The consumer will pay. Trump, as usual, is hurting America and Americans. The man is nothing more than a salesman, an ignorant one, at that.
6
If your concerned about prices on goods from China your no different than the Manchester England textile mills wanting cheap cotton from the slave plantations. The way workers are abused in China so you can have cheap Christmas presents is morally repugnant.. why is this not talked about?
3
@Joe Vellano
Rate of pay is part of the monetary system in place. Every time the US minimum wage increases, so does the cost of goods produced by those workers.
Wilbur Ross and Trump and all the other rich people say this won't be felt. Wrong.
6
I'm about as anti Trump as a man can be but on trade with China he has a good point. We cannot accept the former status quo. China has been cheating and stealing from us. They are pursuing a long term anti American plan. Worse China is right now a fascist police state and is putting big brother's cameras everywhere in China, with super computers facial recognition systems, voice recognition systems, key word monitoring of all transmissions and millions of agents monitoring, backed up by an internal spy system of millions of informers. China is now implementing the world of 1984. Free trade with such a state is simply suicide.
3
@Federalist
China is a Communist country, not a Fascist regime. The majority of China is a third-world nation.
2
Federalist, why do you think this approach will work?
“Because it’s spread over thousands and thousands of products, nobody’s going to actually notice it at the end of the day,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC
this comment is along the lines of the statement from Trump that Tax cuts will not affect anyone negatively.
Both are hogwash.
8
@mike
Trump is hogwash. He has spewed over 5,000 false/misleading statements since taking office
5
And so once again Trump's henchmen are afraid to tell the Emperor that he has no clothes. What happened to all the GOP "free traders?" This stubborn, stupid man is not open to anything other than validation of the outdated beliefs he's had since the Eighties. As a result, the lives of millions of people will get harder. America gets uglier every day this man remains in office.
10
We are over $10k in material cost increases due to the tariffs for our home we are building. Vendors are telling us to expect tariff related price increases over the pre-tariff price quotes on equipment and appliances yet to come.
7
@Exiled To Maui
I'm sorry, but if you can afford to build a house in Maui, you can't be suffering too much.
1
In the past month, kitty litter has gone up three dollars at Target! What is going on? China tarrifs? With two cats, this is quite a financial hit. Maybe it is under the radar items like this that are going up.
2
@Kb Invest in an electric cat box. You will be amazed at how little litter you will be using. I have two cats and only buy 2 bags a year.
The major impact is going to be on retailers who will be stuck with the decision to pass any increase in the price of a product onto consumers or have their profits shrink. Interestingly Amazon is in the cross-hairs here and I can almost imagine that's on purpose...
4
when businesses say they will absorb tariff costs what they mean is: freeze their employee wages or lower them or decrease their benifits. Thank you 45 and multinational cooperations and unfettered capitalism.
9
I just love Mr. Ross's "Let them eat cake" attitude towards the American populous. I have already been hit with increases in my health insurance and loss of deductions that will result in a loss of personal income of nearly $4,000 next year. So excuse me if I do not take your position that I will not feal this, and it does not matter.
The money gained from this debacle comes from the American citizens and paid to the federal government, not from the Chinese.
10
@Michael Panico
In addition to the above, those of us in NY and NJ have lost deductions for mortgage payments, student loans and medical costs. For those like me who work freelance ( an increasingly growing number) we are no longer allowed to deduct expenses which include travel, medical expenses (insurance), work space and supplies. That adds up to a lot, not to mention the increased prices for everything. With elimination of all those deductions, his tax cuts are a joke to people like me.
4
@cl You are experiencing government for the rich, by the rich ...
1
Tariffs are a tax intended to decrease demand, and therefore more likely to reduce the net price of a good as demand is suppressed by the tariff imposed. Tariffs are potentially, at least, deflationary not inflationary on net of tariff cost.
they may decrease demand; they may add tax revenue but for those that do buy expect them to pay the cost on tarriffed products.
Tariffs are sales taxes. This will be paid by American consumers. The one offset for the low wage workers whose jobs have been off-shored is that products are less expensive. High tariffs will mean be paying more for products. American companies who decide to manufacture in other countries, make the short term decision to produce things cheaply. They also should put up with fewer American legal system protections like intellectual property rights. Off shoring American jobs is not good for this country but American companies are loyal to their stock holders not the public.
5
The Trump view seems to be that increasing prices thru tariffs will make US manufacturers move their operations back to the US. but, frankly, the tariffs would need to be much, much higher to cause that to happen, and it would take years for the change to occur.
The reason US manufacturers moved their operations outside the US in the first place was because of price competition from lower cost nations. And, as we all know, price is all that matters to virtually all US consumers. Tariffs at that time may have slowed the move.
Now it will just bring more pain - people without those jobs, or in the now-common low-paying jobs that replaced them, will now find even more goods un-affordable, so demand will suffer. When demand suffers the company can't sell, no matter where it is located. Trumps policies are too little, too late, and may be disastrous to the overall economy at this point. Time will tell.
9
"[F]orced to hand over valuable technology and trade secrets to Chinese partners in exchange for operating there"? Companies are not forced. They choose to do so so that they don't have to pay Americans a living wage and can instead line the coffers of their overpaid CEOs. If they weren't so greedy and made the products in the United States and paid workers decent wages, they wouldn't be "forced" to do any of this.
13
I'm not a fan of Trump but in this case I can't see where he's wrong in dealing with this issue. The only problem in Trump's logic is that even after China reforms its trade practices it may still have a trade surplus with the US because it's just cheaper to produce goods in China.
All will have to admit that China has significant unfair trade practices with the US that are summarized in the linked article.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-unfair-trade-trump-xi-summit/
It appears that Trump wants China to reform their trade practices and the Chinese have been stalling asking for endless discussions about them.
Trump is taking advantage of the situation of a strong US economy while China's is slowly to force the issue. He has made the judgement call that US consumers will be able to absorb the price increases.
2
@P Lock
"He has made the judgement call that US consumers will be able to absorb the price increases."...
I agree and I'm worried. If that and the fact China (despite tariffs) can produce more cheaply than us is true, then nothing else will change except the government will have collected a little more revenue. I think consumers may well cut back and that, tariffs (and their unintended effects) are a poor substitute for responsible trade laws and agreements.
@P Lock Our economy won't stay strong forever. Trump voters lost on election day too, and they are about to discover it in the worst possible way.
3
So prices of Chinese products, including consumer goods, are going to go up?! But that's the point, isn't it? Trump supporters expect and want this, at least intellectually. One-sided articles like this one seem designed to undermine the public's commitment to dificult short- term sacrifices for the intended purpose of long-term prosperity.
"Tarrifs are ultimately a tax on businesses and consumers..." - so they're just 'bad', all around? Come on, there are always both positive and negative consequences, opposing trade-offs, etc. with such things. Consumers AND businesses are hurt, and zero benefits, short-term or long-term? This article implies that everything involving our trade with China has been A-OK. Well, maybe for the authors....
1
As the article correctly points out prices will go up, and they will never go down. That is why it is a tax. The minions don’t know what they want, I guess maybe to go back to 1950 or something.
7
If the Indians have any spine (they have plenty of manpower and brains, but political will not so much) they would create a several thousand square kilometer free trade zone to build up the industrial base to fabricate products for the American market.
India has the ability to manufacture quality products, but is hobbled by a massive turgid bureaucracy fueled by red tape that make's the Washington swamp look sleek and clean. Trump is providing a golden opportunity for India to pull ahead, since manufacturing isn't going to return significantly to America. Someone has to provide the cheap products American's want-- India has the chance to do so.
3
Another bait and switch. Lower taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals and then tax consumer goods. This shifts the tax burden from the rich to the poor. MAGA is really MRR (Make the Rich Richer).
12
The worst part of America's trade with China is the insistence of the Chinese communist government that we hand over our technologies in exchange for the right to sell goods there. This is out and out robbery and represents the taking of hundreds of billions of dollars on investment in research, development and implementation of technological advances. (A vast proportion of that investment was done by our govt.)
In the past, China would try to replicate the technology involved in products sold there. This took too long, was too much work and was often ineffective. Now, they demand we hand over the goods.
American businesses have been selling out America so they could make more money in China. Well, of course, they would argue that we they didn't do it, the Europeans would step right up and take hundreds of millions in profit. Why couldn't the western world unite to avoid this theft by demand? Most likely, pure greed. The Europeans and the US wants the money.
This kind of "cooperation" with China strikes me as like losing a war without ever having fought one. It is offensive, like trading the life of one child to save the other, but no one would do that unless they were absolutely forced, back against the wall. Turning over decades of scientific and business development is a very bad deal.
4
@Doug The worst part of America's trade with China is the insistence of the Chinese communist government that we hand over our technologies in exchange for the right to sell goods there"
And, unbeknownst to Trump, the TPP would have put in much stricter protections for US IP that is currently in place in most of Asia. Had that been implemented, then the TPP would have been a massive cudgel against China's IP policies and given the US a huge edge in forcing China into line. Trump threw that all away simply due to his hatred of everything Obama. The US suffers. Trump is an idiot.
4
"Consumers will see... higher prices in the grocery aisles. A wide variety of fish, including sea bass and sturgeon, as well as nuts, fruit, vegetables, rice and cereal did not escape the Trump administration’s tariffs."
However... "Apple’s lobbying proved successful in the most recent round, as its watches and Bluetooth devices were removed from the preliminary tariff list."
And not mentioned is whether lobbying for Trump branded products also "proved successful in the most recent round" in receiving exemptions from the Trump tariff-taxes.
2
I'd like to point out a few things that no one seems to be mentioning:
-China did not "steal" jobs from the US. Instead, looking to take advantage of much cheaper labor and far fewer environmental restrictions, storied US companies gradually closed their factories in the US and moved their operations to places like China, either working with contract manufacturers or opening their own factories. In that sense, China has had an unfair advantage.
-Tariffs would make sense in order to coax Chinese manufacturing into adapting higher standards for labor and the environment; if they could demonstrate that they took steps to improve, they could avoid the tariffs. Of course, that's just not something Republicans in general (and this White House in particular) care about.
-The reason China has been successful with capturing so much manufacturing is because Americans in general are unconcerned with labor and environmental standards either here or abroad. Go into any hardware store in the US and at least 90% of the merchandise is from China. Now go to a hardware store in Europe and you'll find mostly things from Germany, Spain, Italy, France, England, etc. Sure, they cost more, but people like the idea of supporting a cleaner environment with safer, better-paying labor.
-If there's any good news in all of this, it's that most likely, Americans will buy fewer things so there will be less pollution.
17
Trump's stupidity in adding pain and suffering regarding trade and tariffs cannot be felt yet, but it surely will come, in dribs and drabs initially, then with economic misery as the cost of living rises for everybody. This is the price of willful ignorance for 'unintended results', a malevolent attitude that makes no sense, as a result of the huge social distance between the plutocracy in government and the rest of us. How do you stop this? November 6 at the voting booth!
7
Trump has tried to run our government the way he ran his business by bullying, lying, and greed. What he fails to understand is that although we have a huge economy and produce many products others may want...there is no need for China or any other country to lay down and play dead.
10
So we are taxing Americans to punish the Chinese, makes sense in Trumplandia. If you buy the nonsense spouted by Mr. Ross I have a bridge to nowhere to sell you subject to tariffs however. These people that make these rosey statements are not your typical Walmart shopper where nearly everything comes from China even trumps MAGA hats.
10
Perhaps we could all do well without buying so much "stuff'' anyhow.
How many of us are not already overly ''stuffed'' with material possessions?
I can easily survive without buying more cheap Chinese ''stuff''.
2
@PM It isn’t just cheap stuff we’re talking about. Chinese components are part of a global supply chain that goes into *everything*. Tons of components for building housing, for example, come from China. And this is while multiple areas have a housing crisis with lack of affordable housing...
3
“Because it’s spread over thousands and thousands of products, nobody’s going to actually notice it at the end of the day,”
So says the billion-dollar man Wilbur Ross. The statement defies reality and common sense: Leona Helmsley couldn't have said it better.
18
@Candlewick
Yeah, and she's been dead for over ten years. With any kind of luck, God will note your comparison of Wilbur and "Her Vileness" Leona and call him home immediately... ...or, a safe could fall on him... whatever.
2
I sure hope California's pistachio and almond growers don't mind losing their top market- China and Midwest and Southern farmers don't mind seeing their 100+ tons of soy staying in the ground: But- anything to make Trump look tough is apparently worth the "sacrifice" to make *him" look Great Again[sic].
8
@Candlewick
I don't see where California, or Californians, hold any higher moral ground to Trump when they're paying slave wages to millions of illegal immigrants to pick their fruits and vegetables, clean their houses, landscaping, taking care of their kids, etc.
Much of California's current labour supply is subjected to the same racist and harsh treatment that African Americans were in the 18th and 19th centuries. Worse actually, because back then, the slave masters were very transparent, whereas today, people are more two-faced it.
Another hypocrisy is California's so-called "green" mentality. The pistachio industry requires huge amounts of water and is one of the reasons for the state's growing water crisis.
One way to blunt the "tax increase" effects of tariffs would be to increase tax breaks for lower and middle income consumers. No point in the government double-dipping in our paychecks.
4
Anyone old enough to remember the inflationary 1970's remembers how if the price of sugar went up 1%, candy bar manufacturers would raise the price of their products by 10% citing the "rising price of ingredients" and its brethren "rising price of raw materials" and "rising price of components" as all too convenient covers to jack prices and, of course, their resultant profits. Watch for the same price-gouging ruse this time around, except substitute "tariffs" in place of "rising price".
11
@Projunior I believe you are entirely correct: businesses use any excuse they can get to raise prices more than the direct impact on what they purchase. This helps to bring on inflation in which some elements of the economy benefit and some are harmed and, standing in the middle, is anyone who wants to buy anything like food, shelter, gasoline or pay an electric bill. The pain goes downward and the less flexibility you have in your income, the more you get slammed.
5
How devoid from reality, to think people living from paycheck to paycheck will not notice prices increasing. Especially those receiving food benefits. Of course they may not understand immediately it is due to Trump and his trade war. But eventually, when the impact has a major effect on tight family budgets, they will understand. Even those Americans not on a strict budget will notice the price of that washer going up enough to not buy a new one this year.
8
The 46% of American families who do not have $400 on hand to pay for an emergency are already spending every dollar they have, and then some.
Highly doubtful these Trump tariff taxes will do anything more than force nearly half of our population to choose which items they will have to do forego due to higher prices.
That 46% could easily become 56% of American families who don't have $400 on hand to pay for an emergency.
Such winning!
22
"They added that countervailing consequences, like a stronger dollar, could easily offset the effect on prices."
It is apparent that economists do not know about the real world.
The *dollar* in our collective pocketbooks will still be a dollar- and won't grow muscular against increased prices when we shop. I suppose, if we stay away from Tee Shirts and Smart Phones, all will turn out fine.
3
Most things that I buy are American-made and often locally made, so I wonder how this will affect me, if at all.
@Eugene Debs Does this include clothing and food?
Well now that Trump has negotiated a more favorable trade deal with Mexico, leaving Canada scrambling on the sidelines, companies can move low cost production from China to Mexico. Within a few years we will have even cheaper products as shipping costs are much less from Mexico versus crossing the Pacific.
3
@Jay Lincoln - At which point Mexico will show its gratitude by paying for Trump's Wall.
4
@Jay Lincoln
Let’s see what happens when the new government in Mexico takes office 12/1
1
Tariffs do make corporations direct pass-though tax-collectors from the people. To punish China, we must all pay substantially more for its exports. How much more "winning" like this can you take?
12
The original objective was to repatriate American owned foreign manufacturing to rebuild our economy. That idea was obviously thwarted by big business as they ignored Trump, an example being Carrier corporation. It was a good idea to begin with but Trump's frustration has been counter-intuitive to that original idea in that now, he is hindering the economy with a penalty tax on consumers who purchase the foreign made goods. Trump additionally erred in making the tax rates favorable to foreign exports of manufacturing with a foreign profits tax rate lower than the national corporate tax rate by about 7 percent. To big corporate bean counters, that's a lot of money. That effectively not only incentivises the exodus of business but assures they remain offshore. But now the import "Taxes" challenge that reality and the businesses are fighting back which indicates their intent to remain offshore. Therefore, with that reality in mind, it is imperative that Trump punish the "Global Investors" exporting financial support for manufacturers building new factories offshore and those companies leaving and those who remain offshore.
But then the fact remains those Taxes go to the treasury thereby making the government profit from these tariffs. Besides the fact that I believe the Tariff taxes are meant to offset the deep impacts of the tax cuts to the budget deficit, I feel that tax cuts to corporations were ill advised and will lead to the export of more business. It's no surprise.
7
Let's not forget that our wonderful, 10% approval?, Congress abdicated their tax role to the executive branch. Why does Congress continue to ignore their role in this mess?
OTOH, the US deficit grows by a few billion every day without even a glance by most of the media... At some point we might consider many forms of taxation to address the deficit during a period of high prosperity for some.
7
@Taoshum
Don't bother congress with these issues. They're busy devising means of stealing more from the American government and diverting it to their oligarchal sponsors and corporate pals. Trump's role is to distract your attention from the thefts, which he's apparently performing very well indeed.
2
That seems fair. Many people call the huge increases in their medical insurance premiums which are required by law, Democrat taxes.
@Robert Winchester:
Which law, specifically, requires health insurance premiums to rise?
The ACA? Where in?
Because insurance companies have been raising premiums for eons in the absence of law. Seems they used the ACA as an excuse.
And there's this:
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/10/13/557541856/halt-in-s...
10
One standout for me in this article came at the beginning, with the casual sounding mention that America is "forced" to share our tech and other knowledge with China for the opportunity to do business there.
This is how our corporations gained access to all that sweet, cheap slavish labor after Mao died and China opened its doors to American manufacturers. It was the subject of William Greider's brilliant "One World Ready Or Not", published in the 1990's, among other works by experts who paid attention.
China demanded our corporations share technology/manufacturing and other skill sets in exchange for doing business there. They happily signed on, and China simply folded all that long-developed experience, done on the backs of American workers, into their plans for economic/manufacturing superiority. Once again, greedy corporations sell us down the river for their profits and the blame and scrutiny is currently being leveled everywhere but a quick perusal of the history of this situation.
27
@Entera My thoughts exactly. I keep hearing that China doesn't play nice because it forces companies that want to manufacture things there to share their technology. Sounds like a clear choice to me. There are plenty of other places where one could setup manufacturing centers.
7
And this was said by a man who probably has never been in a store and knows the price of items we all need everyday.
Ross who has proven to be a liar in the class of Trump, isn’t interested in the average family, just like Trump and his whole cabine who are only involved in government to make as much money as possible.
The trusted system used so profitable by Russia and China.
6
Who is behind these policies? Surely it isn't Trump. He isn't smart enough.
7
Trump’s tariff-taxes is a way for the GOP to tax the masses to pay for their $1.5 trillion tax cut. The bonus-penalty of a 25% tariff-tax is the bump in additional sales tax it causes. So instead of paying 25% more you’re actually paying about 27% more.
Industry and the Walmarts of the world will certainly not use their tax cut windfall, that the rest of us pay for, to mitigate the tariff-tax increases.
Consumers can short circuit trump and his GOP cronies and stiff the Chinese simultaneously, as is the intent, by NOT BUYING CHINESE products this holiday season. Instead DONATE to a charity on behalf of the recipient instead of some overpriced and over taxed trinket from China that also funds the GOP coffers with tariff-taxes.
Vote and do good this holiday season!
11
"Nobody’s going to actually notice it at the end of the day," says rich guy Wilbur Ross.
Only the "little people" who but Chinese-made goods at Walmart, KMart, and discount clothing stores.
But of course, the "little people" are "nobody" to the likes of Ross and Trump
14
Ross is a senile, crooked, old fool. But rather than engage in extended ad hominem commentaries, I'll suggest the following:
Let everyone who owns a retail business add a line to the purchase receipt between "subtotal" and "total," just after "sales tax,":
"tariff charge."
18
Should China’s predatory trade practices and theft of our intellectual property have been allowed to continue because we’re afraid of rocking the boat? That is so Obama. The Chinese are afraid of Trump. They don’t know what to do. I think that’s a good thing.
1
@Ed What is "so Obama?"
The Chinese might be afraid of Trump but my pocketbook is afraid of Trump too.
1
@Ed Of course it only started under Obama, right? Sheesh.
2
@Ed, so that is how you want to rule is it? Make the rest of the world afraid of you? Please don't expect any support when you run into trouble.
5
When “Dollar Store” is renamed “Two Buck Store” we will know the tariffs are impacting the American consumer!
5
Many of the items in the Dollar Stores are already overpriced and low quality considering the yuan/renminbi is only worth 15 cents. A few years ago when I was in Canada and visited a "dollar store," everything sold for $1.10 or $1.15 to make up for the difference between the Canadian and American dollar. In a few instances, I can actually find more Made in USA products in my local Dollar Store than in Walmart.
The funny thing about American retailers being "forced" to raise their prices on washing machines, cars, electronics, jeans or motorcycles, they will always find an excuse to raise prices. Prices have never been known to come down even after the retailers moved operations to China or Mexico to take advantage of cheap labor. That's one reason I never buy brand name clothing like Ralph Lauren or Columbia; they all come from the same factory as cheaper labels. I blame the mega stores, starting with Walmart, not the American consumer, for initiating the effort to move manufacturing overseas. So if we stop buying a few items for a few years as a protest, let the retailers and manufacturers think about their actions and prices (and profits). Instead of having items made on the backs of poor workers in China, Vietnam, Taiwan or Africa, let retailers bring those jobs back to the USA and pay better salaries in exchange for customer loyalty. I think that's the ultimate goal in this cold war.
@upstate ny
If raw materials go up so does the product.my concern is the rare earths that China has pretty much got a lock on.
Is it necessarily a bad thing that because of these tariffs Americans will be deterred from buying so much "stuff"?
It may be better for them, their pocket books, their well-being and the environment?
4
Trump probably holds stock in Apple as well as the energy sector.
1
This just illustrates the problems we create when we coddle a totalitarian government and delude ourselves that they’re coming around. Chairman-For-Life Xi has built a cult of personality anchored on the proposition that he is always right and China is always right. The acquiescence to that outlook by countries around the world — most notably, the US — has created in the Chinese unrealistic expectations and unfettered ambition.
Xi has less flexibility and more to lose than anyone in this trade war. Any concessions by Xi will dispel his aura of success and is even now causing ordinary Chinese to question their government in general and their leader in particular.
In this game of chicken, I say to Trump, keep the accelerator on the floor and steer straight ahead.
8
If capitalism is as great as it's cracked up to be, when things from China become unavailable or too expensive, capitalists will step in and fill the void. Any pain will be temporary. We'll build the things we need or get them from someone who isn't systematically dismantling our industrial base.
But then, there's the dark side. Maybe they'll charge more, not because it costs more, but because we don't know how much more it costs. If it takes $5 more to build a toaster, they might charge $10 more for the American version. How would you know, without hard numbers that you can crunch to make informed decisions?
Capitalism can save us or ruin us, depending on how it is used. Our own companies are complicit; will they be made to feel any of the pain if they overcharge us for the solutions to the problems that they helped to create?
Capitalism is a two-edged sword. We need to manage it well or it will cut us.
4
It's way overdue. China has been using its sweatshop manufacturing facilities to undercut -- and, as a result, in many cases, destroy -- American manufacturers, and stealing trade secrets, violating American high tech patents, for decades.
This may or may not get China to change its ways regarding high-tech theft -- I am dismayed that Apple got a break, since the ability to produce their products in China has been to the advantage to China in their pursuit of technology -- but, contrary to the general tone of this article and the apparent dismay of the commenters, the effect on the American consumer will be truly trivial. This is buried in the final paragraphs: "Economists at TD Securities said in a research note Tuesday that they expected the tariffs to add 0.1 percentage points to the inflation rate over the next year. They added that countervailing consequences, like a stronger dollar, could easily offset the effect on prices."
Great move by an otherwise bumbling buffoon. Who wudda thought?
7
I doubt the average Trump supporter has any idea how tariffs work and how this will impact them personally in their wallet.
Tariffs are just another form of taxation. These taxes are not paid by China- they are paid by the American consumer.
This tax will hit the poor especially hard since this is like a sales tax where everyone pays the same amount regardless of income.
Moreover, if you want to avoid buying goods from China- good luck with that.
Tariffs are supposed to steer people into buying goods from a country not subjected to tariffs- ideally from the home country.
But since US manufacturers decided long ago to move factories to China, there are few goods that are still made here so you cannot always buy American- in fact, it is almost impossible to find an American made product for most every day items.
So, this tax will just be another way to make life more difficult manufactured by Trump.
17
@marian That's at best a half-truth. In the face of tariffs, suppliers will look for (often local) alternatives and consumers may look for substitutes. Inflation will also drive up wages, partially offsetting rising prices.
In theory, global free trade leads to the lowest product prices as competition is maximal. But that's a very 1990s way of looking at trade, with a complete disregard for the catastrophic impact on environment and climate of shipping supplies and goods all over the world, or ignoring the power asymmetry of global companies playing out local countries against each other in terms of working wages, corporate taxation, ...
3
"Chinese imports" conjures the image of huge cargo ships each loaded with thousands of containers of cheaply made goods entering US ports to be distributed to the Walmart's and Dollar General's of the heartland.
BUT... who are the companies who's products are on those massive cargo ships? "Chinese imports" suggest or imply these are Chinese companies. But how true is that?
How many (what percentage) of these products and the companies manufacturing them are actually Chinese companies? And what percentage of these imports are products made by American companies manufacturing their goods in China in order to take advantage of CHEAP LABOR?
That breakdown is never mentioned. Lumping Chinese and American companies together muddies the waters of understanding what the true picture (and problem) is.
American companies manufacture in China to take advantage of CHEAP LABOR at the expense of American workers and the American wage base.
For the Trump administration to turn around and slap tariff on those goods is a bit disingenuous... because what it really amounts to is they are adding a consumer tax which hits the very people (American workers) who've already been disparaged and displaced by the corporate profit motive relentlessly seeking the highest profits for stockholders when they moved their manufacturing to China in the first place.
22
@medianone Finally! Someone else who gets it! American manufacturing disappeared because American manufacturers CHOOSE to send their plants away to increase their own profits and line their own pockets.
13
And, it follows, if the cost of a company having its goods manufactured in China is increased -- which is what tariffs do -- it will be in the best interests of that company to resume production in America instead, putting the American workers back to work. At a trivial -- under 0.1%, per this article's last paras -- increase in inflation.
So, we agree.
1
@Texas Liberal - Or it means that the company will reclassify as much of their profit as possible to an IP component and sell the rights to that IP to foreign owned subsidiaries they will locate in low tax countries like Ireland.
Apple did this to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. Trump rewarded them by drastically cutting not only their domestic corporate rate 41%, but also by drastically cutting their tax when repatriating those reclassified profits so they could maximize stock repurchases, dividends, and CEO bonues.
Those companies will not relocate to America until the tariff exceeds the differential of CHEAP LABOR + transportation/delivery that currently exists.
And by then American wages will have continued to degrade to the point those two trajectories intersect.
CNBC estimates a 10% Chinese tariff would cost the average American consumer $125 a year. A 25% tariff would be about $275 a year. Not exactly budget busting numbers. That’s a small price to pay if the Chinese finally relent and negotiate fairer treatment for US companies in China, strict rules on intellectual theft and an end to dumping subsidized steel and other overproduced goods in the US market.
6
@Padraig Lewis Sounds like CNBC needs to hire someone who is better at math.
1
@Padraig Lewis
That's $275 per person - about $1100 for a family of four. Which is a lot of money for a family making $20K - $40K per year
1
I still don't understand why average American consumers must bear the brunt of this "war" to benefit companies that want to do business in China, and their shareholders.
The Trump Tariffs harm the many for the benefit of the few.
Companies that don't want to give up intellectual property do not have to do business in China. They choose to because of cheap labor, the potential to sell in the most populous country, and the chance to make enormous profits that will not benefit most Americans.
12
Convenient for Trump that the major imposition of the tariffs occur right AFTER the 2018 elections. The pain to consumers and businesses that use Chinese parts in their supply chains will be huge, and may lead us back into another recession.
2
When will we learn to stop buying, buying, buying? America's consumerism is over the top. I understand that "buying American" is a difficult feat, but when will we Americans slow down and stop buying so many things?
16
@annec
Are you some kind of self-sufficient person who grows or hunts their own food, makes all their clothes and doesn't sell their labor to afford a medium of exchange (money) to buy the stuff you don't make.
Your virtue signaling that you don't regard yourself as an undisciplined consumer assumes you are totally off the grid and not a participant in the market economy in it's most literal sense, and in the general tut-tutting I assume you are intending to convey, your comment is kind of silly.
I doubt you are typing your comment with a solar panel powered computer from somewhere off the grid, or walking to your public library to post from their computers.
4
@annec Ever check out the back loading dock of your local thrift store in America? Every day, mountains of often barely used goods form, testament to the shopping mania of Americans.
TV is one agency that created this. Ask anyone who's worked in the industry over the years (me), and they will frankly admit that the medium exists for one purpose only -- to sell stuff. The production values for commercials are usually twice as high as for the programs they sponsor, because that's the whole point of it. I figured this out long ago, and unplugged. It actually helped my creativity when working in the industry, among many other things. Also, I don't shop nearly so much as others because I don't buy things I don't need.
2
@annec, The elimination or slowing of the proliferation of dollar stores would be a good thing. Ditto Walmart.
Very early in the Trump dynasty beginning, a meeting took place in the Trump dump in which Trump met with big business leaders in a effort to repatriate American manufacturing. Apple's CEO Tim Cook sat the the left of Trump, full of smiles, as he promised to bring back Mac manufacturing, a very small part of the Apple business. The Apple iphone is the meat and potatoes of the business that remains manufactured in China. I can guess that the small promise by Cook held off Trump's punishing tariffs on the iphone imports. Rich guys love each other it seems.
4
@Waves of Brain - let's not forget that Apple was one of the companies that figured out early how to reclassify a large percentage of their profits as IP. And then sold those IP rights to Apple subsidiaries in low tax countries like Ireland to avoid paying taxes on huge dollar amounts.
Cook and other global CEO's rolled Trump into believing that drastically cutting taxes on these off shore profits would somehow translate into Apple moving manufacturing back to the US.
"Surprise, surprise!" as Gomer would say. Trump got played by global CEO's and he doesn't even know it.
6
The cost of paper stock has already gone up substantially due to the tariffs, and subsequently I have to charge my print clients more for their offset print projects, reducing my margin. The wolf is at the door.
5
I resent the title of this piece because I resent being labeled a "consumer". Is that all we are, now? Not citizens, not individuals, not contributors in any way; just consumers. Ick.
17
@lrb945
I believe that this is how we have been 'seen' for years, now.
2
You didn’t get the “you’re nothing but a consumer”memo? I got mine years ago. Worse yet, if you’ve been living frugally and not buying new stuff until the old stuff wears out, you should have received the “you’re a loser” memo, also.
Wait. I’ll forward my copies to you.
2
@lrb945, Cradle to grave, we are all being targeted as only 'consumers' What do you think all of that massive amounts of data collection on us is mainly about?
This country sure has changed from when I was a kid. Things made over seas were cheap and junk we were proud to buy American and support our neighbor not so much these day foreign cars and electronics everywhere. And no one seems to care and that’s what happened no one cares.
9
I always buy Japanese cars not because I’m unAmerican but because they are better. Why don’t American car manufacturers make better cars?
8
@MFlaherty: I like Toyotas. They almost never break. For the first time in my life, I have a car that I don't worry about.
If I wanted something sporty, I'd buy a Mustang or a Camaro, but then the Toyota FRS is looking rather good, and the Mazda Miyata has been cool for decades now.
@J Clark - Part of what happened was when Detroit automakers started making cars that didn't last four years. They were junk. And they produced those junk cars for years while foreign car companies like Toyota and BMW took over the mantle of "quality vehicles".
American care companies are getting back in the game, finally. But a lot of what happened can be laid at the feet of American CEO's running their car companies to make the greatest short term profits possible... for stockholders and for themselves via stock options and bonuses.
6
If confronting China over its trade practices were painless, previous Presidents would have long done it. If it has to be Trump who does it, so be it.
China's continuing favorable treatment from the days of being a developing country is no longer tenable, soon it will be the largest economy in the World.
Moreover, have we sunk so far as a nation that our opinion about trading is only dictated by the price we pay for stuff?
How about the environmental footprint of unfettered global trade e.g. importing apples from NZ or beans from Kenia just so we can buy all fruits and vegetables all year round? How about manufacturing jobs of our American companies moving to countries where workers are modern day slaves (remember the anti-suicide nets in Apple's Foxconn factories?), often in places where pollution is not an issue either? Are we okay with that? How about the race to the bottom in global corporate tax rates, with multinationals moving to where they have to pay close to none of it within our free trade zones (e.g. Ireland in EU)?
9
China has stated they will not continue playing defense, and that means they may very well stop shipping key critical components to U.S. manufacturers. This could shut down entire segments of our economy. This is the next step after tariffs.
2
@Sparky
"critical components to U.S. manufacturers."...
While, I agree, that could happen, U.S. companies need to better position themselves to minimize that possibility. Outsourcing and building factories offshore for the cheapest foreign labor always carries the risk of technology theft and the possibility of supply chain interruption. Americans have not reconciled the balance between consumer prices with corporate profitability with regard to our overall long term economic security.
5
@Sparky: Then we'll have to learn to make those things for ourselves. That's the whole point of this exercise. When you are self-sufficient, you can deal with others on your own terms and let them be the ones to take it or leave it.
@Charles Too little, too late. US Companies simply can't open up new supply lines or manufacturing facilities at the drop of a hat. Both require significant lead times and China knows it. I suspect China is going to escalate this situation from tariffs to "no ship" rules.
I can never believe the .1 percent figure. Not if there is a 25 percent hike in prices on at least half the products we consume.
6
So...Americans won't notice the impact of tariffs on their budgets. If that is the case, what is the point? If we aren't going to be discouraged from buying Chinese made products and since Chinese companies aren't paying the tariffs, what is the effect? The administration's argument makes no sense. Of course people will feel the pinch. At least those of us who aren't multimillionaires will.
15
These tariffs ( a tax on american consumers we are apparently supposed to agree to pay because they MAGA ) somewhat offset the money lost in the tax cuts on the 1% and corporations, money that is actually needed to KAG (Keep America Great).
2
"American companies... are forced to hand over valuable technology and trade secrets to Chinese partners in exchange for operating there."
No one forces any American company to "operate" there.
If "operate" is code for "manufacture" then we all know why American companies choose to "operate/manufacture" there.
CHEAP LABOR.
Does anyone really think Trump or his family are being forced to "hand over valuable technology" when they voluntarily go to China to "manufacture" any of the Trump branded products? They manufacture in China rather than the U.S. because of...
CHEAP LABOR
And truth be told, when Chinese labor becomes on iota higher than some other low wage country, and more profit is possible to be made, then Trump and other American companies will be "forced to operate/manufacture" in those new cheaper labor countries.
31
@medianone
cheap labor is only a part of the picture. relaxed enviornmental regulations, minimal record keeping and limited regulatory oversight on working conditions , pollution , etc . are important.
3
As a quilter paying over $12 a yard in some cases, I resent the tariff on cotton which is predicted to raise the price of fabric around 25%. It is going to make it unaffordable for many to enjoy this creative hobby. Just one more reason that I am glad I did not vote for trump.
12
@Kris
I can understand your desire to want to continue your hobby, but in the grand economic scheme of things, this is illustrative of how misplaced some of the concern is - it's a hobby, not a necessity. Either you will pay more or drop the hobby - if there remains a demand for the cotton it is likely it will come from someplace else to replace the Chinese merchandise. Continuing to prop up China by our purchases of elective, non-essential materials only hurts us in the long run.
6
@George S
For some of us including the quilt shops that sell the fabric, it is pretty essential. It is going to hurt small businesses, designers, distributors, etc. Also, let's not forget the tariff on essential goods such as washing machines, etc. You sure sound like a trump republican to me.
4
@Kris Today we only read about who's going to get hurt by the tariffs. It's the bias for available data, and of course vested interests shout loudest. We don't read yet about new businesses, divisions or repatriations as a consequence of the tariffs as this takes some time. The demand is there, and will be filled by local products, substitutes, etc.
1
Now all of the USA will feel the way Southerners felt during the Reconstruction: what was once a land of plenty will become a land of poverty. Like the bygone days of the South, slave labor provided great wealth at least for a few whose commodities like cotton commanded a premium on the market, just as petroleum now does. And then there's China: Chinese labor--that one should consider compulsory like slave labor because so many restrictive conditions attach to its operations and wages--will also suffer.
6
@Tournachonadar A close reading of history will reveal that the slave owning states of the former South were the wealthiest area on earth prior to the Civil War, BECAUSE of the free labor they extracted from brutalized slaves. The world moved on and humans had realized that slavery was evil to the core, and presented an unfair context for actual un-enslaved workers -- i.e., American citizens. The South needs to get over this fantasy that Reconstruction is what crippled it. It was crippled by accepting the greed of the small number of owners of those huge plantations run by slave labor, and then paying the price once this Crime Against Humanity was brought to its eventual reckoning.
Get over it. Slavery was bad.
I just can't too worked up about some of this. Much of the "cheap" junk we buy from China is just that, junk. The notion that we all "need" many of the useless things that are purchased is insane. Rather, if consumers purchase less Chinese manufactured merchandise, it will them them more than us.
Additionally, the US is a vast and very valuable market - if Chinese sales drop here and if there truly is a demand or need for such products, someone, from somewhere (hopefully domestically) will step in to fill the breach; we're too valuable a market to just ignore. It may take some time for it all to rebalance itself, but in the end, China has more to lose than we do.
6
Already seeing small increases in items as mundane as aluminum foil. 35 cents here, 90 bucks there (washing machines, dryers), and so on and so forth. "And suddenly," to quote Ev Dirksen, "we're talking real money" for every American household.
China pursues highly aggressive trade tactics. The whole world recognizes this. But does it make sense to tax American consumers (by inflated prices) in order to bring the Chinese in line? And will the the punitive measures even work?
13
The great public company I work for will have to increase our product price proportional to the material cost increases to maintain the same margins to keep our stock price in line. that will add to inflation in our market.
Our competitors will do the same.
Those tariffs will have a big impact on our business. Yesterday we started the first ,yet small, lay off in our company, and at the same time we organized shut down days to keep as many employees as possible.
Don't get fooled.
The trade war has already a big impact!
Perhaps the prices usual don't have a sticker on it, which says this price is increased by 10% due to a trade war. The ignorant will not understand that, believing everything is fine.
American farmers had the first shock until a farm bill bailout.
A bailout of our industry seems to be very, very unlikely due to its very big revenue on hand.
Looking back I see this as a correction and a way to balance the budget of the US treasury to be paid by the consumers.
It is, as said many times before, a tax increase on everyone.
If this money from the tariffs flows back into the civil economy than it can be very positive.
If it goes into the military, it will drag down the life of many proud Americans - Sad to see that!
7
What Trump and his Republicans have done is cut income taxes on the rich and find a back door way to raise consumption taxes on the poor and middle class. We must call them out and hold them responsible.
Just vote.
45
@and stop buying. Or buy used.
I find it incredibly shallow that so many people are fixated solely on lower consumer prices as the raison d'etre for every international trade agreement.
Sure, let's continue the practice of eroding stable jobs for the lower and middle classes by sending all jobs overseas to cheap labour markets. After all, it's a small price to pay when you can get cheaper cellphones and laptop computers!
And of course, America's already demonstrated their addiction to cheap domestic labour via millions of illegal immigrants who pick their fruits and vegetables at slave wages. These consumers are complicit in supporting slave labour which lowers wages to the point where millions of American citizens and legal residents cannot afford to take the jobs.
17
There appears to be an unwritten law of economics (at least in the gasoline sector) that if there appears to be any possibility of an increase in the wholesale price implement it as soon as possible and multiply it to the point of irrationality. And no refunds!
9
Bravo Trump - Yes tariffs can cause higher prices for imports, but it allows import replacement by American made products. In effect It is the redistribution of income to American workers. Trump is actually defending US jobs AND reducing income inequality! No wonder Republicans don’t like it, but what I do not understand is why NYT readers and editorial think this is a bad thing?
3
@Dactta because it will not work to get at the real issue: IP theft by China. Trump thinks it is still the 1950s. China will win this war, and we will lose our allies in the process.
3
Thinking that the rise in tariff induced consumer prices will bring about higher employment in the US is a dream. Even if there is a marginal movement of employment back to the US it will be years from now and insignificant compared to the jobs lost in the import sector. This issue sailed 20 years ago. Too late, the supply chains are too complex now. Welcome to the new Feudal States of America.
7
@Dactta - You really need to pay more attention. Trump products are made in China. Trump doesn't care about American workers.
6
The idea that we can do this without pain for the consumer, and that it will end up in some huge net “win” for the workers of US, is completely unrealistic. You get price increases if the workers producing stuff are paid 10 times as much.
Some companies may decide to build their next new factory here in the US to produce what’s sold here. However, they will have big incentives to hire robots rather than workers – given our cost of labor. On the negative side; given the higher production cost in US (and retaliatory tariffs), we will lose our competitiveness in foreign countries. Harley Davidson motorcycles for the European markets will be produced in Europe not US.
I agree that something had to be done about China. But trade is very complicated and way above a 1-page memo to a 5’th grader. The rest of the western world have the same issues with China that we have, and we could have had them with us – if we had not begun this trade thing by alienating them.
21
@Ivan Europe has been smarter on trade with China compared to the US. Germany has a trade surplus with them, because they sell many high quality items to their rising middle and upper class, like cars and appliances (Miele, ATAG, etc.). Conversely, rigorous quality standards (banned chemicals, emissions, CE certification, mandatory 2-year warranty in whole EU, etc.) are imposed which work as an effective second line trade barrier against cheap import products. Western companies, at the moment, still have an edge on engineering and quality. This is how Europe can continue to conclude free trade agreements worldwide (recently with Canada and Japan) without harming their citizens.
I think, long term, raising the quality bar, is the way the US should go too, away from the low cost, low pay model it has now. For now, I think the Trump tariffs are the lesser of two evils.
1
“Because it’s spread over thousands and thousands of products, nobody’s going to actually notice it at the end of the day.”
That's like the shopkeeper who sold everything at a loss, but hoped to make up for it on volume.
18
@bronxboy
LOL - remember that SNL ad spoof for the bank that only made change?
They, too, expected to 'make it up in volume' by making more change, but still for $0 revenue.
Remember when we used to think SNL was the joke and not your President?
We have a president and administration who are determined to undermine the well-being of ordinary Americans, not just in trade matters but from the environment to education. We will be long in recovering.
21
My impression is that we import a lot of cheap consumer goods from China. The market for these goods is not the 1% but the bottom 50% who are living paycheck to paycheck. I suspect they will notice a 10% increase in the costs of goods they buy. Sounds to me like it will read as inflation and will make poor people poorer. A traditional Republican move.
25
Tax cuts for Chinese investors, tariffs for working class Americans.
9
It’s all right. I’m a little tired of Christmas anyway. Contrary to popular belief, the Cratchits’s life wasn’t that homey, Tiny Tim was unlikely to have received the healthcare he needed, and Scrooge never did get that Eureka empathy moment. Why would he? He wasn’t missing any meals.
Same as it ever was.
God bless us, every one.
25
Americans will feel increasing pain from he Trump trade tariffs?
Good!!
Then maybe that will provide more motivation to voters to get rid of this enabling, unfeeling Republican administration and our President, who is a sorry excuse for a human being.
14
Stop fooling around. Suspend ALL imports from China for 90 days. Let the South China Sea become a vast parking lot for container ships. Let China choke on their plastic junk. Then we talk.
5
What would happen to Walmart? Not that I care.
7
If prices rise and consumers cut back on their spending, how does that help American businesses? Especially at Christmas, the most important shopping season of the year. Some businesses require Christmas revenue to carry them through the lean after-Christmas season. Because their margins are so low to begin with, many businesses may not make it. Trump's tariffs might do more harm to the U.S. economy than China ever has.
12
Should have kept TPP. No tariffs and no China.
I already see increases in my grocery bill and at the gas pump.
14
In order for tariffs to be effective, they must result in noticeable price increases. The price increases would cause consumers to change their behavior, either by purchasing something different, or nothing at all.
The Trump administration is trying to convince people that they won’t even notice the price increases. If that is the case, they’ll continue to buy Chinese goods, and the tariffs will just amount to another consumption tax without having any effect on the trade balance.
17
@Geoff That's an excellent point. If the price increases from the tariffs aren't noticed, they won't have any effect.
But does anyone think Trump understands that? He has demonstrated that he has no clue what a trade deficit even represents. He seems to think that the Chinese are just stealing $500+ billion from the US, forgetting that we get $500 billion in goods from them in return. In fact, since it would cost us more to produce the products in the US, you could argue that we are getting $600 billion worth of products for our $500 billion. That's how international trade works.
As a small business owner we are already getting notices from our suppliers to expect a 30% increase in the wholesale price of our products (flooring). Our margins are just not that big, and we will be forced to add those costs to our bids. Larger companies with more in-house stock will be able to better prepare and to outbid us based on old pricing for some time. I really don’t see where this is helping?
40
The thariffs are actually working and surprisingly to the benefit of American and the Chinese. American companies getting a more fair trade environment in China is an obvious benefits but what's not obvious is the benefit to higher-end Chinese design and manufacturing companies from stronger IP laws. Nominal GDP per capita in first tier cities in China are approaching US $20,000 and have been shifting away from manufacturing to design, engineering and software for years now. Stronger IP laws in China is a boom to foreign companies in China as well as Chinese brands seeking protection from copycats.
4
And yet, the stock market is fine. If you bothered to watch any news no one is saying that it’s going to be that bad at all for the consumer. Partisan blindness leads to ignorance.
2
@Mr. Slater Consumers will pay more and not necessary consume less, this is good for companies because of revenue growth.
4
@Slater - I guess it just depends on where you get your news. NBR reported last evening on the detrimental effect the tariffs were having on the home building and renovation businesses. Prices for appliances, supplies, and tools are increasing substantially.
9
Stock prices have no relation to the price of food and goods. Only the top 10% give a hoot about stocks. The rest of us have no investment in stocks, or maybe paltry 401k savings. But we sure as heck notice increased prices for our food and goods.
7
The solution to China trying to be a world player in high tech and other industries in which the US is currently the leader is NOT tarrifs. China is investing heavily in it's infrastructure and education of it's people. And if we don't do the same or better, they will have smarter employees, be able to solve difficult problems, and havr the infrastructure to move goods around the world to ultimately beat the US in those high worth sectors.
Alas, the Republicans know a smarter, more educated American people will not vote for them as readily as some do know. Instead of changing their dumb ideas to good ones, they rather just keep us dumb and try to control China with tarrifs, which will not work over the long haul.
23
And yet China routinely blocks Western tech companies from the Chinese market. Maybe US should do the same, including kicking them off Nasdaq. That would help them understand Trade shouldn’t be a one way street.
4
It is more that they require buy in from the invading tech companies. Pay to play, the tech execs wanted the money. De-list? How about just don't buy.
Those of us growing up in the 50s and 60s were well aware of the Great Depression and schooled on its consequences as our parents and grandparents endured the hardships of it. In government and history classes we learned of the disastrous consequences of easy money and stock speculation on Wall Street and the insanity of tariffs and the consequences of them. Supposedly trump went to business school, yet here we go again, loosening regulation and oversight on Wall Street and playing tariff roulette. We also had a song from the sixties that lamented "When will they ever learn...". Why to we think we can try the same stupid stuff today and expect a different outcome???
33
This is the only area that I agree with President. China has been the bully in the world. They force companies to share their technologies if they want to do business in China. Pay very little to Chinese people to produce goods, sell their products worldwide and make enormous profits. In addition they are very active in stealing technologies from most western nations.
As it has been said so many times, with US alone they have about 600 billion dollars yearly deficit in their favor. They Invest large portions of these profits in growing their armies and bully all its neighbors. This includes Japan and all countries surrounding South China Sea, India. They have already taken control of Tibet and have global ambitions.
21
@Abe Who is they? They do this and they do that? No body forces anybody. Do you mean to say that Apple was forced to manufacture and sell its products in China. It seems you have a very low opinion of American CEO's from Coke to Boeing, from Intel to Starbucks, Walmart to Microsoft etc., . Harvard, Stanford and Wharton business schools are really turning out some pushovers. Imagine the board meetings when they are confronted by a Chinese JV partner and are told to HAND OVER the tech or we ain't gonna play with you. The whole board of directors just rolls over? Just like that? Every single US company? I don't believe it! Not to mention that in the service sector the US runs a surplus with China. The die is cast and China will have a bigger economy than the US because, quite simply, it has more people who have the education and the money to buy things.. The US would be better off to collaborate with China than to create havoc.
2
Not only does our fake prez know little about economics, evidenced most simply by how many of his own biz failed and how many times (4?!) he’s declared bankruptcy. We’re now allowing him to set in motion the biggest bankruptcy yet, America. In Nov vote out trumpist Congressional candidates wherever possible.
14
Yes but we could have been suffering through Hillary's Emails!!! Glad we dodged that bullet.
Enjoy spending your Trump Tax Cut proceeds folks. On higher prices for about everything. Actually, you already have and then some. Its the Gift that keeps on Taking.
30
@Casey Burns ….higher prices from tariffs, higher prices from inflation (now heating up) AND higher premiums from Trump and his henchmen Republicans' destabilizing the insurance market as much as they can!
6
After reading Woodward's book, Fear, economically, we are in for a wild ride. His knowledge of basic economic principles is zero. What he does know can be summarized in my Uncle Joe's annual Thanksgiving economic message that we should return to the gold standard. And, there are no Gary Cohn's left to remove memos from his desk.
21
I worked in Europe in advanced manufacturing systems some years ago. We manufactured high tech products and our founders‘ policy was never to outsource to any other country. A major US partner tried to persuade is to manufacture in China to reduce costs so they could save. We knew the Chinese rules and wouldn’t share our IP outside the organization. The Walmart culture of ‚pile-it-high-sell-it-cheap“ combined with US executive greed has created this problem, China exacerbated it but didn’t cause the problems. Now the US consumer will pay the extra(tax) tariffs and the Walmarts and Amazons will continue to cream off the top.........Trump has addressed a symptom, but hasn’t got close to the cause.
72
With Trump, the "brand" is everything.
Call these taxes what they are. GOP taxes. And repeat it until everyone remembers it.
38
It seems fair. Many people call
Economists project a .1% increase in the consumer price index of these tariffs are in place. And we have known for years the Chinese restrict what products we can sell in their country while we sell everything they make in ours. More reporting should be focused on those elements of this equation and less on the short term impact of this tariff noise. China has been taking advantage of us. Sort of the bully on the world stage as relates to trade. I say let Trump continue to push back on the bully and lets see where that takes us. Doing nothing is not a strategy and delaying this confrontation forever will only make the situation more difficult to change.
3
US corporations gleefully allowed China to “take advantage “ of us to cut costs and increase profits. We can’t punish China for our actions. Plus, the American consumer got cheaper goods. So much for that.
3
@Charlie The Chinese did not move production to China American businesses did. The Chinese did not demand wages beyond what the market could bear American unions did. Most of the industrial base of the world was destroyed or severely damaged during WWII and the USA had relatively new facilities developed to support the war effort that could dominate trade around the world. Places like Japan, Great Britain and Germany rebuilt. The USA had become complacent and watched our competitiveness slip away. Let's not blame it all on China and other emerging economies. We inflicted much of the damage on ourselves with over emphasis on quarterly profits and executive pay rising to outladish levels. We must also understand the fact that more and more manufacturing is being accomplished with AI and robots, being automated. This is happening on a global scale. The quality of infrastructure and ability to get products to market will be determining factors of where things get produced. Guess who is not addressing their rotting infrastructure and aging transportation systems?
16
@John Warnock
"The Chinese did not demand wages beyond what the market could bear American unions did." ...
And now, here we are using tariffs and renegotiating trade agreements to manipulate the "market" to protect American jobs from the exploitation of foreign workers (by American companies, btw) whose miserable working conditions those unions sought to eliminate in the first place. It seems, the market will have to bear our coming full circle.
It's been said endlessly that tariffs are a tax on imported goods but the dirty little secret is that their overall effect is to raise the price of ALL finished good sold domestically that are in competition with imports (even when they don't incorporate imported intermediate goods built into US produced finished products). This is because US manufacturers producing a wholly US made product that is competing with imports will use the opportunity to raise their prices and fatten their gross margin. You don't actually need to sell more volume of US produced product but you will be making much more money. A 10% price increase when you're gross margin is 10% doubles your profit. This is what has been happening in the steel industry.
14
To assume all the tariffs are simply taxes on equal priced products is not correct.
The tariffs are applied on production that is being dumped into the US.
Corresponding domestic price increases can simply be an increase to break even levels, as the dumped products are now correctly priced.
I get tired of the rhetoric that Corporations need to pay everyone better, but no corporation can make more money. Many assume that a CEO’s salary will suddenly grant prosperity to the 10,000 workers that struggled through high school and are only working because the capital to invest in robots is too high. 40MM divided by 10000 is $400. A year.
@George
Still larger than the GOP tax cuts for ~ 90% of Americans.
But for those making 40MM a year?
YUUGE.
1
@George
All tariffs are not being levied on dumped production and even if they were it wouldn't alter the validity of my point.
Your break even argument is basically nonsense. Corporations don't sell money losing products for long (or they go out of business) but even if what you said was correct the effect would still be to raise all prices.
What your last para has do with the specific point I was making, I have no idea.
1
An adjacent article in this paper outlines the success of trade restrictions with Iran. And within the last few days the NYT analyzed the future of this trade ‘war’ by pointing out that China has reached its tariff peak, while Trump’s actions will be increasingly punitive. China’s economy Ned’s America, not vice versa, and we are finally doing something to stop the wholesale theft of technology and intellectual property by people with business, not political experience. The stock market reflects the confidence of our economic leaders that this isn’t long overdue.
Interesting points, @Henry. Sanctions, as opposed to tariffs, can work sometimes. As North Korea and Cuba have shown, such sanctions don't always change a country's behavior but they can depress a country's economy. In many such cases, the ruling class simply adjusts by increasing that country's income inequality. So, for example, many ordinary North Koreans starve while the ruling elite smuggles in luxury items for the politically favored.
I do think that your observations nicely fit current GOP priorities. Last year's tax cuts went almost entirely to the wealthiest and have so far created huge new deficits. As you point out, the stock market shows that those who live on equities rather than wages are happy with the result. Meanwhile, wage rises remain sluggish so inflation-adjusted wages for most people are not rising significantly. Now if the government collects less tax revenue from the wealthy, the need increases to collect more revenue somewhere else. Import tariffs raise the cost of goods for consumers and add to inflation, which lowers the value of wages. It can also strengthen the dollar, as the article points out. This, and higher stock prices, increase the value of the equities owned by the wealthy.
So, yes, adding new tariffs on imported goods in 2018 after lowering taxes on the wealthy in 2017 makes a nicely balanced pair of actions to advance the agenda of the current GOP.
7
@Grindelwald If you've actually traveled in any of those sanctioned nations (I have) you will see the poverty and misery the tariffs cause, AND the resistance it breeds in the populations, who love their country as much as we love ours, despite who is sitting in the executive office.
Sanctions create misery and stubbornness all around. Locals dig in their heels and resist the sanctioner. The ruling elite still find ways to stay on top. It never ends as imagined.
I still say Trump is a free trader otherwise he would have brought Ivanka's (before they went bankrupt) trinket factories back from slave labor India.
He soon will get a few bones from China and the rest of the world(like he did with Mexico, a joke deal) he is fighting a tariff war with, declare victory and say he was the greatest president since Lincoln.
If I am wrong and he continues his unrestricted tariff policy instead of a carefully crafted non onerous, fair one to protect our rust belt, the next recession is coming and may make the 2008 one look like a blip.
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@Paul
And now some unknown Louisiana congressman is threatening Canada, trying to force us into that joke deal with Mexico.
As if.
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@Michele K- thank you for your reply. Yes, as I read it Mexico is supposed to get going into the 20 century and pay their workers as much as Canada or US but if they don't they only suffer a 2% penalty with the fab Trump breakthrough, a sham.
Countries like Canada, Western Europe, Aust., NZ., West Europe basically pay their workers livable wages and any disputes between them and the USA can be handled thru arbitration.
The real issue are slave labor countries like Vietnam, Mexico, and to a bit lesser extent China taking away traditional good paying western blue collar jobs.
A fair, non onerous carefully planned tariff on these countries re selected industries is the way to go not a free for all onerous tariff by the USA and Trump on the whole world.
Leaving aside IPR theft, surely one of the the main reasons for the trade in balance is that American (and Australian) consumers wanted Made-In-China products for decades because they were cheaper than those made at home - if even still made at home.
They were cheap because millions of Chinese worked very long hours for very low wages in often very poor conditions although this was rarely of much concern to the average Western consumer. There may be some rough if unwelcome justice of the-what-goes-around-comes- around kind if prices do go up for consumers now.
Trump appears to thrive on threats, bullying, brawling and juvenile dominance displays, be it with individuals or countries to feed his ego. It's hard not to imagine that tariffs on all Chinese goods will not only be next with many unpredictable consequences but that he is even looking forward to imposing them.
I hope that he leaves smaller countries like mine alone which need to trade with China and does not go on to subject us to inappropriate threats of the kind he made to European businesses in Iran - as if he was President of The Whole Planet.
Few if any companies here could turn a profit either at the moment trying to reproduce Chinese -made products on home turf. Not at least without quantities of robots which don't require a minimum wage of $19 an hour, compulsory 9.5% employer superannuation contributions,4 weeks paid annual leave, 2 weeks paid sick/carer's leave, long service leave and such like.
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In the first paragraph, we learn that the administration, in the person of our extremely wealthy Commerce secretary, seems confident there won't be much pain from trade war escalation. In the middle of the article, we learn that folks will likely be paying more for things like washing machines and everyday consumer necessities. (But, hey, no big deal, since increases won't really kick in till the new year.) In the final paragraph, we learn that analysts expect inflation will notch up and economic growth will start to fall. None of this inspires confidence in Republicans' ability to manage the economy for the well-being of any but the few at the top. While Mr. Ross might not notice the pain at the end of the day, plenty of the rest of us will.
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@Maggie Mae
How clever to hold off the increases until after the elections and once increases are imposed it will take years to have them rescinded....and when and if they are betcha that the higher prices will always remain, but of course the increased profits will not be. Given to the working public but will accrue in corporate pockets.
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Higher tariffs imports from China does not achieve our goals. They don't stop Chinese firms from pirating our products and technology. They don't stop Chinese industrial espionage. They don't stop China from becoming more "powerful." Rather, by ramping up hostility and sowing greater distrust, tariffs only toughen China's will to treat us as a foe and not a friend. Remember that America had no trade deficit before 1975. China didn't "take advantage of us" until we let it, beginning about 1990. The problem is in ourselves, not just about China.
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@James W. Chan - "They don't stop Chinese industrial espionage."
In the other Times article on the trade war I commented that using tariffs to stop China from using industrial espionage and pirating our products and technology was like trying to freeze the ocean to stop the boat from leaking rather repairing the hole.
10
I feel for the Trump voting working class that has been fed to the wolves under the watchful eye of do-nothing Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan and the rest of the GOP-led Congress. They are easily manipulated, and completely cast aside by the GOP.
Yes, we know Donald Trump despises the diehards of his base who support him. His feigned appreciation of them is more artificial than an office fern.
But what's the excuse for the rest of the GOP? Do they not care what they're doing to the blue collar Americans that keep them in office?
The GOP is the anti-working class, anti-women, anti-transparency party. November can't get here soon enough.
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We appreciate your deep concern for us Sarah..seems very genuine.
I’d counter, Dems are evolving into the Socialist party...sounds frighting to me and I’m sure to many of the sane Dems.
Who’s not for a party that’s pushing for higher income taxes, increased Corp tax, free school for all, censored speech, open borders, redistribution of wealth and increasing government dependencies.
Do we sit idle and do nothing regarding the trade imbalance? Do we all roll ours sleeves up k owing the road will be bunny but knowing it’s in the best interest for America or continue to take the same path.
@Paul Actually there was a comprehensive plan to address the trade issue called the TPP - remember? And remember how Hillary wanted to increase spending to help workers displaced by trade issues acquire new skills?
So which approach is more likely to succeed in helping the working class thrive and survive in the future?
And where is the money for infrastructure the Dems have proposed and the Reps refuse to even consider?
Tariffs will not solve any of these long term issues and we will all pay the price.
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@Paul
"Do we sit idle and do nothing regarding the trade imbalance?"
Why wouldn't Republicans consider this the exact thing we should do?
"Do nothing because we can't stop it" is pretty much their go-to policy for most problems.
Think climate change, health care and massacres of children.
The tariffs are a tax on trade. Trump has imposed and increased tariff rates, that is, increased taxes. So, why are so-called Republican fiscal conservatives silent on Trump’s tax increase?
Why aren’t Fox News, Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity proclaiming “the sky is falling, the sky is falling” on these tax increases every waking minute of the day? A token reference on Trump’s tax increase from these Republican enablers is as fake as Trump himself. The damage, however, on various sectors of the U.S. economy, businesses and consumer will be quite real.
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"nuts, fruit, vegetables, rice and cereal" - being of high national security interest, of course - "did not escape".
His blanket tariffs are just proof that that Trump is using any pretense he wants with Congress abdicating its constitutional power to the executive.
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This is nothing but a tax increase on American consumer. Where is Grover Norquist hiding now?
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This makes it appear companies will hold off on raising prices. But make no mistake about it: profits will not be impacted. By anything. So I think you can expect companies to raise prices sooner rather than later. they won't cut back on stock buy backs. they won't lower executive salaries. The little person will always pay the price. And if you were China, you would try to find new customers in places that are angry at the U.S.. They will be pretty easy to find. China will undercut the US in prices, get places to switch where they buy things from, and after the new customers are firmly established, then raise prices again. Kind of like what US companies do to US consumers: get you to buy in with a teaser rate or price, then substantially raise prices down the road ( look at cable or cell phone companies. The portrayal of US companies as innocent victims I find offensive. The real question is how much profit is enough profit? The line keeps getting moved at the consumers' expense. And anyone who thinks this will ultimately result in jobs coming back to the US and consumers being willing to pay more for products has their head in the sand.
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In the short term a few items will be more expensive however if China bends and reaches a compromise the tax on US exports to China will decrease. Causing a jump innsales. China overtaxed imports. All they have to do is to lower the tax. A deal will be reached. Yawn.
1
China has s culture that is 5,000 years old. It took America less than 250 years to reach the cultural low point of Trump and his reality TV presidency. Yawn indeed.
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By when? Like all things Trump, at what point will you say “maybe I was wrong.” Just curious.
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@Dan
I think it will happen before November election to give Republicans short term boost
How in the world would an entitled .1% elitist like Wilbur Ross have any clue about how tariffs will impact the average Joe? He is not qualified to open his oblivious, inexperienced mouth.
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@Sane citizen
Wilbur Ross is right on target and concessions will be made. Then you might think differently about negotiations.
By when will meaningful concessions be made? Christmas good enough for you as a time for judgement? Just curious at what point you too might get frustrated by this strategy if it does not work.
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@Sane citizen
He is extremely qualified, Incredibly successful and is on the right path in negotiations. Start off with strong demands and then compromise to reach a deal. Yawn.
You know what's the content of the poster in essay? It goes that every US citizen will be charged with 25% of the price as "service cost" since the US imposes the newest tariff on Chinese commodities, it is rediculous though makes sense, typical trumpian thought.
7
“Because it’s spread over thousands and thousands of products, nobody’s going to actually notice it at the end of the day,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC
Does this economic genius even know math?
Or go to the grocery store?
100 items that cost 25 cents more is still $25 more.
People who live on a budget will notice.
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@D. DeMarco exactly what I was going to say. An across-the-board increase on ‘thousands of products’ will be noticed by most people. Perhaps the ‘nobody’ he refers to that won’t notice are himself and Trump...those who should be nobody’s indeed.
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@D. DeMarco
The 25% is not on food items. Lol! It is mostly goods that are manufactured . By the way Vhina charges 12.5% tax on US imports. The US only charges 2.5%. China just has to lower their tax to 2.5% and stop stealing out copyrights.
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@D. DeMarco
"Does this economic genius even know math?
Or go to the grocery store?
100 items that cost 25 cents more is still $25 more."
The tariffs aren't on groceries imported from China.
And while on the subject of economic geniuses visiting grocery stores - do you go to the grocery store and routinely purchase 100 Made-in-China food items? How many shopping carts does that involve?
1
So I have a question. When they collect the tariffs at our border, where does that money go?
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@Mary Susan Williams
It goes to the US Treasury, same as income tax remittances and other general Federal taxes.
In fact, before the 16th Amendment which authorized income taxes (then only a 2% marginal rate imposed on the billionaires of the progressive era), most federal tax revenues came from tariffs on imported goods. (This policy was part protectionist, to protect domestic industry, and part intended as a tax on luxury goods imported from Europe)
2
@Mary Susan Williams - It would be wonderful if those tariff tax dollars were treated like payroll tax dollars and used specifically for the programs that shore up the losses sustained by American workers.
Unfortunately those tariff tax dollars will go to the General Fund to instead shore up the revenue lost by the Trump tax cut for corporations and the 1%.
[Many of those corporations, like Apple, who are making huge profits by manufacturing in China and off shoring those profits.]
2
Donald Trump's impulsive "policies" are short-sighted and driven by greed -- along with an insatiable appetite for applause lines at his rallies.
Like every nation, the U.S. has a significant number of ill-informed people who crave solutions to complex problems. Donald Trump is the president of their dreams.
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Small price to pay to reign in China and re-calibrate trade, we all have to make sacrifices for the greater good .
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@Crossing Overhead
You are right on target.
I disagree that tariffs will result in all people making sacrifices. That would be great and have a better chance of working if true. The fact is that tariffs fall massively on a relatively select few. The pain of tariffs is in no way equally shared, and that is a major shortcoming of tariffs. So, a few Americans will get absolutely crushed by these tariffs, while the rest of us will be relatively unaffected. Trump is counting on this.
Why is he doing this? There is no benefit to the US economy to starting a trade war. Is he merely incompetent or is he trying to hurt the economy?
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@Chris
It may have been a directive from Putin to inflict harm to the US economy.
Or Trump is just plain stupid.
Either explanation is plausible.
2
Are the Chinese going to continue investing in US Treasury Bonds as this trade war continues to heat up? If they get so angry at us and dump some of the massive amount of our bonds in their portfolio, what will be the effect? I’d love to see an analysis of how much US debt the Chinese hold and its place in this miasma.
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@A Person With A Mother - China currently holds $1.8 trillion in U.S. treasuries. Indeed, what happens if China starts selling eighty or one hundred billion a month to fund more Chinese growth in Silk Road countries?
It would be like a reverse Quantitative Easing, where huge money is pulled out of the system rather than injecting huge amounts into the system.
Would it force the Fed to accelerate their march to higher interest rates as they are forced to replace those lost dollars?
What would that do to the dollar amounts required to service the National Debt? Even a 1% or 2% increase would create a red ink fiscal nightmare.
1
Tax cuts for the wealthy and tariffs for the rest of us to offset the resulting deficit.
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@rptasea
Correct, but they're only offsetting a micro portion of the yuge deficit abyss those tax cuts, on top of a thousand loopholes, preceding tax cuts and insane amounts of pork and corporate welfare have created, or better said: cratered already.
In my view the main goal is further disruption of what's left of the 'free' markets, so the Big Bros can buy up the struggling, promising, innovating small competition, that don't have the reserves to absorb the rising costs shock waves for the parts they need to purchase.
1
So, the other day, i was looking to buy Made in USA stainless steel measuring spoons and cups. Since i am an Amazon-free type of consumer, i knew it would be more expensive and i was willing to pay a premium. Then, the task became an exercise of international trade. I could not find any company in the US making regular stainless steel kitchen tools. There is one one small company in Oregon, producing artsy spoons which, i didn’t want and there is another one wholesale for export. Silly as it sounds, no US company has put any resources to produce such gadgets locally which, by the way, are a great market in the retailer world. So i pursue Canada, Europe, and other countries. There was one Indian company but not available to US market. I spent about two hours and i could only find Made in China. My first instinct, let’s hate China. Then, i realized that just “hating China” would not bring me US made spoons. US companies, out of greedy, profitability and market research would not spend their money in supplying day to day consumers with meaningless spoons. And if they were willing, they would have to make great capital investments to set up the manufacturing in the US. I doubt i would see this any time soon. And i doubt the demand would sustain this at a premium price. Manufacturers know this and China would continue sell spoons for now.
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@DREU And that's something I've been noticing more and more for a good twenty years now. I'm sure it started longer ago than that. There's just not enough US manufacturers making small simple day to day items such as your spoons and utensils that you were after.
And then we blame China when all they really did wrong was to expand into a neglected market. Nature abhors a vacuum.
The real solution is for mass local production of such day to day items with low profit margins per item.
9
@DREU
You cannot have it both way with manufacturing low value products in the US and pay workers a minimum wage of $18 a hour. Look for "How it's Made" on Discovery Channel or YouTube and see how much of manufacturing involves no-skill and low-skill labor. Paying someone $18/hr to keep a machine loaded with a stack of cardboard boxes is automatically going to make the product not competitive on the open market.
2
Wait! Go back and buy the artsy spoons from Oregon!! (I have no clue as to the company, but as a new Oregonian, I have to do my bit). Love the state, and you will come to love the spoons....soon!
2
It isn't wise to focus on "consumer prices". More important is a likely and accelerating drag on aggregate economic activity, with the result that the rebound of the U.S. in recent years since the damage during the worst years of the Great Recession will go into reverse. The various parts of the economy are cross-linked in complex ways, and these intricate interconnections may start to come apart, leading to an overall slowing down of aggregate economic activity, with both rising interest rates and job losses. Fool's errand.
110
The reality of the trade war declared by Trump against China is that unintended consequences, both domestic and international, will far exceed the intended purpose of punishing China for violating international trade rules and IPR theft. Even so Trump is going ahead with his irrational and reckless trade policy simply because in his reckoning it serves his political purposes whatever the cost to the US consumer and the business.
163
I live in Chengdu. We are on the belt and road path out west. It is booming. More and more europeans, east asians, vietnamese russians and eastern europeans are investing and trading. Sichuan has a bigger population than Germany. Chengdu ( the Capital) has a growth rate of 12% or more. By example, there are magnificent starbucks on every street corner full of people paying 30 RMB for a coffee. 5 Star hotels are being built at a breakneck pace. The restaurants are full to the brim and most days you need to wait for a seat. The young people are all beautifully groomed, dressed and optimistic. The share economy is in full swing (cars and bikes) and they have built a subway system from scratch. It is now 200 km long with 151 stations and was started in 2010. Bullet trains connect us to everywhere and there are direct flights to all major world cities. Next year a second international airport opens. The population will soon be over 18 million. Trade war ...... what trade war:) What is made in China is sold in China. If Marco (Where is Chengdu?) Rubio and Navarro came to Chengdu and realized that this is a second tier city they would decide to trade with a country with such optimistic energy. US wants to isolate themselves but just west of here there are 2 billion people from all the "Stans" to India, Iran, Turkey, Israel just name a few that are chomping at the bit to be the bridge between China and Africa (1 billion people). The locals here just laugh at Trump. No effect!
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@alkoh Nice try on the propaganda, China. Americans may be naive about the real state of China: giant debt bubble, rampant poverty and a dictatorship under increasing pressure to keep workers working for fear of protests and marches, some of us aren’t that unread. The smart money left China more than a year ago to buy foreign properties. While I am no fan of Trump, China needs to stop stealing US technology and perhaps these tariffs now have its attention.
@Chinese Propaganda... We seem to have a hang-up in this country that Chinese success is based on technology pilfered from other western manufacturers. The Chinese are quickly becoming technological leaders in a lot of fields and will be leaving other manufacturers in the dust. They also recognize the global threat of Global warming and are doing something about it along with becoming the leaders in technology to address that problem. All manufacturers keep a close eye on what the competition is producing and how they are doing it. That has been going on since the first projectile points were flecked from a piece of stone.
@Chinese Propaganda...You are living in a western press bubble. I am living in China. The reality on the ground is so far away from the Trumpian propaganda that it is a joke. The smart money is not American anymore. Get over the fact that, like Haliburton, a lot of US companies could leave Wall St. Capital markets are straining to be free of the dollar. You should really visit and see for yourself. There is no fear here. No guns. No riots. In fact it is very peaceful and prosperous. When I get back to the States it is like hitting a brick wall of poverty and despair. Go figure?
Hey somebody better explain to Trump that his tax cut package amounted to $1.50 a week for the average American and his tariffs will wipe that out in a New York second. I know this Marco economic stuff is a little difficult for him to understand but maybe a blue wave in the mid terms will help. Vote like your life depends on it because it does.
197
@Chris-true but you forgot one thing, the corporate welfare tax cut will add a trillion dollars to the debt over the short run that you and I will have to pay back.
18
A tariff policy based on spite, will not end well for US workers or consumers. Trump has no background in economics. His tariffs continue to distort the economy. There is no sound economic basis for Trump’s tariffs, except for firing up his base.
There is already a $12 billion government payment to US farmers, who were hit with Trump’s first round of tariffs and the Chinese response. There will be a need to further compensate others who will be caught up in Trump’s tariff war.
Despite all Trump’s talk of using tariffs to free up trade with China, there is no sign from Trump, he will open up the US beef and sugar market, which remain relatively free from foreign competition, due to the US severely restricting these products from foreign competition.
42
"...nobody’s going to actually notice it at the end of the day,--Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross..."
So much winning. Making America Great Again by picking fights with another country that will ultimately wound the American consumer and the farmer and the producer and the manufacturer.
What a piece of work is this American president.
139
It is not going to happen, but I had a thought about the cost of tariffs. If companies increased the pay of their workers they could afford the price increases. This transfers the costs to those who have been getting excessively rich from increased values on the stock market, share buybacks and large dividends. This could be their rewards for supporting Trump.
4