertakings Total
Australia 6 4 10
Brazil 9 9
Canada 10 8 18
Colombia 4 4
Eurasian Economic Union 3 1 4
European Union 10 1 1 12
India 3 3
Indonesia 5 5
Malaysia 5 5
Mexico 7 7
Peru 1 1
South Korea 1 1 2
Taiwan 1 1 2
Thailand 10 10
Turkey 3 3
Ukraine 1 1
United States 14 10 24
Vietnam 1 1
TOTAL 94 23 4 121
Source: World Trade OrganizaƟon, through June 1, 2017

Trade Remedies in the Steel Sector Antidumping duties (AD), countervailing duties (CVD), associated suspension agreements, and safeguards are often referred to collectively as trade remedies. These are internationally agreed upon mechanisms to address the market-distorting effects of unfair trade, or serious injury or threat of serious injury caused by a surge in imports. Unlike anti-dumping and countervailing measures, safeguards do not require a finding of an “unfair” practice. Before applying these duties or measures, countries investigate allegations and can remedy or provide relief for the injury caused to a domestic industry. The table below provides statistics on the current number of trade remedies various countries have against steel mill products from China.

 

Right, the tariffs wil target all other countries.

China is already being hit....they have been for years.

Meanwhile in the real world....

Electrolux puts $250 million US investment on hold over Trump's tariff hike

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/03/02...ps-tariff-hike.html?__twitter_impression=true

 

Canada, top exporter of steel and aluminum to U.S., ‘flabbergasted’ by Trump’s tariff proposals

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...eecfa8741b6_story.html?utm_term=.ed43c9a0e95e

OTTAWA — Canadians reacted with a mixture of anger, confusion and resignation this week to President Trump’s promise to hit U.S. imports of steel and aluminum with hefty tariffs, upending decades of economic cooperation and integration.

“We’re pretty consistently flabbergasted that Canada is at the top of the hit parade of trade villains” in Trump’s eyes, said Douglas Porter, chief economist at the Bank of Montreal.

Under the Trump policies announced Thursday, steel imported into the United States would be slapped with a 25 percent tariff and aluminum with a 10 percent tariff. The announcement sent shudders through world markets and prompted a global outcry, with European allies and others threatening retaliation.

Trump has often accused China of forcing U.S. steel and aluminum companies to fold by inundating the market with cheaper materials. But Canada is the largest exporter of steel and aluminum to the United States, supplying $7.2 billion of aluminum and $4.3 billion of steel to the United States last year.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the tariff proposal “absolutely unacceptable,” using the same phrase as Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, who also threatened retaliatory measures if Canada isn’t exempted from the trade actions.

Trudeau, speaking at an event in Barrie, Ontario, said he had raised the issue of tariffs in the past but didn’t indicate whether he had talked to Trump since the announcement.

“We will continue to engage with all levels of the American administration in the coming days so that they understand that this proposal is unacceptable,” he said.

It was unclear from Trump’s announcement what countries would be subject to the tariffs. More details on the policy were expected to be released next week.

“We’re hoping that reasonable voices are going to prevail” and that Canada will be exempted, said Keanin Loomis, president of the Chamber of Commerce in Hamilton, Ontario, the heart of the Canadian steel industry. “Canadian steel is fair trade. We adhere to tight labor regulations and tight environmental regulations.”

 

You can always find someone to criticize anybody about anything. Unfortunately, those who do that rarely give a damn if the source is lucid or actually competent, so long as the critic says what is wanted.

Among the many purposes of the tariff are to restore viability to America's ability to produce it's own basic materials- at least in sufficient quantity to make us strategically independent. Think about that. IF we had the worlds most powerful military, but no ability to produce ammunition and had to depend on other countries to do it for us- do you understand that if we found ourselves in a war, we could have the most guns in the world and nothing to fire in them?

Regardless of the potential increase in the cost of your beer cans, the long-term importance of remaining independently capable to defend the nation comes before making other governments (and economists who are merely armchair "exspurts" happy.
Today, we

 

My jon boat is pretty beat up from years of hard use, some from running mild rapids with it. I'm willing to pay more, a lot more, for a new jon boat if it means new jobs for USA citizens working at Alcoa.

I'm willing to pay considerably more for the steel in a vehicle also, if the labor is by USA citizen steelmakers. Take some of the stupid foreign manufactured electronics out of the vehicle that is so expensive to repair to offset the cost, please.

Trump didn't run on the cheap consumption that is killing the USA but on American jobs and America First, US citizen labor.

To hell with the ivory tower naysayers.

Support blue collar.

 

Nobody ever accused Donnie Trump of being smart.
Except Donnie Trump....

 

The new globalists, libs, have gone insane about this. Jobs last, the new mantra.

 

The extent to which our allies like Canada retaliate against this idiocy remains to be seen. But a few things are clear. This move even caught WH staff off guard (let alone our allies around the world) so it had not been thoroughly vetted, the details have yet to be worked out, and the ramifications are uncertain. Tariffs are blunt instruments often with unintended consequences. America First is a emotionally satisfying campaign slogan, not a well thought out policy. For ever steel worker who may benefit there are 20 other workers who will not. Tariffs are inflationary and come at a time when rapidly increasing inflation is a concern.

This is Don showing himself, once again, to be impulsive, reckless, and one who makes decisions with the narrow focus being what is best for him politically but not what is best for the country as a whole.

 

Wages have stagnate badly for average Americans in the free trade era. That does not matter to economists, many of whom see low median wages as a good thing, but it does to most Americans and especially to Trump voters.

Unless we do something about stagnating median wages there are going to be a lot more tariffs in the future

If you like investors and corporate executives then free trade is awesome. Its been a disaster for working men and women. Thank god it may be ending.

 

Nope. Repubs have condemned it. Dems have condemned it. Allies and non-allies have condemned it. Economists have condemned it. If it was done for the sake of overall employment it was obviously the wrong thing to do so lets not pretend this is about jobs. It's about taking an ineffectual slap at China, appeasing the moron base, and Don doing something potentially reckless just because he can.

 

Now there's a recipe for a global recession if there ever was one.

 

Please tell us WHY you think this will happen

 

We have been in a recession for most workers for 40 years. If we had not Trump would not have been elected.

Have you ever looked at wage growth for the bulk of the population in that 40 year period? Have most workers done well during it? If not, why do you support it?

 

Because industrial jobs pay a heck of a lot than the service jobs that free trade generates. And industrial jobs have been devastated by free trade. Go see how many steel mills you can find in PA. We have replaced high paying jobs with low paying jobs for a generation. People who support free trade thing that is awesome. Most Americans don't.

 

Please tell us why we should believe any globalist nobelist of the last forty years.