I was reading this article from the viewpoint of how I think I’d respond if I was a citizen of China. Simply, I’d be thinking, “too bad, so sad.” I’d be thinking that the US controlled the last half of the 20th Century, their people got fat and happy, then their corporations saw a huge market in China which they sought to exploit. Those corporations were too cheap to pay their own workers decent wages and moved production over to China thinking we were just a dumb bunch of Chinamen that looked like Charlie Chan and were willing to toil 16 hours a day in miserable working conditions for small paychecks so Americans could have cheap consumer goods and American companies could have sky high profits.
Then I’d think of how the Chinese turned things upside down on the US corporations who were depending on them for sky-high profits and American consumers who loved low prices because of the Chinese, Vietnamese and other low-cost producers.... and I’d say to Trump and the poor, pitiful US corporations now trying to vilify China: “You made your bed. Now go sleep in it,”
Income for the average American CEO is 355 times that for American workers.
Impose minimum and maximum income always to drastically reduce this disparity.
"Government should enact laws to "reduce extreme wealth towards a state of mediocrity, and raise extreme indigence toward a state of comfort.
--James Madison
4
Marco, sweetie, let's get real.
China's economy is booming because of Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, Banana Republic, and several dozen other mega-chains who stock, almost exclusively, merchandise from China.
If you want to get serious about the trade imbalance then your focus should be on the CEOs who decide to eliminate American producers in favor of Chinese slave-labor industrialists. The problem is not overseas, it is here, with your patrons.
11
I do not think that free trade is a bad thing, per se, but let's not deceive ourselves as to what it is about -- it is to make the rich richer. A side-effect is to lower prices for consumers. Yay! my iPhone is cheaper. Oh, too bad, I'm out of a job. Apple repatriates billions -- buys back mega-shares, investors happy! Oh, wait I'm still out of a job. etc...
4
Yes! We do need to do more: we need to bury this dead country. The body is beginning to stink.
#calexit
2
The Trump tariff proposal is a red herring since we import a much smaller amount of steel from China than we do from Canada and Mexico.
This tariff will not be likely to have much effect on the steel imports from China.
What it will do, however, is to start a useless trade war and the result will be higher prices and high inflation for Americans with nothing in return.
Moreover, it will not promote good will with our allies.
Putin I am sure is delighted by this latest Trump stupidity since it helps his goal to further drive a wedge between the US and our allies.
Sorry Marco but your premise is without merit.
If you want to promote better jobs and wages, I suggest you engage in increasing the minimum wage and ensuring universal healthcare for all.
The savings for the healthcare system will offset the modest gains in wages as well as eliminating government subsidies for the working poor whose wages are so low, they qualify for welfare and Medicaid- like many Walmart workers do.
Stop thinking in transactional terms and start thinking about our economy as a whole.
Start looking at the big picture which is needed to make smart decisions. The Chinese do this and adhere to a 10 year plan.
I know this might be a stretch for you but if you talk to economists, you might get a clue.
9
There are stupid tariffs and very stupid tariffs. A very stupid tariff is a tariff on steel and aluminum that increases the costs of every product made in the USA that uses those metals. This increases consumer prices and makes products produced in the USA less competitive relative to those made outside the USA using steel and aluminum priced at the world market rather than the artificially propped-up protected US steel prices.
A less stupid tariff is the retaliatory tariff that will be put on US motorcycles (Harley Davidson) that will not raise any costs on any EU producers, or raise prices for anyone in the EU, except for buyers of motorcycles.
Protectionism is the progressivism of fools. Gandhi was a great statesman but a horrible economist. Just as the ignorant in the USA argue that American workers who earn $15 per hour should not have to compete with Chinese workers who make $2 per hour, Gandhi thought that Indian workers should not have to compete with American and European workers who have the benefit of modern machines. As a result, India adopted protectionism. In 1947 the per capita income of India was similar to countries such a South Korea. By 1977 the per capita income and standard of living in South Korea was many times that of India. India has since largely abandoned protectionism and has benefited immensely from free trade. Just as David Ricardo proved would be the case when he developed comparative advantage..."
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4148256
1
Is the Senator looking for a new career in the Trump administration? Maybe China tariff czar.
3
Who at the NYTimes is responsible for giving this man a platform? On what grounds? Because he is a Senator? Sorry, but that’s not enough these days, not when Senators like Rubio are bought and paid for by their corporate masters. Give Gemli, or Socrates, or any of the other intelligent regular commentators here an op-ed. Why waste our time and your space?
6
I can’t imagine curbing trade and imposing penalties and duties Chinese imports into the United States would result in more jobs, higher wages and better American life. Sure - the United States has an apparent trade deficit and it seems as though the Chinese has been exceeding in economic growth in recent years, but that IS in fact a result of a combination of economic catch up compared to other countries who have already opened up and welcomed global trade for many many decades. Consumers like cheap goods, and the Chinese provides that. On the micro level, a consumer is of course willing to pay $1.00 compared to $10.00 for a good that is comparable in quality. Questionably - why are goods and services so expensive in the United States? Healthcare administration costs in the US compared to other countries is a prime example.
Instead of thinking about what penalties to impose on others, why not do an internal assessment to make the US more competitive? Instead of trashing the growth of others, why not try to see what can be internally improved? In addition, US and Chinese corporations mutually rely on each other - it wouldn’t be beneficial to punish one another when both countries has sizable investments in each other.
I quite honestly don’t see the blame game going anywhere. Our country also had something to do with this.
1
Marco - the wholly owned corporate shill - speaks.
Sorry, but I throw up a little bit whenever Marco pretends to have a personal opinion, or God forbid, a personal belief.
Apparently his owners felt he needed to sound relevant.
9
Suddenly, Marco likes rules and enforcement, and especially against people in areas remote to him.
Marco lost his moral authority several times and now we have no need of him. He must know we will vote him out if we don't first recall him.
8
China has been a bad actor for decades, but American business moguls are the ones responsible for driving jobs out of this country. That money grab was enabled by the Ayn Randian libertarian policy beliefs adopted by Republicans like Marco Rubio. Wasn't "deregulation" the driving principle last week?
If we're witnessing Rubio's "come to Jesus" moment regarding the need for a regulatory state that serves the people, then I say FINALLY, good, excellent. Please convince Speaker Ryan that his organizing principles are feckless and destructive. I doubt that's what we'll see. This is more likely yet another pandering moment, thin as Trumps comb-over.
Mr. Rubio, please prove me wrong. Let's see a workforce development program. Let's see a Universal Basic Income. Let's see a tax system that taxes investment income at least as intensely as wage income. Let's see government sponsored higher education. Let's see.
6
China is such a huge target that it is difficult to miss. I’m sure that even Senator Rubio agrees that it is better to have China in than out.
Progress and free trade bring losers (unfortunately) and winners. It is thanks to China that the U.S. is such a powerhouse it is today. China has also bought most of the debt U.S. has issued.
It is a delicate balance and having such an inexperienced bunch of people in the U.S. admin. is not encouraging.
Tread carefully, please!
1
This reads like the position paper of a presidential candidate — long on rhetoric but short on substance. How, for example, does he propose the government limit joint ventures? And why isn’t any U.S. company considering such a venture in a better position to assess whether a Chinese company will be a good partner?
China has been the corporate "plum" since it offers an almost inexhaustible pool of cheap labor to make the goods we used to make here for our consumption. Blame the corporations that have ofshored their manufacturing just as much, if not more, than China.
Before a problem can be solved, one needs to correctly analyze its causes. America lost so many industrial jobs because its form of capitalism evolved from industrial capitalism generating investments in the real economy to improve productivity, to a toxic form of financial capitalism with one goal, increasing short term profits, which are distributed as dividends, shares buy back and obscene compensation hikes for executives. Workers' representation was busted under Reagan with the demise of union power. This resulted into a shift of power in the workplace, from workers to management. It could have gone differently if profits had been reinvested to move output towards upscale products. Germany, which has a high GDP per head did exactly that. Today, they build high quality cars, innovative robots, top appliances, etc.., which generate high profits to reinvest. Union power is strong and entrepreneurs in the so-called "Mittel Standt" (mid-size companies) invest for the long term. Germany has a huge trade surplus. The US could have done the same. However, a corrupt political establishment chose to satisfy the greed of the rich, instead of looking after the interests of the workers and the nation. Trump will make things worse.
9
First, Trump did not propose targeted tariffs. Second, they will raise prices, decreasing demand, and therefore hurting consumers and related American companies. Third, Trump's "plan" was not vetted by anyone who knows something. And forth, it was proposed by a fool who imports all his own steel, exports all his own manufacturing (as does his daughter), and imports his workers, and even two-thirds of his wives. Note to Rubio - shut up.
6
Rubio is blaming China for our greed. They took the long view and now it's paying off for them economically. Between corporate America's desire for cheap labor and Americans desire for cheap products this was inevitable.
Now that Americans are supporting crazies like Trump and the GOP is shifting so far right that the moderates are losing control of the party China has suddenly become a problem. When you treat labor like the enemy and focus totally on capitalist gain eventually there's a price to pay. Congratulations, Trump is the end result of decades of putting profit ahead of people. He's a loose cannon, causing lots of damage and impossible to control.
Strong countries have regulated capitalism for a reason. Yes all countries want trade but you have to have opportunities for your own people or eventually they will rebel. China is a symptom but they're not to blame for our current mess.
3
The problem is simple. China only takes and steals. Chinese companies are free to operate in the US without restrictions. For example, Huawei and Alibaba, among other Chinese companies, have a large presence in the US. Guess who they hire? It’s not Americans, but newly minted Chinese graduates on OPT and H1B visas, who go on to have anchor babies. Such behavior would never be tolerated in China. The US companies in China employ Chinese nationals. Since China has no intention of even paying lip service to democracy, it’s high time we admit that letting them into WTO was a huge mistake. We can start by drastically reducing the enrollment of Chinese students ( which would cut down on OPT) and educating US citizens instead.
Microsoft, Oracle and many other American companies hire as many H1B workers from other companies as possible. Class warfare -- investment vs labor.
Rubio's piece is propaganda, designed to deflect from the very real problem of income disparity within the United States.
There is absolutely no reasonable excuse for the wealthy to control almost all the assets of the United States at the expense of the working class.
Capitalism is held in place by indoctrination, stronger and more pernicious than anything any dictator could have dreamed of, and backed by force of arms.
The US is not at a disadvantage internationally. Profits have never been higher. It's the US working class that is at a disadvantage, internally.
Rubio's claim to care about American workers is a vicious lie.
6
All this crying. Just accept the basis of power, control and greed played out by all sides is just reality!
1
More disingenuousness.
As a person who has always stood up for America, outside America, I am embarrassed.
I am officially sick of American politicians (and heck even Oprah does it) who tell you a fairytale about American exceptionalism.
Really, no reasonable modern gun laws, lack of a reasonable healthcare system, the death penalty, no middle class wage increases for 20-years.
Overseas, except for things like Apple phones and say, a TV series like MadMen, America is associated with such low standards.
I am sick of Americans on the right and on the left who continue to tell Americans a lie. Like you, we want to believe you are good. But more and more, people are accepting the ushering in of a world where english will not be the language of power and influence. A world where Mandarin and Hindi reign. I think Trump and you Marco, have made the 'turning to Asia' so much more inevitable....and even easy.
3
As I have for many years spent a good part of each year working in China, I would like to suggest that Mr. Rubio might pay a visit to that country. The amount of investment China made in infrastructure over the past 20 years has been nothing short of staggering----while our own roads, bridges, airports, power plants, schools, and public facilities have been falling apart. Rubio and his party claim we have no money to invest in our own infrastructure, and claim we cannot afford health care for every American citizen-----but somehow manage to spend trillions for wars of opportunity. These are the words of a man who simply does not understand the big picture, and is not willing to invest what it will take for America to again become competitive in the world.
1
Marco: Which one of your donors wrote this for you?
4
China will only listen to tough trade action. It is far past time to demand equal trading terms for US firms. Steel tariffs are meant to signal we mean business.
Knowingly or not, the trade we made with China (and now India to some extent) is cheap plentiful goods and increased profits for companies offshoring work in exchange for clean air and water, a high standard of living and lots of stuff that we can fill up our houses and garages with. Anyone who has traveled to China knows how bad the environment is. Regardless of politics, I think we can all appreciate how nice it is to live in any US city compared to any city in China.
That said, we know that this can’t last. Our workers demand better and eventually the Chinese will realize that the past is unsustainable.
Is it possible that all of the lost jobs will come back? No. The current populist argument to bring back these jobs is way too simplistic and misses the obvious limitations we have in terms of inexpensive human capital. This does not mean, however, that we ignore the issue.
Targeted measures to normalize trade and negotiate a better deal should be pursued. But, we need an honest assessment and vision from our representatives in government that is not pandering. Folks, the factory work that went away ain’t coming back - sorry. We need a better plan.
PS. Unemployment is very low, standard of living is high, air and water clean. Generally, it’s not that bad here. Can we do better? Always and we should. But we need some perspective.
1
It's unlikely that China trade will ever be put back in a bottle, but the US should be pushing both to bring manufacturing home when possible (highly automated stuff generally) and also building up a manufacturing base in other low cost of living (low wage) countries that are friendlier like Central and South America for instance as an alternative/counterweight to Chinese manufacturing.
We should also be moving toward getting China removed from the many special advantages given to poor/developing countries in various agreements since they clearly no longer need the help.
2
As a person of Chinese ethnicity who just recently immigrated to Canada, I can understand some of the frustrations on both sides. On the American side, blue-collar-worker's jobs are being taken away by the cheaper labors of China. This, I believe, is the result of international trade. China has a comparative advantage in labor, just as Japan did in the 1950s-1960s and Korea did in 1970s-1980s. To "bring low-wage, blue-collar worker" jobs back to America is a farce and will be laughed at by other developed countries. America should flexibly shift its primary focus from production to service industries. The inability of many workers to make this shift is the reason why America's labor force is voting for Right-wing parties (This is a claim). On China's side, Chinese people don't really understand why America is complaining when China is 1. providing the cheap labor for companies like Apple and Dell to make their electronics 2. providing the huge market for those products to be sold. 3. Self-degrading the native environment (trees, rivers, minerals) that will take decades to recover to produce cheap products for the world. All of these provisions led to big profit margins for American companies and the betterment of American lives. What else do you want? Senator Marco Rubio's suggestions in this article seems to want the sole benefactor of this bilateral trade between China and US to be the US, which is not how international trade works.
34
It’s not just China’s environment being degraded, our planets oceans are dying.
This is a complex topic that many very smart people have earned their PhD's studying. The "bull in the China shop" approach being employed is unlikely to benefit the American people or the world in any way and could cause some major damage. Yes, jobs have moved but this is not a new phenomenon. Jobs moved from New England to the South starting in the 1930's in a similar fashion. Jobs moved from the farms to the cities before that, a trend that has continued. Consider, our national employment is likely at an acceptable level, so why are we attacking our trading partners. This article takes a the one sided approach that has become so popular. In this article, there is no discussion of the whole topic, just the issues that support the author's point of view. One benefit of free trade is that countries that have large amounts of trade are less likely to engage in war. Another is that consumers benefit by being able to buy items at the lowest prices. Economists argue that wage normalization will eventually occur and the wealth of everyone will increase. This process may be occurring more slowly than anticipated due to China's internal controls. When one has a billion poor people that one is trying to improve the lives of, this could take awhile. Fast, rash actions in systems usually cause instability. I think that is what we are in for, not greater wealth for the people.
2
When China acceded to the World Trade Organization in 2001, the United States supported that decision for two reasons: We hoped to promote better access to China’s consumer markets for American companies immediately and, eventually, political liberalization within China.
Neither has materialized.
How about our beloved multinationals that set up base camp in China and manufacture and produce consumer goods that are sold there and here and do not pay taxes on the profits made from the stuff sold here? How does this not benefit American companies? It does rob our workers, but I have not noticed the multinationals crying loud about them not making a little bit of money there.
One day we are going to ship all manufacturing to Mars so that it can be subsidized by taxpayers on Earth and sold back without taxation.
The multinationals want all workers and engineers to be paid low wages regardless of where the business is located. Light manufacturing jobs have been coming back to the USA for a number of years just because here wages are already low and workers and engineers are willing to work for a lot less as they have surrendered to the extortion by corporate America.
That is the sad reality of life on Earth. And contrary to the Marxist theory workers in the USA and EU united not against the capital but with it to support xenophobia and primitive conservatism.
4
“The goal is better jobs and higher wages for American workers.”
Exactly right Senator Rubio. That is why we need to address all of the major factors depressing working family purchasing power — monopolies, automation, the internet and trade. It is becoming increasingly obvious that, if the US becomes a backwater nation, it will not be due to external attack but because we have rotted from the inside out.
It is suicidal for us to increase defense spending and give trillion dollar tax breaks to the wealthiest while failing to address our financially stressed and increasingly radicalized working families. Here are some things we can do here at home to turn this around:
Raise federal minimum wage to $15/hr.
Invest in infrastructure
Massive push to concert to wind and solar which are now the lowest cost as well as cleanest energy sources. The country that has the lowest cost domestic energy leads the world.
Mandatory two years public service for all citizens upon reaching the age of 18.
Medicare for all.
Federal cap on each corporation’s earnings as a percentage of their payroll based on their history with Federal Reserve able to raise or lower all such caps by up to one percent of their value per year.
3
Too little too late. The United States government, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, has been derelict in its duty to protect the economy of the United States. It allowed US companies to set up joint ventures in China, thereby handing over all trade secretes to their Chinese partners who used the information to move down the road and set up wholly Chinese owned operations to compete with the people who taught them how to build in the first place. It allowed US companies to move operations to China, Mexico, and any jurisdiction with preferable labor costs or tax structures, thereby loosing jobs in the USA, and ship this products back into the USA at a higher profit margin. Yes we should use tariffs where necessary, but they should be placed on imported finished goods not just raw materials. If production is moved overseas those companies should face a stiff penalty for importing their finished goods back into the USA. US companies should not be allowed to avoid paying US taxes on overseas profits. We as citizens are not allowed to do that, why should corporations? And US companies should be forbidden from forming joint ventures with Chinese partners. Unfortunately, people like Marco Rubio have been protecting their corporate masters for years. It would have been nice if he'd been more concerned with his constituents a long time ago, before he decided to join Trump's populist agenda and become a whipping boy for Donald Trump.
4
I'm sorry - but that is a terrible idea. For one thing - every time the US shut out China from a field (supercomputers - satellites - etc) - China built there own and it often became more advanced. Second - China is now the largest market for most things. If US companies are shut out in retaliation - they will suffer. General Motors is still alive because of it's sales to China.
Senator Rubio, You might want to address this to the CEOs of our largest companies (including Apple) who continue to be more than happy to do whatever China wants as long as it gets them access to Chinese consumers.
As one of my senators Rubio has been an ongoing disappointment, with his refusing to do town halls (and I guess the Parkland town hall showed why he doesn't like his constituents) being one of many.
5
It is AMERICAN corporations who chose to pull up stakes since the 1980's and move their businesses to China to take advantage of a much cheaper labor market, while breaking the back of the US unions and eventually shuttering US factories. Big Oil and shipping companies gladly move goods around to make this trade possible. In the end, globalization is the product of corporate strategy and government complicity, since these companies have their stranglehold on Washington awash with their lobbyists bribe money. It is time to break the backs of these giant, greedy corporations in short-sighted service only to their bottom lines and boadroom elites-not even shareholders participate fairly in the profits!
4
Two things that should be part of every discussion involving lost American jobs is robots and retraining /education.
Do you believe that the paper US Dollar and US Treasury Notes would have any value if they were not redeemable for privately owned assets located in the USA?
The successful Chinese make and export things to create taxable wealth in their nation while the USA imports things and consumes taxable wealth.
The US government is destroying the US economy by in essence using a credit card to pay for our government expenses.
Surely you do not believe that US citizens should have to work in some dirty factory to create wealth that can then be taxed to create funds for the US government to spend (foolishly) on various wealth consuming activities.
Do you or anybody else in the world believe that the US government can just buy some paper and then print all of the US dollars that they desire to spend on any and all government activities that they desire?
There is nothing wrong with the Greek nation failing, they caused it themselves by mimicking the US government fiscal policies of living off of borrowed money to pay revenue consuming government expenses such as hosting the Olympics.
The USA is next, if we do not reverse the US International Trade Deficit by re-industrializing to start becoming a net creator of taxable wealth and stop being a net consumer/destroyer of taxable wealth.
This is the basic structural economic foundation problem that will destroy the US economic miracle because title to US located assets are leaving the USA to pay for the things that we import.
1
Little Marco, coherent argument has a place here at the Times and I agree with this piece.
The reality is that you and other Republicans need to draw a line and take a risk and confront the bully before it’s too late and save the logical fact based arguments for later.
1
Marco, the United Stares, with less than 5% of the world's population, produces 25% of the world's GDP.
What do you think would be a "fair share" of global production for the United States?
5
All of a sudden, Marco Rubio is so "concerned" about "workers". Well, he's 30 years too late. However, he's been the recipient of an endless supply of campaign cash from the same corporations he talks about in this article....corporations that he voted last month IN SUPPORT OF.....for gigantic, permanent, tax cuts!
Rubio is about as phony as they come.
6
And Trump would risk retaliation against everything he and his daughter sell that is manufactured in China? And their future development opportunities in China? Think again, Mr. Rubio.
2
Generally speaking only fools "fight" about trade. These are people who actually have no idea how the world works and certainly no idea about supply-chains and value-addition and all the areas in which the US is the dominant economy in the world.
Giving our workers guaranteed and affordable health care and enabling life-long education would go a long way to improving their conditions. So I hope Senator Rubio focuses on these issues instead of this vapid babble about fights and enemies in trade.
1
Shallow analysis, but he's trying to understand the problem at least, which is more than our President is doing. I helped negotiate China's accession to the WTO (there are many of us, as it was a thirteen year process). After my first encounter, I realized that the United States of America had finally met its match in the world. We were the only two countries that could negotiate with equal parts leverage and arrogance.
The agreement we reached was never self-executing; like all deals, it required vigilance to ensure that China was honoring its commitments. I think despite our efforts, we have failed. While many can be blamed, the multinational companies simply do not want to jeopardize market access. China is ruthless in retaliation and in extracting concessions.
Almost twenty years later, especially under Team Trump/Navarro and the idiotic decision to walk away from the TPP, we’ve lost the strategic ground to China. We’ve made ourselves irrelevant to them. Unless we are willing to meet them head on, which will mean strong protests from our companies as well as the new anti-trade left, the lost ground will be permanent.
21
Why do you blame Trump for TPP? Both Clinton and Bernie Sanders also stated on the campaign trail that they would pull out of it. In any event - China is already the #1 trading partner for most of the countries in TPP... Do you really think that would change?
That post WW II prosperity boom happened also on the assumption of fair trade-offs between employers and workers, free to unionize, delivering strong wages and the broad and strong demand that any healthy economy witnesses. Also on the assumption of a government financed by fairly, not hardly, taxed ultrawealthy (corporations), delivering high-quality gov services like infrastructure, a social safety net and education with low fees to students, free from the bloodbaths from assault weapon proliferation brought by failing gun control and idiotic amendment misrepresentation to fawn and favor the mighty gun manufacturer profit. Also on the assumption of sound and strong banking regulation. Great things instead of out-of-control deficits and voucherized services predation.
In short it happened in part on the foundation of everything good that you and your party forever try to destroy. Alas it did also happen in no small part on the sordid base of stealth and outright theft, especially of a level playing field, by the worldwide kleptocracy lead by the American faction. In that respect, it's breathtakingly hypocritical to blame China, while failing to point at yourself.
All that you GOP-'lead' or GOP-obstructed America took great care of to nurture was market power abuse by your multinational kleptocrats, tax evasion facilitation and labor rights and environmentally protective regulation erosion and annihilation for same. And, boy did you 'succeed' beyond our wildest nightmares.
2
Little Marco is trying his hand at economics; it has not gone well!
2
During the presidential campaign, you Mr. Rubio, began to answer a question about climate change with the qualifier: " I'm not a scientist, but....". You should have stopped your answer before the word "but". By that same reckoning, you are also not an economist.
4
Rubbish. What we need is a concerted effort to invest in the education of our citizens and push science and technology like we have never done before. Instead our fine public institution of higher education have been reduced to begging for tuition from foreign students, mainly from China. Research funding has been flat and decreased markedly in important areas such as physics and plants science. And of course, further severe budget cuts are proposed by our Idiot-in-Chief and his minions. It is no wonder that US-educated scientists take jobs in Europe and China rather than here and that the flow of postdoctoral scientists from these places has slowed. We are going back to pre-WWI irrelevance in scientific advances at full speed.
4
I am all for free speech & welcome the opportunity to hear/read ideas from people I may not agree with. That said, there is no reason, none whatsoever, to respect such people. Marco Rubio is a venial, hypocritical, sycophantic little liar & a shameless toady to his corporate owners. Does his Opinion piece raise any valid points? Maybe, but do you honestly believe that Marco Rubio has the backbone to follow through on any issue he babbles about? Not unless his owners give him permission & pay him enough money.
5
The nature of trade relations has to be kept current with the times.
The Communist Chinese ballistic missiles would not fly on course and had to be destroyed in flight before President Clinton granted export license to Communist China for the US military TOP SECRET classified Hughes Aircraft Rocket Guidance Technology as a part of Clinton’s “Chinagate” treasonous bribery deal with Johnny Chung as the bagman.
President Clinton might have granted PNTR for Communist China as a part of Clinton’s “Chinagate” bribery deal.
1
Sir, when was the last time you did NOT vote in lockstep with your Party ??? On ANY issue ??? Yeah, thought so.
5
Is it just me, or is there really the sniff of 2020 in this op-ed?
4
Trump's pathetic bastardization of the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership tells it all. This trade agreement was designed to give a measure of control OVER China not TO China. The parties to the pact would be given a rung up on China. Tillerson was right: Trump is a moron.
2
Poor Little Marco, speaking from the other side of his mouth.
When he starts to think on his own and doesn't tow the party line, then
maybe I'll believe Little Marco.
1
When Marco Rubio speaks or writes about his policy positions, many of his constituents ask" What is in it for Rubio?' When he isn't following the Republican/Trump "party" line" or the NRA "script" or voting for the tax cuts the Big Donors to the Republican party are demanding, Rubio is always watching out for what benefits him. And he is doing this to stay in a job which he said he didn't want in 2016 and acted as if he didn't want in his first term as senator.
We Floridians should be getting more from Rubio for the money we pay this "public servant". Unfortunately he is owned by the NRA, the Big Republican donors and the anti-climate change/science lobby. It is time to replace him with a senator who will work for the voters of Florida and the US.
6
While I agree with the sentiment expressed by Rubio, he is the last guy that I would expect to be able to implore the American people of this imperative. If he is doing anything more than posturing I would expect him to stand up and support Joe Biden to run in 2020 for President, with Barack Obama as the VP candidate. Yes, it is legal.
2
Rubio continues his tradition of the ideological mythology that trade is a zero sum game, a lie he shares with the incompetent-in-chief. Trade is complex, and there are many aspects of it which simply cannot be reduced to simplistic homilies. Working class Americans created the imbalance with China by insisting that Walmart do whatever was needed to minimize prices. They refused to pay the actual cost of goods made in their own country at realistic wages. Overall, trade has brought greater prosperity to more people, here and elsewhere, than have been economically disadvantaged by it. China is hardly the singular source of the problem, and trade wars are simply obtuse.
Eclectic Pragmatism — http://eclectic-pragmatist.tumblr.com/
Eclectic Pragmatist — https://medium.com/eclectic-pragmatism
3
So, Rubio the Vacant buys into the whole NRA program. Now, he is riding on Trump/Navarro coat tails regarding trade. Their program requires that we consider all trading partners as foul enemies, even our close ex-allies. And, it requires a win/lose negotiating. The Master Negotiator, Trumpskin, has no clue and his intuition is guided by Fox puppets, except for Shep who honors the truth generally.
Giving Rubio column on the OP Ed page is giving him a forum that he, in no way, can deserve or has earned. He is an empty pot. A walking disaster of a senator. The high school kids ate him alive.
9
In other words, Marco is planning a 2020 run. First he was a tea partier, then he was a mainstream establishment guy, then he was one of the 'adults in the room' who were pro-Trump (but only on old-school GOP topics like tax cuts), now he's trying to out-Trump Trump on trade. Florida friends: please do us all a favor and vote this flip-flopper out of office.
16
We're working on it. But there's tons of die-hard Repubs down here.
1
Excellent article and great points. China is probably manipulating its currency, and we should force them to increase its value so that the dollar is worth less and American goods are cheaper for the Chinese to buy. Sure, Americans will have to pay more for food, clothing, TVs, housing supplies, and all that other cheap stuff we get at Wal-Mart (or name your big box store), but let's face it, we're probably consuming too much stuff anyway, which is hurting the environment, and we'll at least say we won the trade war! Sen Rubio, I never knew you were such an environmentalist. Sure, it will probably send the economy into a tailspin since most manufacturing jobs are now automated and housing will collapse (because everything at Home Depot just doubled in price), but we will have won the trade war and cut down on overconsumption. Maybe Americans will go back to living in 983 sq ft with one bath (the average new house in 1950) instead of their opulent 2349 sq ft of today. And clothing? Let's go back to the good ole days of the 50s when clothes cost twice as much. There’s nothing like inflation and a recession to get Americans to spend less and waste less, all while helping the environment. Do I really have to wait 2 more years to vote for you, or can you talk to your pals in Congress and just doing something now? Why wait?
3
I think it's time for Marco to stop talking.
16
Marco! Read some history! China learned their strategy from the colonial West. Maybe a look back to the Opium Wars might enlighten you. Like many folks in the administration ignorance of history is a major block to critical thinking about how the real world works.
8
three letters, T.P.P
4
"Last year, the Office of the United States Trade Representative announced its investigation of Chinese intellectual property theft under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. This authority allows for a wide range of actions. The Trump administration should push its boundaries."
Apparently Rubio believes in studying an issue... as long as that issue isn't guns and doesn't involve his primary campaign donors, the NRA.
6
Trouble is, you misdescribe what happened, Marco.
Germany and Japan are examples of exporters: their great companies design and manufacture products, they export them to the US and distribute them under their own brands through their own distribution channels.
With China, on the other hand, Walmart and many other American companies, manufacturers of apparel, shoes electronics, sporting goods, etc., went to China with their designs and specifications to source their manufacturing at the lowest possible cost. They oversaw raw material supply, production scheduling, quality control, shipping dates, they imported the goods to America and distributed them through their own channels. The Chinese had no contact with the American market, they had no brands, they had no presence. The China story is about Americans importing goods from China, not about Chinese exporting goods to America.
If there is a bad guy in this story, it is not the Chinese.
13
In reply: You just swallowed Chinese propaganda hook, line and sinker. It's not one or the other, it's both: the behavior of our own multinationals as you have described, but also the phenomenally protectionist policies from China. Chinese firms (many owned/controlled by the PRC) extract technology, intellectual property (beyond what is stolen by their ordinary citizens) and other favorable conditions as a condition for investment and trade.
It is not a transparent quid pro quo either. Ask insurance firms about the "cost" of procuring an insurance license, for example. They have to lobby our OWN government officials, our President, to ask Chinese officials for a license on their behalf. It takes a state visit to get one. (Ask Liberty Mutual). The Chinese need to be flattered and given something special as well, like the return of a Chinese antique from out of the country (Ask AIG). No, China is a very a corrupt country that has exported its corrupt behavior to the rest of the world. And we have let them.
Why? Sometimes we don't want to risk retaliation against U.S. companies operating in or exporting to China. Our own companies lobby the hell out of U.S. officials to block sanctions (ask Boeing). But just as often our foreign policy community (ask State, NSC) block the effective enforcement for fear of offending China on some other non-trade issue.
I'm no fan of the steel tariffs, but China violates every deal we negotiate. We aren't alone in that view either.
2
One of the few things Trump got right was his evaluation of Rubio as a person of little consequence.
9
This is hilarious. Marco, why don't you tell Americans not to buy products made in China? Such as: iPhones, Buick Envisions, every toy made by Hasbro and Mattel. Who is the enemy of the America people--is it China, or is it the "American" multinational corporations extracting profits by offshoring to China?
10
Productivity, taxable wealth creation and the economic capability of any nation (or a group of economically bound/engaged nations) is reflected in the new creation of privately held TAXABLE National Wealth that can only be created by greedy businessesonly when the greedy businessmen of that nation perform one or more of the following wealth creating tasks:
1. Plant, grow, and/or harvest something of commercial value from the earth;
2. Extract something of commercial value from the earth;
3. Manufacture something of commercial value that is consumable;
4. Construct a building that is permanently useful for rental income;
5. Tourism income from foreign tourists;
6. Provide services (professional licensed services such as doctors, lawyers, architects, engineers, land surveyors, and certified public accountants, etc., and also licensed tradesmen services such as plumbers, electricians, auto mechanics, aircraft and power plant mechanics, HVAC mechanics, barbers, real estate agents, and other licensed trades);
7. Collect payment for patent and copyright uses;
8. Buy things from foreigners in foreign nations, transport them to another other foreign nation, and then sell them to that other foreign nation at a profit;
And then if their citizen businessmen trade, sell, lease, or rent these items and/or services to parties outside of their family that entire family (state or nation) is enriched and accumulates taxable national wealth.
1
How about exporting "Marco Rubios" to China to balance the trade?
3
Marco Rubio presents a specious argument on trade and tariffs. The tariffs recently enacted were on friends and allies of the US, not antagonists. These friends and allies have played by the rules and provide security to the US by selling steel and aluminum. In particular, the steel industry in the US has been doing very well and actually sells more steel to Canada than it imports. So, what is the response? Well, apply a 25% tariff on Canadian steel! Oh, but delay it and it to NAFTA negotiations. If Canada crumbles to outrageous US demands, then no tariffs. This destroys the arguments for tariffs in the first place.
This is not trade action on China. This is bully politics, pure and simple. Want to do something about the big bad guy down the street, then beat up the small friendly neighbour next door.
3
America needs more than Russian-Republicans like Rubio, but the traitors now control all three branches of the federal government and will not allow free and honest elections in November.
How nice it would be if Trump's economically suicidal tariffs were the worst danger facing America. However, that is a distraction because the G.O.P. is intent on replacing American democracy with a tyrannical Russian-style kleptocracy.
Once a modern Republican, never again a loyal American.
Once a modern Republican, never again a decent person.
5
This article brazenly misinterprets and misrepresents decades of data on international trade. No where in the past one hundred years has imposing broad, unsanctioned tariffs led to prosperity for the United States. These new tariffs will mostly affect allies including Canada, the UK, and others. China will hardly feel any effects. This opinion by Marco is bad and it's clear he isn't interested in an unbiased historical perspective on international diplomacy and trade.
3
I read the article very carefully. Rubio accuses China of breaking rules, but fails to identify even one rule or describe how it is broken. Don't arguments like these warrant some examples.
The article is deficient in other respects as well. Haven't other commentators argued that China ceased its currency manipulation several years ago? As to theft of intellectual property, or the "joint venture" issue, isn't that something that should be enforced by the multi-national corporations who participate and not an issue for the American people or their government? Why do such corporations engage in this behavior -- and perhaps they wouldn't if the government didn't try to bail them out when China takes advantage of the deals them made. But that's may not be "rule-breaking." Just our financiers wanting more protections.
And what does Rubio say other than conceal these problems?
2
Sen. Rubio's supposed examples of rule-breaking are erroneous.
Little Marco Rubio - perhaps does not understand that this tariff scheme isn't an actual tariff scheme but instead is a Special Election scheme to help a turkey in PA hold off a solid Democratic threat today.
Trump needs to keep as many Repubs in office as possible for two reasons: 1. Repub losses are a referendum on him but most importantly 2. The more Democrats in Congress, the greater the chances are of impeachment.
As soon as this election is over - slowly, quietly and over a few months, maybe even after the midterms this whole tariff thing will just evaporate. Trump's base really doesn't care as long as Trump seems to be doing something " 'merican! "
5
I'm reading a book on China right now; a brief quote: ". . . Modernity is the embrace of the future as opposed to a present dominated by tradition: eyes and minds are directed forwards in time rather than backwards as previously. But the extent of the phenomenon varies. It was, and remains, more marked in the United States than in Europe . . . . But this orientation towards the future is even truer of East Asia than the United States . . . because the speed of transformation [by which is meant the rapid rise of the Asian Tigers plus China] has generated a completely different experience and expectation of change. IN CONTRAST TO EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES [caps mine], these countries are characterized by a form of hyper-modernity: an addiction to change, an infatuation with technology, enormous flexibility, AND A HUGE CAPACITY FOR ADAPTATION [caps mine]."
It isn't post WWII anymore. Nations around the world have improved themselves and no longer think like colonized peoples. Twenty years ago, North Korea was an annoyance. Today, Trump is receiving a crash course (which he'll fail) on how to conduct himself when he meets Kim, not the other way around.
"Free trade" is a euphemism for "America First." The nations of the earth now humbly disagree, of course, with a courteous bow, and a cup of tea.
The FUTURE of free trade is the dominance of Asians (and Others) majoring in STEM. America is now a glass house full of rocks. Try till we die, the past is not coming back.
2
You've got to be kidding. It is your buddies in Big Business and on Wall Street who have moved production to places with cheap labor and poor labor and environmental protections. Now that US manufacturing in the Rust Belt is gutted, you want to close the barn door?
2
For China, the USA, Canada, Greece, Russia, or any city, state, or nation (or any family) to support and sustain a Republic, Democracy, Theocracy, Capitalism, Communism, Socialism, Fascism, Dictatorship, Kingdom, Principality or any other form of government that they select and/or is imposed upon them, that nation still has to have their (usually privately owned) businesses continuously create sufficient new taxable national wealth (and jobs) in their nation so that there is enough available wealth in that nation for that nation's government to confiscate a portion of that new taxable national wealth and/or profit that was created by the private sector businesses
plus additional amounts confiscated through income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, tariffs, etc., and other taxes by the government tax collectors to pay for their wealth consuming government activities and government services.
This can only be accomplished by Austerity which is limiting government spending (including debt repayment) to less than the government collects in taxes!
Hopefully this can be done by each nation’s government without borrowing wealth from individuals and governments (mostly in other nations who buy that nation’s Sovereign Treasury Bonds) to pay for their various wealth consuming government services including any distribution of wealth confiscated from the wealth creators and then handed to the tax supported citizens.
1
Ye gads, Gerald. "Confiscation"? Really?
Do you really have no clue about how the government spends its money?
Ever driven on a road?
....just another one of the massive stacked decks/okey doke benefiting that tiny handful at the top--globally. It only got to this point because these arrangements are so lucrative for the elites of all countries, and like the other whiz bangs, they have us dancing around the fluorescent pink elephant in our living room without a peep. That magic dust must be hella powerful ?
Perhaps rejoining the TPP would allow the US to influence international trade policies. We certainly cannot do that from the sidelines. The US withdrawal from TPP opened the door to Chinese leadership in trade and weakened the hands of our natural trade partners. Deliberately or not, he Trump administration is doing everything it can to strengthen Russia and China at the expense of the US.
3
As long as Rubio continues to be an NRA supporter , won't take anything he says seriously. ...nor will the people of FL. Essentially, Rubio's political career is careening into the depths of despair.
3
China is an attractive target for whipping up the base Marco, but if you really wanted to do something about shrinking US factory employment, you’d need to address real issues, not straw men like China’s long ago currency manipulation.
Here’s a realistic proposal to make America’s factory employment great again:
Limit US hourly wages to $3/hour. Average hourly Chinese factory wages hit $3.60 in 2016, increasing 64 percent from 2011, according to market research firm Euromonitor. We’ll need to beat ‘me to get those jobs back. Although $3/hour may still be too high; companies are now moving manufacture to Sri Lanka where they can pay a more reasonable $.50/hour.
Charge a $1 million per container tariff on imports. Cargo containerization revolutionized international trade bringing shipping costs to rock bottom. Rosie the Riveter never had to deal with that.
Repeal all environmental laws. China has built its industrial base on cheap coal and toxic rivers. We’ll need to do the same to bring our costs in line with theirs. Plus, we’ll see whole new US industries spring up to supply hot new products like consumer hazmat suits and gas masks. That’s a win win.
1
Why I value the NYT efforts to present both sides of an argument you could have done us a better service on an opinion piece about China and tariffs written by someone with a working knowledge on the subject.
Now if Mr. Rubio would like to opine on how he sleeps at night while willingly accepting money, and who knows what else, from the NRA while children are being slaughtered with assault rifles, then I'll take what he says with some credence since he has actual experience with this subject.
4
Who is this guy and where has he been the past 8 years? Did he run for President or something? His billionaire benefactors must have deserted him. He believes in a lot of promises of things, which is what he often talks about. But promises and reality are two different things.
1
China gives us cheap good and consumers are happy to buy. They are happy to buy, say Walmart, because wages have remained stagnant and cheap is the only thing consumers can afford.
2
We've been victimized! I'll alert the authorities!
If anything, we're the victims of our own short-term thinking. China, by contrast, is playing the long game, investing in areas such as renewable energy, high-speed rail, and artificial intelligence in order to take the lead in the global economy of the future. Meanwhile, Trump and company are betting the farm on an economy of nostalgia--the best example of which is coal. Sorry, Marco, but America's strength lay in a government that supported basic research because it believed in science. As that commitment wanes, so will our optimism about America being great again.
3
You know, if the GOP hadn't already given away the house with ginormous tax cuts for business, they could have instead provided generous tax CREDITS for companies bringing their business back here, building new factories and creating new jobs. This I would think, would be more effective than tariffs which will simply raise prices for the consumers. Now that corporations are likely paying almost no tax at all, that provides little incentive for them, plus our revenue shortfalls can no longer afford pro-active measures that might have really done something for the middle class instead of stock buybacks.
3
The US has been moving manufacturing overseas for decades. That will continue and Trump’s grandstanding with a few tariffs will not fix anything. Generally, people in the US will prefer cheap prices over manufacturing location.
Short-term profits are the main mantra in US government economic policy. If that was not the case, the government would have taken some type of long-term action on trade to bolster US manufacturing and protect jobs.
Nothing of what Rubio has stated here will change any type of policy in the far east. It just shows naiveté or his own grandstanding for the next election cycle.
5
The free trade principle gives a misleading appearance of fairness. If the parties are at different stages of development, the more advanced party gains, the less developed party loses. The US has been protectionist throughout most of its history, when it was less developed than European countries. International trade must take these issues of development into consideration, free trade is not a solution.
1
"Free Trade" is an impossible illusion without globalized labor and environmental standards. The jobs and manufacturing move overseas because they have little to no standards. They can make it cheaper and dirtier. We can do the same here or create/raise world standards to truly achieve a level playing field.
1
Mr Rubio - anyone who lives south of Florida in "the Americas" will tell you free trade has always been a farce and never practiced by the US. Just one case. US farmers who are subsidized to grow crops flood all the countries to our south with all their surplus - which puts poor farmers in those countries out of business. That's just so many of them have been migrating to this country. That's not to mention all the "sweatshops" and "banana republics" who did the behest of US companies dictated. Spare us the sanctimony. Why do you think all those very same countries have been increasing their trade with China????? They know China isn't perfect.. But they think hypocrisy is worth.
1
What Rubio fails to mention is the complete abandonment of the TPP by the current administration. Years of planning and soft power from a lot of smart people went into designing and implementing that deal in order to exert huge levels of soft power in the region to standardize practices, create an appropriate forum for agreements, and using a collective voice to chastise violators.
By walking away form that, this administration walked away from any real negotiating power around trade in the region and turned its back on current and prospective partners in fair dealing.
5
It seems you're suggesting that while the TPP fails to mitigate our trade deficits, and China fails to abide by the policies put fourth, we should stand by the TPP because people worked hard on it?
2
Americans could also just buy less nonsense and increase their savings rate.
2
Is Marco declaring that he is a "Globalist?" Sad.
1
Senator, which lobby's campaign contributions were responsible for the formation of your opinion on this? Marco Rubio and AR15's; both easy to buy.
6
I can save money at Walmart and Home Depot, God bless!!! Isn't that all that matters???
Rubio fails to acknowledge that the world's major economies were devastated after WWII. The US was the only major economic power able to repair war ravaged economies - Marshall Plan anyone? China, India, Taiwan, Brazil were just footnotes if that. The US prospered because our infrastructure remained intact and we could switch from war manufacturing to consumer manufacturing. World economic conditions that benefited the US in the 50's and 60's are long gone. Free trade had nothing to do with it.
4
And don't forget, since our manufacturing facilities were intact after WWII we didn't have to build new ones and didn't bother to upgrade the old ones. So the countries that had to rebuild now have new more efficient manufacturing facilities, better public transportation, highways, etc. We've been too cheap to invest in our own country. No wonder we are further and further behind. And I haven't even mentioned the deteriorating educational system and the ridiculous cost of higher education.
4
This revelation is a little late. US manufacturer's rushed to China in order to reduce labor costs and maximize profits. US consumers had no choice but to look for 'Walmart' prices, since many of the decent paying union jobs had been relocated overseas.
10
Or moved to "right to work" Southern states with lower wages and "tax incentives."
Correct. That ship has already sailed. We now are feeling the hidden costs of those cheap imports with their "too good to be true" prices. We reap what we sow and cheap is not always cheap.
How can Senator Rubio write an article supporting President Trump's tariffs that is entirely focussed on China's trade policies while alluding only in passing to the fact that the tariffs scarcely apply to China at all but instead apply largely to American allies---two of whom have now been granted temporary "reprieves"?
8
So Marco Rubio, are you in favor of major government policies and investment in non fossil energy sources? That is where the innovation AND good jobs are going to be.
Are you in favor of taxing the 1% to help with the major investment needed to bring the US into the 21st century?
Are you in favor of drastically cutting the war budget and reinvesting that money into clean energy and mitigating climate change?
Are you in favor of investing in free and excellent public education for all including state colleges?
Are you supporting single payer healthcare for all?
Hey Marco, if you answer no to any of these questions, then you are not in favor of high quality investment and jobs.
17
I agree in spirit with the thrust of your thesis, Senator Rubio, but some of the opposing posts here are well taken. I am in engineering, and when the U.S. somehow decided to turn to China for it's cheaper manufacturing, many of us rolled our eyes. The eye-roll accomplished nothing, and the U.S. is now dependent on a communist nation for well-being.
China now owns the supply chain, so you are indeed correct, Senator, that tariffs do little good. The U.S. would have to relocate more supply chain channels on-shore.
In terms of political expertise, the Republican Party nominated the worst possible candidate for president in their primaries... a man who insults everyone, including you. Trump is a man who is incapable of thinking strategically, let alone any other way, and the U.S. is depending on him to develop a beneficial trade posture.
By being pro business, the G.O.P. is caught between industries that could raise their profits from an isolationist trade policy, and those businesses that benefit from globalization. It's an elephant on a tightrope. And whether consumers will tolerate higher prices... *and* possibly inferior goods that are made on-shore, is yet to be seen, as is their tolerance for inflation.
Again, I do agree with the thrust of your thesis. We need to have an approach to trade that includes an industrial policy (something that is an anathema to Republicans who let business do what it wants to) and is not based on free-for-all profits for business.
6
All dependencies, in this case, our addiction to cheap imported goods, are difficult to manage. It has always been a marvel, to me at least, that our economy (its dependency) has always been referred to (and accepted) as "consumer" based, when I nature, a balanced, self sustaining, food chain requires producers also.
1
It's amazing how China has kept prices down. I restored an old house in 1981. I bought a reciprocating saw at Sears for $100.00, At the time it was an expensive purchase, but it would do a lot of work.
Twenty years later I was at Lowes and saw the price of a reciprocating saw. It was $100.00.
The US economy started growing again in 2009, and adding jobs shortly after that. It has been growing at a sustainable rate ever since.
We need no tariffs. At all. They are a bad idea from the 19th century.
3
Remember when Rubio was the bright, shining, young star of the GOP? Over time, he's proven himself to be a man of limited intellect and even lower values.
14
Why does everything have to sound so violent..."fight China", use everything in our "ARSENAL". And NYT...when are you going to stop being a platform for right wing politicians. That's the job of The Post and Fox News. Don't we already know where Rubio stands without giving him OpEd space?
9
"I believe in the promise of free and fair trade"
Those are opposite political positions. It is like choosing both the right to choose and the right to life. It is saying something essentially stupid.
2
"China has also bought up American assets to inflate the value of the dollar"
Translation: They bought our T-Bills, and so paid the credit card used by Dubya to run his wars, and used by Trump to fund his tax cuts. Those T-bills were also the only major economic stimulus that Obama could get through a Republican Congress. So -- blame China?
8
For me at least, any Republican who doesn't repudiate Trump is not worth listening to.
10
"...the Chinese government is becoming even more autocratic." As is our own, thanks to enablers like Rubio. He wants to fight China with every tool in our arsenal, let's start by sending him to work in an electronics factory in Shenzhen. He'll do as much or more damage there as here.
2
Lightening might strike me any moment but Senator Rubio does make a few good points. Undoubtedly China has not played fair or ethically on the world trade stage. I would agree that we should stand firm on the principles of the WTO and enact consequences for Chinese companies that cheat the system. However Senator, I think your article is missing a few things. For one, China alone is not responsible for the decline in manufacturing jobs. Factors like the free trade you so highly praise (which has seen companies move to seek tax-havens, cheaper labor, and a lack of regulation that prioritizes things like worker's safety and environmental damages), the incalculable impact of technology, and America's changing economy have all contributed to this decline. I'd also like to point out that the Trump Tariffs you're praising are not all sunshine and roses. Close allies and adversarial powers alike are already discussing similar tariffs in their wake. Reports on the American impact alone suggest tens of thousands of jobs will be lost, higher prices born by consumers, and significant economic problems caused by the retaliatory tariffs by other countries. If you genuinely cared about the jobs and wages of American workers Senator, then you would see that the economic impact on this country from these tariffs outweighs the very marginal gains. As other commentators have also pointed out, if you cared about American workers then why are you giving executives and corporations tax breaks?
46
"Undoubtedly China has not played fair or ethically on the world trade stage." In my opinion, a statement like this has no basis in fact, but it does parrot Trumpian propaganda used to justify tariffs.
There may be some Chinese person or company that has violated some law or principle, but blaming "China", the govt and all the people of China, is flatly preposterous.
1
Marco Rubio seems to be campaigning for a cabinet position.
2
There was a time when a contributor raising the most important issue of our time would have prompted an enlightened discussion in the NYT comments section, with eloquent, fact-based arguments for and against the position taken, as if in a court of law, that would left the reader with a deep respect for the quality of the readership of this newspaper.
Sadly, those days seem to be over.
2
Marco, just in case you didn't get it - your voice is complicit with not protecting the children of your own nation. We in the rest of the world look on not baffled. We are disgusted. Disgusted by you.
6
Why not have an educated journalist write about trade problems with China?
If Marco wants to say something inane here, he can make it in the comments section like anybody else.
4
We should stop importing Chinese H1-B STEM workers and Chinese students.
9
those Chinese students are paying the wages of your academics and university workers.
2
Complicity, silence and an unwillingness to do the right thing will be your downfall Mr. Rubio. Your legacy will be that of an enabler and a sellout.
3
Rubio tries desperately to stay relevant but his ship has sailed.
5
If Senator Rubio cared for the people of his state and his country he would support a livable wage, universal healthcare, regulations on payday loans and sensible gun control. That he isn't for any of that tells me he is just a paid for lackey of the Koch Brothers too poor and too scared to stand up to the Trump machine and the dismantlement of our republic
How do you look yourself in the mirror?
Shame on you Senator Rubio
12
This Floridian appreciates your comment. We would be much better off down here with no one in his office.
For God's sake! The problem with China is not Chinese companies or for the matters of trade the Chinese government. It is American companies (corporations, US based international corporations they are now) that have moved their manufacturing to China. This started with the Counsel on Competitiveness under George Bush Sr., and it is entirely a phenomenon greased by Republicans and neoliberals. It is a Republican problem, not a China problem.
5
"entirely a phenomenon greased by Republicans and neoliberals"
True. But then this blames Republicans only. Neoliberals are the Democrats under the Clintons. Unless one thinks as I do that they are Republican-Lite, it is unfair to conclude, "It is a Republican problem."
3
I have heard Marco Rubio speak publicly on many occasions. It is quite obvious from his speech patterns, vocabulary, and mannerisms that this was not written by Mr. Rubio. This begs the question of whose opinions and objectives are being promoted by this editorial. Since Mr. Rubio does not supports higher wages, union protections, national single payer health care, and other tools that actually help working American men and women, I have to assume this is simply more hot air from a man who feels he deserves to be the next President.
5
Won't more tax cuts solve this problem Marco?
2
Mr. Rubio, your editorial reeks of revisionist history, especially in relation to the years after WWII and this colors your interpretation of Chinese actions in relation to trade.
One, the world, in the aftermath of WWII, was in rebuilding mode, whereas our manufacturing infrastructure was intact. This meant that we had an inherent competitive advantage and would become the world's supplier of goods in the years following WWII.
Two, to circumvent what could have been a depression after WWII (conversion from wartime to peacetime economy), we passed the GI Bill, which provided funds for education, housing and small businesses for 12 million soldiers, which also helped fuel the boom.
Three, when confronted by world events that effected corporate business in other parts of the world, the Dulles brothers were not shy in terms of using both the CIA and/or our military covertly in order to subvert the will of the people in these countries.
That was the real aftermath of WWII.
While true that some of the Chinese practices are questionable, no one forced a US corporation to get involved in a joint venture. No one twisted their wrists in terms of nearly giving away all their intellectual property. The Chinese have not thrown out an elected government like we did in Iran in 1953.
Mr. Rubio, if your goal is a better life for your fellow citizens, then why not try something akin to the GI Bill for all Americans, or would that interfere with your definition of rugged individualism?
10
Where was this Marco Rubio since 2003? Until this Op-Ed, Marco Rubio has ignored this issue. Now it reached the medias’ attention, all of a sudden (sic) trade is a big deal.
Typical Marco
1
Why must we be subjected to the musings of "Little Marco" on any subject in this newspaper? This is a senator who has accomplished precisely zero during his tenure, has been bought and paid for by special interests, and to top that off was an embarrassment as a presidential candidate
7
From 1999 to 2011 America lost 2.4 million jobs to China. Let me point out that for 8 of those years, George W. Bush and the Republicans (and Marco Rubio) were in charge. Same old story, the horse is already out of the barn. Let's point out that the huge budget deficits due to the Bush Tax Cut and the mismanaged response to 9/11 facilitated the Chinese control of the American economy.
8
Great, another voice from Trump's choir of idiots singing the praises of protectionism. Tariffs are not trade policy they are a tax on the American consumer by increasing the cost of good across the board. Mr Rubio has proven himself to be even move uniformed that Trump, a dubious distinction.
1
A minor case, but likely typical of the Chinese mindset. I bought a small CNC milling machine on ebay for less than $1,000. When it arrived, all the paperwork referred to it as as shoes. Why? The import tax is less on shoes than the machinery I actually bought. A good friend from Taiwan understands the Chinese very well in this regard. He told me they view the world as a bunch of gold bars floating over their heads. All you have to do to get rich is reach up and grab one for yourself ignoring all international rules, ethics, environmental protections or anything else that might get in your way. Another friend working in the U.S. for a Chinese company was told we pay too much attention to the environment. The TPP was meant to create a level playing field, ignoring China who would then have to play fair if they wanted to join and compete. But Trump through a decades worth of effort down the drain not even understanding the implications. It is by far the worse decision he has made.
5
Why are we fighting China with tariffs on steel? Because you and Donald forgot to ask the grown-up economists how to balance tariffs, treaties, trade? Forgot to run the numbers on imports? If the only book you've read is Peter Navarro's, you're a bit behind. Go borrow what's his name Cruz lap-top. He's got a couple of videos you might like.
The free trade genie was out of the bottle long ago. Trump's efforts to stuff it back in will simply lock us out of the global economy and Make America Last Again. If we really want to "fight China on trade" copy Xi's long-term strategy and concentrate investment and education in the jobs of the future -- hi-tech, artificial intelligence, aviation and renewable energy -- instead of starting trade wars and trying to revive coal mining. And take a lead role in international treaties and trade pacts like the TPP, the Paris climate accord and the WTO, instead of bowing out and letting China exert its influence.
11
Perhaps, Senator Rubio, if America was investing in its own infrastructure,roads, bridges, airports, alternative energies, science, trade schools and public education instead of billionaires, the gun industry, campaign bribery and the 'Holy Bible', we wouldn't have to scapegoat China, Mexico and other red herrings just so Grand Old Pirates like you and Daycare Donnie could dupe your way into elected office.
Maybe if you weren't so corrupted by the $3,303,355 in National Terrorist Association, you might have an ounce of integrity that Americans could respect instead of rejecting you as the cheap political prop you are for Grand Old Profit.
The Republican Party and you are not serious about helping non-rich America with anything except their premature deaths and 'thoughts and prayers'.
Party First:Country Last is what you and the Republican Benedict Arnold Party stand for.
Thanks for the fake concern, though, you political fraud.
56
Dang, thanks, Socrates, you said it much better than this Floridian could have. Yeah, when you got Little Marco as your senator, you don't need enemies.
2
So, what's the definition of "fair". Because, during the Cold War, the mantra was just "free trade", because the premise was that the free market was self-regulating (because it was "natural"). Now that the US is crumbling, the motto was changed to "free - and fair - trade". So, I ask again, what's "fair"?
Oh for pete's sake Marco, sit down. You're no leader; you're just waiting it out.
1
Why are you giving valuable space to this guy who is clearly wholly owned and operated by his billionaire donors? Please reserve your columns for people who actually have thoughts of their own and something useful to say.
8
I am sure some think tank wrote the article and he put his name on it. He is not informed or smart enough to understand the basic economics behind “ free trade “.
2
What we actually need, Marco, is for the Democrats to have a majority in both the House and the Senate.
6
I'm rooting for China. The days of me rooting for this country ended with our last election.
2
You failed to mention huge investment in scientific research and education in the 3 or 4 decades following WW2. Starting Reagan, the US has dramatically scaled back this investment.
You fail to mention that China annually graduates some 5 to 10 times more STEM folks.
China now leads in super-computing. China has a pragmatic approach to climate change, developing solar, wind, etc. China leads in this also. You deny climate change, and science generally "Mr I'm-No-Scientist-Man". In YOUR state of Florida, in the largest city (Miami) in YOUR state, the sidewalks are being raised by 2 feet, and installation very many expensive pumps. Why? sea level rise due to climate change.
If you cannot accept very obvious, simple, easily verifiable facts (basic reality), then why would I accept any narrative in any domain of discourse authored by you?
Tariffs on steel is about as stupid as it gets. It has NOTHING to do with national security, or any of the mind numbingly dumb rationals offered by trump and his sycophants. It is simply about winning an election is western PA. Trump is a moron, and you are an enabler.
Foreign produced steel using products imported to America will gain a competitive advantage due to availability of cheaper steel.
American produced products using steel will move their operations to foreign countries (perhaps China) because steel is cheaper there.
179
Perhaps the US needs to redirect the money it is going to borrow from China to 'fund' the recent tax cut for billionaires that YOU voted for, redirect this money into scientific research and education? China is about to pass the US in all STEM categories in the near future.
3
"Foreign produced steel using products imported to America will gain a competitive advantage due to availability of cheaper steel.
American produced products using steel will move their operations to foreign countries (perhaps China) because steel is cheaper there."
This is a very valid point.Wonder why nobody is talking about this?
1
People commenting here don't have to be fans of Republican domestic policies, but should at least try to view the discussion of trade presented in this column objectively. Senator Rubio is correct. While we can and should invest more in education and scientific research, we also need to ensure that other countries play by the rules. Yes, Chinese government leaders are smart and pragmatic, and they should be given credit for taking advantage of every opportunity to advance their nation's interests. Some of that is intellectual property theft, and we should not put up with it. For example, the Chinese government-owned Baoteel hacked into the computers of U.S. Steel and stole trade secrets for advanced high-strength steel; they are now manufacturing this product and selling it to the U.S. through other countries.
3
Agreed, Senator Rubio. But it took Donald Trump to begin fighting for jobs and U.S. manufacturing by developing trade stratergies to protect American workers. More, such as you suggest, is to come. That is why he is President and you are not. Maybe you can continue his policies as President in 2024.
Obama was working on the TPP which would have joined the US to 11 other Pacific nations in a way that would have benefited the US and put pressure on China. Donald Trump (and Hillary, let's not forget) campaigned against that program, withdrew - and we've watched the other nations take it up, without the United States leading.
Trump's tariffs affect Canada, Japan and Europe more than they hurt China. The tariff he put on solar panels might have been justified, but it's another action (like the metals tariffs) that are affecting employment in the renewable energy field which had been booming under the Obama Administration.
Trump's been against that booming industry and its rapid job creation, too. Instead he's been making empty promises about coal jobs that nobody really believes will come back.
2
I find the hypocrisy hilarious. You are most likely one of those Trump voters that has disdain for us supposed coastal elites; but look at you now. Perhaps Trump is your mounthpiece but those who think he has the workers in his heart when he is making uneducated knee-jerk decisions are delusional.
1
Which also means that Trump and his anti-fact cabinet are picking winners and losers for the entire country and the winners they are picking are losers for our future.
Not only will we have a terrible standing in the world - which is not the end of the world but we are going to have less to show for it and a lower standard of living.
So those who are super happy about bringing back coal are just telling me that they would rather have a new pair of Nikes or a mobile home in the driveway than clean air and water. Oh; and that they don’t want to move to where jobs are or improve education so we can fill the high paying jobs that are in this country now - Don’t worry China, India and Russia will fill those jobs for us. At least Trump voters will always have something that makes them angry enough to make bad decisions.
2
““Free” trade with China has yielded some short-term benefits for consumers, in the form of lower prices"
Yes, but…
The “free” market doesn’t exist, certainly for labor, because government has intervened.
If an American worker loses a job due to Chinese imports, Americans must still pay taxes (rightly) to support that worker’s family with food, shelter, medical care, education, etc.
I would rather pay the “tax” of tariff-induced, slightly higher prices in order to keep the American worker in his job in the first place.
31
I would rather pay the laid-off worker a govt-paid and -guaranteed stipend for the rest of her life in compensation for her loss of income. Perhaps the company that profits from the import could pay a portion of that profit to the govt to compensate the govt for paying out the stipend. Otherwise, the company profits from the worker giving up her livelihood.
Higher priced induced by tariff imply less demand for the product, which implies reduced production and fewer hours of work needed to produce the product, which implies companies will lay off workers, because executives don't have the wit to shorten work hours. Thus tariffs can cause layoffs and fewer job opportunities in an industry.
Protectionism can save jobs. In the USA the best measurement of the cost per job saved to the rest of the country is about $1 million per job saved. Saving one job might provide $100,000 in gains to the worker and the employer who benefit from the protectionism, but cost the rest of the country $1,000,000. Since the million dollars is just one third of one cent per person in the USA, no one notices it.
To save a million jobs via protectionism would cost the country a S1 trillion which would be about the same impact as a very severe recession. To save 10 million jobs via protectionism would cost the country a S10 trillion. That would make the USA a poorer country than Mexico. That would mean it would be likely the people born in the USA would be going to Mexico to work as servants and dishwashers. The degree of impoverishment that would result from that much protectionism is usually only associated with severe natural disasters or wars. .."
http://seekingalpha.com/article/4032821
1
Rubio makes three important, valid observations: increased trade with China has brought lower prices for consumer goods, higher profit margins for American corporations, and damage to our manufacturing workforce.
Now let's take the next, logical step: if our corporate executives can increase profits by manufacturing more cheaply overseas, why shouldn't they be obligated to share those gains with other Americans whose lives they inflict damage? Instead of lowering taxes on those corporations and high earners, why aren't we looking at ways to support our lowest earners, many of whose jobs were sacrificed in order to generate those profits and salaries.
7
Rubio=no leadership. Just look at the headlines today; our government is in complete chaos. At least he gets one thing right: we need more than tarriiffs. We need a competent president, and a Democratic majority in both the house and the Senate until we get one.
2
Florida reelected this cipher.
2
Too many readers are discussing our history, which they are implying is bad, to justify China doing somewhat the same types of things now.
The logic does hold, if it is bad, then it is bad even if we used to do it.
2
One question: how do you know when intellectual property has been stolen by
the Chinese? Do you think it comes with a stamp or watermark that says made in the USA? Unless it is a simple bribery case like Sinovel then proving intellectual property theft is very difficult.
As far as joint ventures are concerned a lot of countries have the same requirement in some form. In some South American countries all mining companies have to be owned 51% by locals. So why are you singling out the Chinese?
Senator, I am always open to concrete, well thought out policy ideas. When you have something other than talking points for your next presidential campaign please feel free to submit them to the NY Times.
3
Our country is in so much peril because we have people like Marco Rubio in our government. What on earth qualifies this troglodyte to be a Senator?
1
It's funny watching Rubio pretend that he has principles. OBVIOUSLY we need to arm longshoremen with assault rifles to keep Chinese ships out of our harbors (giant eye roll). Go pound sand, Marco. You have no credibility on any issue.
27
That the little Marco is a Trumpkin sycophant is beyond question. It's amusing to hear like minded RINOs push tariffs (otherwise known as taxes) as a solution.
6
What does Marco Rubio know about trade and the post-WW II world order? Nations looked to the U.S. because we represented what a democracy could be once unfettered from demagogues, racists, women-haters, and war lovers -- unfortunately, we those chaps are now back in command -- if only for a term or two.
7
Why fight China? Why not simplly fight unbalanced trade in general? Grant all US exporters $ trade credits that importers must buy on a regulated exchange before releasing equivalent $ to pay for imports. Then, if others are foolish enough to sell us their stuff at a loss, let them. They will stop once they realize that they, not us, now are getting suckered in the process. With balanced trade there is nothing to be gained from this. No surplus dollars can be stashed away for use in buying US properties or political favors.
2
Mr. Rubio suggests that a Strong Federal government is the solution to this economic problem. Interesting concept.
3
He's suggesting nothing of the sort. It's called hypocrisy only.
Why does the NYTimes give Marco Rubio a platform to spew his nonsense. The man has absolutely no back-bone. He could care less about his constituents lives, much less other Americans.
He can always release a worthless press release, he doesn't need a NYTimes megaphone.
Man, am I regretting renewing my NYTimes membership!
29
Dear Marco Rubio. Your opinion is irrelevant. You are irrelevant. You have zero credibility and a intellectual thought peace to bolster you next Presidential run is disingenuous. You're not an intellectual. You have zero courage and are for sale to the highest bidder. Just go away.
32
This is precisely why I dislike Rubio so much. He speaks the good speech but fails to provide any resistance to Trump. He wants to score points with both the pro and against Trump groups. Sorry Rubio, I think your convictions are more flimsy then a wet noodle.
27
Agree wholeheartedly with Rubio. Trump needs to do much more. We have been played for fools for the last 20 years. The Dems stood by and allowed unbridled audacity on the part of China. Take a train ride through our countryside and witness the vast devastation. And the human lives left behind are killing their pain with opiates and now fentanyl made in China. Clintons and Obama were fools, cowards, ignorant, corrupt and lazy not to correct this. The blacks and minorities suffered the most.
3
Perhaps I missed it. Did Rubio do anything more than claim that multi-national corporations who do these trade deals for "short term gain" warrant more protection? The big elephant in the room is that their wage rates are much lower than ours. But he doesn't want to deal with that. It's always about "rules" that are broken but never listed, and currency manipulation that reportedly ended years ago. Without more, he's just trading on our ignorance to protect his political clients.
After his public wilting/debacle over the past three weeks in Florida, it's hard to take Rubio seriously on anything. He's a shill for the NRA - just like the president. He looked those students in the eye and lied again and again and has done NOTHING because he can't get approval from his NRA owners.
Why would I listen to a coward like that on trade?
15
What is really frightening, is that Rubio is using the term "all the tools in our arsenal." Doe he neam to threaten China with military action?
Marco Rubio, just the man I always look to for guidance, especially after selling out to the man he stridently, rightfully criticized during the campaign. Anything to keep your seat at the table, eh Marco?
30
Whoever actually penned this opinion piece seems to lack solid grounding in international economic history. The Opinion offers a distorted rationale for what amounts to a reasonable approach to combat egregious Chinese transgressions. Senator Rubio is right to argue that theft of intellectual property, the use of bureaucracy and regulation to stymie inward investment and subsidization of state-owned enterprises all need to be sanctioned. However, protectionism by the US is not an acceptable response. Its advocates overlook the costs to the citizenry that stem from higher prices and perverse incentives not to innovate.
3
To fight China we need to remove all internal hurdles for American businesses to operate freely in this country. This will increase the productivity of American businesses to compete against anyone and everyone at the things we do well. And it will create freedom for entrepreneurs - the creators of wealth in this country, which we seem to engender phenomenally more than any other country - to create new products and services and take back the pole position of economic progress.
But liberals hate all that freedom, which is why they've continually and continuously dragged this country back into the muck.
2
You mean operate freely in China? you think we have the right and power to do that? Or pay our workers a Chinese wage and permit Chinese working conditions and still guarantee the ownership class 11% return on their investments?
1
Marco needs to realize it is deeds not words that effectuate change. He has been part of the GOP right wing flank that opposed anything and everything the Democrats proposed during the Obama Administration. Part of that was trade legislation.
1
If only we had some kind of trans-pacific partnership that could counteract Chinas unfair trade practices. Oh well, I guess that would be too hard to coordinate and would probably take years to negotiate.
9
Does anybody believe anything Rubio says, or writes about? He is the ultimate opportunist and hypocrite. Whichever way the wind blows will be the direction he bends. If tariffs as a weapon became popular, he would support them. If not, he would not. Another mouse trying to be a cat.
3
Oh Marco Rubio, I would take you seriously if I weren't so sure that you will prostrate yourself before Trump as soon as he demands it.
You voted for the republican tax bill but then afterwards admitted that "the bill went too far in helping the super rich"...
your words mean nothing sir, you will vote in any way Trump, McConnell or the NRA order you to.
14
Why doesn't Senator Rubio note that tariffs on steel and aluminum from the European Union has nothing to do with "fighting China on trade"? We import practically none from China.
Trump's actions hurt the people playing fair and by the rules, not the cheaters. He's fulfilling his stated belief that trade wars are good and easy to win.
This is like Japan bombing Pearl Harbor and Trump declaring war on Canada because he thinks wars are good for America and easy to win.
I've had it with people who are scared of looking sideways at Trump, because failing to call out the policy implicitly pretends Trump isn't going against everything Senator Rubio is talking about in the column.
91
Why do so many people have trouble seeing what is a signal? You start negotiations by being able to credibly say "we're not bluffing about what's coming next". Sheesh, I don't like Trump either, but how do so many people suspend objectivity?
Jim, stories abound about Trump having fake phone calls put through to him during meetings so he could put on a big show ranting and screaming to impress all the people in the room with his toughness. It's not much of a "credible" negotiating tactic when everybody knows what you're doing. I'm sure the Chinese have heard the stories.
This trade issue has plenty of nuance. I doubt China forced Steve Jobs to make his iPhones in China. There was an advantage for our industries in making stuff there, and luminaries like Jobs didn't hesitate for one second worrying about putting Americans out of work. This lopsided blaming of China for every ill in America is just stupid.
Nowhere does Rubio mention that one of the purposes of the TPP was to curb China. Trump ditched our participation in that because he doesn't know what he's doing on trade.
Rubio is a hack. He's setting himself up for another presidential run. Read Thomas Friedman's op-ed for a little more intelligent perspective on the issue.
1
Why do we need to fight China on trade now? It makes no sense. We have a population who can't afford to pay the real costs of goods if they're manufactured in the U.S.; unless the plan is to pay U.S. workers low, low wages like the Chinese workers or to increase the use of prison convicts as slave workers at 24 cents an hour.
I have no confidence in anything that Marco Rubio has to say. He's bought and paid for like the rest of the republicans and just as cruel and mean spirited.
5
Marco Rubio is correct. We do need more than tariffs. Not only to fight China on trade, but to restore the values of our country.
We need to oust republican politicians from office who cannot get off their knees to serve Donald Trump.
The republican party no longer has any semblance of intellectual rigor or moral compass in their fealty to this administration. It's really time to put up or shut up.
7
Trumpism has removed us from the World stage;our withdrawl from the World means less power in the World. China has/will fill the void; in trade or politics. VOTE TRUMP/GOP OUT. Ray Sipe
3
Yes let’s have Marco Rubio tell us about trade. The senator from Florida could not even look a high school student in the eyes and stand up to the NRA. It was ascertained some years ago that China would become a major player in the worlds commercial markets. The United States and our other leading allies helped them to become what they are today. One of the first to get into bed with China inc was Walmart. Walmart can easily be said to be an offshore retail facility of China. But the writing was and still is on the wall. China will dominate the 21st century. It is better to engage with them than to butt heads with. We may not like their politics and yet 300 thousand of their children pay full tuition at our universities every year. Mr Rubio why don’t you ask the heads of our leading manufacturers what they think of protectionism.
11
Don't forget guns, Marco. More guns is part of the solution to any problem. (Sorry, just had to slip that in.)
7
Maybe Marco should partner more with the NRA to counter China with guns....
Marco Rubio embarrassing for Florida dangerous for the US and world.
2
seriously Marco, you've got bigger things to worry about than just trade policy. Your voice's lack of authenticity in defending your country against guns, Trump and Russia makes you complicit and probably irrelevant.
Your party makes your country a joke to those us overseas who consider the US a monolith. I know it is not and there are good people in America - but many do not. No holding back, mate.
6
Leadership on trade comes from the top and the man at the top has no idea how the system works. The president is caught in a time warp of his own making. He insists on claiming that globalism is wrong for America. But that is how we have been operating for decades. His America first policies are from a different time. We are a member of the world community and we were once a leading force in it with our goal of free and fair trade. Rubio is right in a way, the Chinese don’t play fair and we let them take advantage of us. But burying our heads in the sand and withdrawing from trade packs is not productive. We need to make sure our state department is active with our trading partners and is fully staffed with bright people with an expertise in their fields. That has not been the goal of this administration and it looks like it will continue on that path with the new Secretary of State.
3
Dear Marco:
When you stop rubber-stamping dolts for Cabinet positions, when you apologize for violating the Constitution by refusing to consider President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, when you start drafting articles of impeachment to remove the current traitor from the Oval Office, I'll start listening to your opinions on international trade.
Until then, you're part of the problem, not part of the solution. Forget about writing period op-eds, trying to remain "relevant." Start acting like a patriot.
183
Let’s not forget that Marco has received somewhere around 3.3 million from the NRA. I agree with the original comment that Marco should start acting like a patriot. Until then Marco has next to no credibility.
We need more Republican Senators with spine. Let's start with you and you mealy mouth disease on gun legislation.
14
I admire your ability to use "spine" and "republicans" in the same sentence. I was ROFL when I read yor comment!
We need clear leadership, not pandering wimps who bow down to corporate interests and the bully in the white house. Rubio is beyond a lost cause.
7
This Floridian agrees with your comment.
What is the not-running-for-senate-again senator from Florida not running for now?
13
Like everything else in our economy, from taxes to trade, our system and policies have been designed, by both parties, to increase profits at Goldman Sachs and other large companies, and to amplify the wealth of the wealthiest among us. That has meant making "deals" with and for Chinese companies; opening access to cheap labor in China and Mexico; and keeping taxes and tarriffs on trade by big companies and the wealthy very low.
Mr. Trump, and now Mr. Rubio, are finally taking some steps in the right direction on trade, against the wishes of Goldman Sachs types like Gary Cohn. This is a welcome development and is driven by the dissatisfaction of voters in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania. Pardon my cynicism, but Rubio will again try to run for President in 2 or 6 years from now, and is setting himself up to ride the same wave that Trump did.
Cynical motives aside, we should support these efforts because China is the biggest threat to not only our prosperity, but also our democratic way of life and world peace and safety.
2
This is pathetic to have come from a US Senator.
There are two parts to our trading relationship with Chine. One part is as a source of cheap labor. American consumers benefit from this with lower cost and often better quality products. Any American who prefers to pay more for clothes,shoes, electronics, games, etc., can buy American. May every American who wants more expensive steel and aluminum containing products raise their hands. For what--40000 more steel jobs? That's like four days of our current job growth.
Yes we buy more from China that they do from us. A major part of the reason is that we refuse to sell them many high tech products for "national security" reasons.
The bigger trade goal is giving American companies access to the 1,300,000,000 consumers in China. There are more middle class Chinese than there are all Americans. Rubio leaves this out of his discussion totally.
Yes American companies give up some patent and technology rights to gain access in China But any person with any understanding of patents know that most have been worked around within a few years of issuance and have little long term value Mostly political crap. Copyright rules and drug patents are real issues and worth pursuing
The TPP, which Rubio opposed, had many tough fixes for these violations, as well as improving NAFTA. But republicans want political noise, not real solutions. Just keep the pot boiling
6
Wow, so clearly these manipulations and violations by China have been going on for many decades, covering the Obama and Bush administrations. So reluctance to engage China is and was a bipartisan affair. I have to wonder what was going on to not address this head on before? Was it the large campaign donations from companies seeking access to China’s markets? I think that the root causes of why the USA hasn’t effectively addressed this issue has much to do with why we don’t effectively address gun violence, climate change or many other issues. Our system of government allows and thrives on big money from very rich individuals and corporations to influence individual politicians and political parties. So let’s not blame China or polluters or gun manufacturers for getting away with the harm they cause our nation. Let’s focus the blame on our politicians and our political parties and our Supreme Court which has legalized corruption, and let’s look in the mirror and blame ourselves for not taking responsibility to repair our republic and for being the willing fools of the very rich.
20
China’s bad...China cheats..China’s unfair...China, China, China....so let’s attack...CANADA! That will show the Chinese what will happen to them....
6
This is a deflection by Rubio - feigning to be some kind of statesman - which he is not. It's a detour of the real issue - that he is a puppet of the NRA. He wears the blood of 17 dead at Parkland.
Rubio's political career is over in 2022. He will be lucky to be defending small-time thugs and traffic scofflaws in Dade County Courthouse.
Rubio gets to kiss his children goodbye - who have a security detail to get to school safely while Andrew Pollack visits his daughter in cemetery and kisses the earth she is buried in.
This Op-Ed is from the Trump playbook - one Rubio knows so well - change the vernacular.
Shame on NYT for printing anything from this phony.
See you at THE MARCH!
9
Why can someone like this 'gentleman' with his dubious track record, who was summarily rejected by Joe Public, make an appearance in these pages? NYT, review your policies.
2
Great Marco. Your changing the subject your afraid to take a stand on guns so now you want to talk about trade.Your a puppet for the NRA and you should have done the nation a favor and kept your word and not have run for another term in the Senate. Your record as a Senator is a joke, time for you to hang it up.
2
No you don't Marco... What about the guns???
4
Senator - You have just demonstrated to me your continuing myopic view.
What you are suggesting is simplistic.
You should be calling out the American businesses that have set up shop in China to take advantage of cheap labor. My bet is you will not.
Meanwhile.
Our dear leader is in bed with the Russians, and who knows, with who else. That could be a huge security problem.
Our children are being gun downed in our schools. You are a supporter of the NRA agenda.
I think you are being disingenuous.
4
Why The Times feels the need to give this lightweight space in it's columns is beyond me. To see him on display in front of an audience says it all. In the words of Traitor Trump, he will always be "little Marco."
5
Your op-ed would have more meaning, Senator, if you would call out Donald J. Trump for what he is -- an inept & reckless traitor!
8
I assume if a few Chinese companies donate to his campaign his stance on this issue will drastically change. Children are slaughtered in his state and he keeps accepting NRA money, imagine what some of these corporations could do with a few contributions!
5
While it is fun to see Republicans fight for justice to our workers, let's get real here. Unions were the pressure group that pushed for trade fairness. Starting with Reagan, who broke the air traffic controllers strike, unions have been declining. Absent strong industrial unions, trade will go against American workers.
By the way, it isn't only China. Boeing started to send some of its manufacturing abroad to weaken the machinist's union. No one has said a work. Why?
6
Good point. The United Steelworkers Union has been the driving force behind the steel and aluminum tariff. The AFL-CIO also supports the tariffs.
It's really hard to pay attention to anything Rubio says. He's in the pockets of the NRA and anyone else who will support his lavish lifestyle.
I agree with the Parkside students: They should change the name of the AR-15 to the "Rubio" because it's so easily bought.
Him and the rest of the Republicans who just said that there's no collusion between the T campaign and Russia.
4
Senator, you are forgetting one very important fact. The customers who buy goods at -- oh, let's say Walmart -- want rock bottom prices. That's why they everything there including technology. They made a deal with the devil and would howl at properly priced products.
While you can blame the Chinese for taking advantage of us, look to the American consumer for driving it.
162
It is a mistake for the NYT to give this guy a platform -- he waffles terribly and he only really wants to be president at all costs. (And he'd be a bad one!) The NYT is just helping him polish his credentials -- you are being used!
10
Right, blame it all on China. What kind of moron does not know or can't find out that it is the US that transferred nearly all our manufacturing to China in our Walmart led race to the bottom? Rubio is a political coward and too lazy to educate himself.
12
Withdrawing from the Trans Pacific Partnership (of which China and North Korea were not party to) essentially cedes the leadership of 40% of the world's economy to China. This will have a much greater adverse effect on the United States economy than anything that has happened to date. Smart move, eh?
41
Re: "Withdrawing from the Trans Pacific Partnership (of which China and North Korea were not party to) essentially cedes the leadership of 40% of the world's economy to China."
Ludicrous. The TPP was first and foremost designed to maximize prices paid by other nations for patented goods, and to establish the ISDS - a system of courts staffed by corporate appointed judges, with the power to supersede sovereignty of local governments.
Yes, Trump is ignorant, and is making huge mistakes. But we wouldn't have Trump as a president, if not for *decades* of huge trade deficits, declining real median wages, years of very high unemployment.
Yes, China is a competitor - and we have been losing, with no national strategy for balanced trade. Some vague concept of "globalism", is used as an excuse to dismantle National policies which are needed to make capitalism work, because it benefits donors.
Our national policies are decided by the wealthiest among us - donors. The bottom 99% does *not* have a seat at any of the negotiating tables where key policies are decided, and their long term interests are always what gets traded away, or ignored.
There are always winners and losers in trade agreements. American workers have been the losers, for over two decades. Why should US workers accept ever more precarious finances, even as average income rises? And how realistic is a "post-National Utopia", when the world is lucky if it can even keep *Nations* from falling apart politically?
1
Portraying the US and its business community as fair trading, well-intentioned do-gooders undercuts Senator Rubio’s argument. If we are going to be honest and factual we have to take account of our trade and business history. After World War II, the United States helped build an international economic order. Some of its initiatives, to be sure, were beneficial to all, but most were self-serving for US business interests and often politically skewed to serve Cold War aims. And of course we have a long history of imperialist business policies that Europeans and Americans followed, exploiting others, stealing intellectual property. So now US business wants a fair and level playing field. We all do. But we must also take history into account. And don’t we want a vibrant and healthy China? Senator Rubio is leaving out more than half of the “whole truth.” Negotiate, indeed! But negotiate without the one-sided blaming. Try a little diplomacy based on good history and good economics. It's worth a try.
99
"So now US business wants a fair and level playing field." .....whaaaa ? Why, when the arrangements are netting that handful at the top trillions, would they want anything to change.
This dog and pony show is nothing more than another hit on the bong "of the people, by the people, for the people."
You know, no. Really do not want a vibrant, healthy China. Really want a vibrant, healthy US, and both is not in the cards.
This is so on point. It’s like the kid is crying for fairness right now when they found out they were no longer benefitting after cutting and altering rules of the game from the get go.
Federal deficits drive trade deficits, that has been well established. Republican tax cuts since 1980 have caused tremendous federal deficits and the new tax cuts will cause trillions more. No Republican can tell us how to solve the trade deficit without dealing with this first. 98.6% of federal deficits 1950-2009 came during Republican administrations, mostly Reagan and the two Bush. Obama inherited the worst recession since the 30s, a financial crisis, two wars and the Republican tax structure. His deficits fell in his terms. Now the Republicans are giving us more deficits without any reason except to give the wealthy and corporations tax cuts they don't need.
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"Federal deficits drive trade deficits, that has been well established."
A reference or some data might help us believe in this myth. For example we had deficits for 21 of the 27 years from 1946 to 1973. The debt increased 75%. Yet the trade deficit hovered right about 0 throughout this period. In the other direction, in the 90's the deficit shrank and became a small surplus by the end of the decade, but the trade deficit exploded.
See the first chart at
http://www.slideshare.net/MitchGreen/mmt-basics-you-cannot-consider-the-...
or
http://www.slideshare.net/MitchGreen/its-what-you-know-for-sure-that-jus...
This prompts two comments:
(1) Large international corporations are not patriotic, even as they "hover" (to use Tom Friedman's term) over the United States. It is the responsibility of our officials to enact laws and regulations that look out for our long-term well being. As it is now, the lobbyists for these corporations are all too often writing the laws and handing them to Congress to pass.
(2) The U.S. at a national level has turned its back on key technologies involving energy, particularly solar and wind energy policies. Google to see what the Chinese are doing with high-voltage direct curent (HVDC) power. Meanwhile our politicians deny global warming and think coal is the energy of the future. How do we fix stupid?
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Fix stupid? We can't even fix our roads which is easier than fixing stupid.
Our slogan to be shown at our borders and airports should read, "Welcome to America where things used to work."
We get it--Republicans need a foreign bogeyman, and obviously it can't be Russia, so China will have to do.
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You think it is OK that China runs a huge trade imbalance without affording US firms the same opportunities Chinese firms enjoy? You are no patriot.
There are many areas we could, and should, go after the Chinese for violating the rules on trade. The Trump administration chose to focus on tariffs though, because it plays well with his base. You have to keep things simple with this president and his supporters.
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So the duplicitous Mr. NRA Rubio thinks that the US trade policy has been governed by benevolent American capitalists that happily extracted oil from the Near East and bananas from Central America for a century for the "mutual" benefit of all nations. If that were the case we would hardly need an army. In reality the US stole trade secrets (in textile manufacturing, iron production, etc etc) from its earliest post colonial roots. It then erected high tariffs to keep competitors out until after WWII when it became advantageous to do otherwise because all other nations were suffering from having their industrial capacities destroyed. Lets be real here. China is doing little more than we had done. And as for steel, Trumps tariffs have far more to do with an election in the steel producing Pennsylvania than they have to do with the 1 to 3 percent of steel imports that China is shipping to the US. dShall we start again Mr. Rubio?
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The ship is slowly coming about. I wonder what the US Chamber of Commerce or the Business Roundtable will think of the Senator's ideas.
1
From the mind that thinks more guns solves too many guns.
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“President Trump is correct when he says that America has been taken advantage of. The federal government had the tools to better manage the start of trade with China, but our leaders chose not to use them.”
“Our leaders?” That’s YOU! YOU currently sit in office and you KNOW tariffs are a horrible idea. If issues like this are so important and so neglected, why has the GOP run campaigns on abortion, gay marriage, immigration, and guns guns GUNS for the last decade? Maybe focusing on something serious and relatable across party lines would be a grownup way to return to your roots, whatever those are these days.
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President Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum will increase the price of American manufactured goods that require steel and aluminum as inputs. The tarrifs will simultaneously depress the price of steel and aluminum in China and thereby decrease the price of manufacturing goods with these inputs in China. The consequence will be increased exports from China to the US.
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Senator Rubio writes a simplified explanation of trade and Tariffs. Blaming China for the loss of American manufacturing jobs will appeal to the Trump base, but that doesn't make it true.
Than again, I take everything Rubio says with a grain of salt. After all, when asked what he thought of global warming, he responded: "How would I know, I'm not a Scientist".
The fact is Rubio is as beholden to big business and lobbyists as Paul Ryan. He wants the Presidency and will say and do what it takes.
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China will laugh at Marco Rubio's editorial. Because Rubio is calling for the USA to lock its barn door after the proverbial horse has been stolen. What Rubio neglected to say was that the USA ceded its last vestige of leverage over China vis-à-vis trade when we willingly acquiesced to Chinese demands that we scrap our quota-visa regime for their textiles to enter our commerce. Ostensibly a condition of American membership and good standing in the World Trade Organisation, this was the capstone of China's trade strategy. Soon textile and apparel exports from China to the USA increased by huge multiples, as they had long prepared for the glorious day when they could completely flood our markets. China will never play fair with this or any other country and will only do business in a way that gives them the largest advantage. With incalculable human capital to leverage, how could it be otherwise?
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No, Senator, the goal is prosperity for all Americans : consumers, investors, intellectual property creators, service-economy workers AND manufacturing-sector workers.
Go ahead and crack down on industrial espionage and disguised direct subsidies. More power to you! But please respect our intelligence before defending Trump's nonsensical tarrifs, which as unrelated to national security as they are to Chinese investment in US Treasury Bonds. The same bonds that we now must issue more of to pay for your party's new deficits.
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If Clinton actually thought that trade with the Chinese autocracy would result in freedom for the average serf living there, he was a bigger fool than we had dared suspect.
5
The push to have China join GATT and then the WTO was wholly bipartisan.
10
Actually it was Republic Nixon that pushed the opening to China.
1
"China, in pursuit of its goals of economic and regional dominance, has been among the most egregious rule breakers."
I think that's the most essence of entire issue in this sentence. China were allowed participate in Western trade ecosystem, without bound by the same rules, as Western countries are.
10
"No less bold" -- probably not.
Between the lines one senses that Sen. Rubio believes all Chinese progress comes from intellectual property theft and currency manipulation. But China has also made major investments in R&D and education. We did that in the 1950-1980 period he refers to at the top of his piece, but we have pulled back considerably.
To fight China on trade, we need to be both vigilant about their rule breakers AND better competitors, reviving American know-how and our technological and human capital advantages.
Sadly Sen. Rubio and his party are not really ready to do that.
41
Isn't it time for Florida to impose a tariff on California oranges? Here in East Baton Rouge Parish, home of Community Coffee, we are eagerly awaiting a tariff on Coffee imported from outside parishes and counties.
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Too late. The Florida citrus industry is in death throes due to "greening disease," a bacterial infection brought into this country by an insect that came in on imported (cheaper) lumber. More and more of the trees are being torn out and burned. But maybe Trump can just build more golf courses for one percenters on the newly opened up land!
"The goal is better jobs and higher wages for American workers."
Rubio, then, must be in favor of raising and indexing the minimum wage and strengthening unions. Universal health care would go a long way, too.
No, he's not for any of that? Do tell.
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We're never going to win the trade war with China as long as that country treats workers as slaves-- unable to organize effective unions and receiving meager wages, no unemployment benefits and inadequate health care. Free trade requires free workers.
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"...For example, the government should impose duties on Chinese industries that benefit from stolen American intellectual property, and those penalties should be equivalent to the size of the economic loss faced by American producers...
Which industries...What property...What-size penalties...What American producers...
Marco, you sound sincere - that's part of your shtick...
"...I believe in the promise of free and fair trade, but to defend...against an adversary that has broken the rules with impunity, we have to be willing to fight with everything we’ve got...
But you also sound vaguely non-actionable...consistently...
For instance, Al Gore was always fighting for us - what makes you a better choice...
Was he only fighting with half of what we've got???
For historical level-set, they've been stealing our intellectual property since before indoor plumbing...
Probably stole the design for that, too...
Now what???
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China is most dangerous state to the Western World. First they silently stole Western jobs, now they start to oppose West more openly and more aggressively in many parts of the world.
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China didn't "steal" anything. Our business leaders, the "job creators" begged China to take their investment dollars all in the name of "creating shareholder value."
14
Excellent, excellent, excellent article. China has clearly chosen the path of a dictatorship. Which means that they will, more and more deliberately control, manipulate, and in fact damage the trade agreements between our two countries. I grew up in a steel town in Pa. It's economy has been obliterated by the destruction of the steel industry in the US. We need to face China's deliberate damage to fair trade. It's no small issue.
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Bob:
I grew up in a steel town also, The biggest fault of our steel was the manufacturers refusing to upgrade their plants when the world was making new modern steel plants, and the government not insisting that they do it. We had a similar problem with the rail roads. But the government stepped in and almost nationalized them. It may be too late to do such a thing with steel.
3
Joy is right on the mark. We import only 2% of our steel from China. Evene if you look at the countries Trump claims are transshipping Chinese steel, it only amount to 6%. Like many other goods (e.g. cars), out industries were wrecked by stupid overpaid mangers who only cared about their obscene compensation.
3