I’m literally eating a Kobe beef burger right now.
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Someone please help me with this: The Trumpian trumpeted basis for stringent tariffs was that it was in the interests of "US national security". So, how do exemptions of any of those identified as a threat to "US national security" enhance "US national security" interests?
As usual, when the Trumpster attempts to logically justify anything, that bubble quickly bursts. Clearly the Hypocrite in Chief's invocation of "US national security" was as hollow as everything else he propagates.
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The hope, and that is all it is, is that the president and his trade advisors know what they are doing vis-à-vis trade policies.
The sad fact is, and it is a fact, that the president and his trade advisors appear to be the sorriest bunch of ideologues ever to inhabit the federal government.
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Of course, there are exemptions. How else are they supposed to generate kickbacks and graft?
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The U.S. has its second highest trade deficit in the world with Japan (next only to China), so it makes perfect sense to NOT exempt Japan from the steel tariffs. Japan has a long history of imposing extremely high tariff and non-tariff barriers to keep its market closed to American goods and services.
The head of Ford Motors called Japan the most closed market in the world last year, as it joined a long list of American companies forced to pull out of Japan due to the closed nature of the Japanese market. On the other hand, the U.S. market has been entirely open to foreign competition, which is something the Japanese have fully exploited for decades. Such discrepancies have resulted in America's USD 60-70 Billion annual trade deficit with Japan.
Consider that just last year, Japan announced it was increasing its tariff on imports of U.S. frozen beef from 38% to 50%. This is on top of the already high tariffs Japan imposes on many imported products, including tariffs of as much as: 50 percent on processed beef products, 24 percent on poultry, 40 percent on dairy products, 661 percent on whey, 32 percent on fruit, 43 percent on juices, 1,000 percent on vegetables and pulses, 250 percent on wheat, 255 percent on barley, 21 percent on soybean oil, 600 percent on peanuts, 26 percent on processed products like coffee and 778 percent on rice.
Trump's proposed tariffs are quite modest as compared to some of these other tariffs that have been in place in Japan for decades.
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As an American manufacturer of components largely comprised of steel it's obvious that these tariffs will allow all those on the "exempt" list to raise their pricing to those down the supply chain. Our "stable genius" is going to hurt 6.5 million jobs to prop up 100,000. While he's hurting our workers, he'll hurt others that catch the brunt of the retaliation that's sure to follow. Thanks for nothing. Don't worry. I'll tell the troops who's sticking it to them, if they don't know already.
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Very interesting because a number of large Japanese corporations, particularly Mitsui, are heavily invested with NUCOR, the cheerleader for the tariff.
http://steeltechnologies.com/index.php/mitsui-usa-to-form-joint-venture-...
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So is Trump trying to forge an economic bond between Japan and China?
Did he get food poisoning from some sushi he recently ordered?
Is he a moron? Wait, we already have that answer.
Japan cannot be excluded from this exemption.
Dumb, simply dumb - but what else is new in Trumpland.
If this presidency resembles a reality TV series, I'm glad that I never acquired a taste for reality TV.
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Of course, Japan should NOT receive a waiver, since it has the most closed market in the world.
According to the American Automotive Policy Council's research paper, "How Japan has Maintained The Most Protected and Closed Auto Market In the Industrialized World":
"Japan ranks 30th out of 30 of the OECD countries in measuring access for imported autos. It's closed market was created deliberately by government policy. Following the closure and banishment of US auto firms from Japan during the WWII, US firms were not allowed to return. Japan designated the creation of a major world class automotive industry its number one National Industrial Policy strategy and provided every benefit, incentive and protection from competition that it could.
In the 1970s, Japan finally opened its market to limited import participation, lowered its prohibitive tariffs and investment restrictions, but did so after it had created a massive and robust industry and controlled nearly 100% of its market. By then, it had perfected the art of using non-tariff barriers as huge obstacles to foreign companies trying to do business in Japan to keep imports to a minimum. Japan’s exclusive "keiretsu" arrangements between government and Japanese automakers prevented US auto companies from doing business in Japan. Japan has since used technical regulations to protect its market by creating excessively difficult and costly regulatory and certification requirements".
So, why should such a country be exempt?
And Canada. Sorry friends up North. You are so close, you momentarily escaped my mind because we are almost the same place.
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Yes however US Steel attempted to close a Canadian Steel mill and walk on its Pension liabilities.
Their stated intent was to import cheaper Chinese Steel and what shall we say, reprocess it by removing the labels and replacing them with something like.
Marketed by US Steel Ontario, Canada.
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Trump uses tariffs as a threat. Other countries threaten tariffs in response. Trump backs down. Shrewd.
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This sounds like a damp squib. If the EU (and UK?) are exempt from tarrifs and Mexico and Canada and most of the suppliers of steel and aluminum, that only leaves China and India. Once they apply for exemption that's it. No more steel imports from Nicaragua and Granada.
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Exempts allies....except our biggest ally after the UK, and maybe Australia; Japan.
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While America's trade deficit with Japan may be smaller than it is with China, but from a qualitative standpoint the US trade deficit with Japan is actually more damaging to the American economy. There are a couple of reason for this.
First, the US trade deficit with China is mostly in lower-value items like toys, clothing and sneakers, etc. These jobs are never coming back to America due to the low wages these industries pay. If they're not made in China, they'll be made in Vietnam, Cambodia or Bangladesh and exported to America from these countries instead. On the other hand, America's trade deficit with Japan is based on higher-value items such as autos and machinery. These industries pay much higher wages, so the loss of such high paying manufacturing jobs hurts America a lot more.
Second, China has become the world's factory. So, in many cases, it is merely assembling products for American companies. Most of these products are designed by the American companies themselves and they use parts made by countries other than China (including the U.S). Therefore, even though these products may be assembled in China, most of the profitability derived from these and the high paying research, development, design and administrative jobs stay in the U.S. Reuters just did a piece on this very topic ("Designed in California, made in China: how the iPhone skews U.S. trade deficit", March 21, 2018). It's an excellent piece which I highly recommend.
With the special Congressional election in Pennsylvania now over, the President can reverse himself.
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Dump Trump...'nuff said.
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What a surprise - the dotard Trump has no coglioni .....
Like every bully, the Donald backs down when confronted .... Eventually after the Chinese push back, their tariffs will be on $50 million not $50 billion.
A lying con artist from NY like Mr Bloomberg said a while back.
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So.... lots of tweets about the EU being “unfair” and then changes his mind. I mean, I’m glad because that’s where I live, but man he’s all hot air and no fire.
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While not surprising given the EU, Canada, Mexico, et al's response, this should not have even been news in the first place. While I am thrilled that we are recognizing the need for economic allies, I simply cannot fathom why the Trump administration would have allowed said allies to consider the U.S. was going after them in the fi----
Oh, right. "Trump Administration."
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Surprise Pennsylvania and Ohio!
Those tariffs that were meant to help you are now meaning less.
Those tax breaks given to corporations - will accelerate automation.
A Vote for republicans is a vote against the middle class - every time
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Every time? Nah. There a whole bunch of really good middle class jobs in the oil and gas industry. Pretty sure Republicans support those efforts. Just one example that disproves your "every time" comment.
The idiopathic manner by which Trump mandated and then retracted the trade tariffs was entirely to pander to his most ignorant base.
Instead of demonstrating rational thought by way of focused tariffs on specific materials from specific countries, Trump cause a global firestorm by initially naming all countries and stating there will be no exceptions. Such hyperbole only service to further debase the office of President of USA.
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Aside from proving that the 'art' of his deal simply amounts to caving in after bluster, this lack of follow-through makes it pretty clear that he only announced these tariffs to help boost Saccone's campaign.
Someone needs to take this man's toy--our country--away from him soon.
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...OR... take him away from the toy.
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This seems to be an elaborate way to set-up a system that encourages lobbying and "special appeals." The nebulous guidelines are simply a ruse to initiate bribes and "under-the-table" deals.
In short it is a criminal enterprise designed to shake down foreign steel suppliers for "dark-money" for PACs.
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So in other words, now the tariff covers a whole whopping 3% of imports.
All cowboy, no hat.
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I think you mean "all hat, no cattle"...
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This is what happens when the American President spends nearly a year-and-a-half threatening trade deals and insulting allies; we all meet without the U.S. and make our own, better trade deals that the Americans don’t get to participate in.
That way when Donald Trump decides to mess over his friends while congratulating his favourite dictators, we can tell him where to put those tariffs and not have to worry too much about the repercussions. Too bad for Bad Deal Don.
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“…we all meet without the U.S. and make our own, better trade deals that the Americans don’t get to participate in…”
Actually, the participating countries (and that includes the US middle class) would have been even better off if the US had participated in good faith according to comparative advantage.
Salut, Canada!
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