Sometimes it seems as though international trade has reached a point of economic equilibrium over the years, a sort of Pareto optimality. Maybe we have a situation of nearly perfect allocative efficiency.
Quoting Mr. Muilenburg, Boeing's Chief Executive, commenting about Trump: "“It was a terrific conversation,” Mr. Muilenburg said afterward. “Got a lot of respect for him. He’s a good man. And he’s doing the right thing.” When you lie down with dogs...
3
Boeing tried to play tough with Canada but Bombardier won the tariff decision plus Canada cancelled a 6 billion boeing jet plane deal.No wonder the stock is going down lately.
2
Boeing made false accusations of dumping by Bombardier on their 100 seats plane called the C-series. Canada and the UK are not pleased. Orders for war planes are going to be cancelled. They tried to bully a really small guy and they lost. Imagine a fight with China and the EU.
5
That’s retaliation that hurts the one retaliating. Where else will they get planes? Airbus? Sorry - the wait is 10 years. Where will they get the jet engines? 80% come from the USA. This could be the start of a trade war where everybody loses! That’s easy!
4
I am a Canadian and from my perspective I must say I hope Boeing gets what it most justly deserves.
We are not China , our workers in the aircraft industry receive wages and benefits that compete with the wages and benefits of any liberal democracy. It was Boeing that decided it could not compete fairly with Bombardier and imposed high tariffs on Canadian built planes.
We have a tiny population one tenth the size of the USA and we are constantly blackmailed by companies like Boeing and Koch Industries with impediments to fair trade that threaten our sovereignty, our social order and our ethics as to how our workers should be treated.
We are a middle class country committed to the general welfare. We can compete with Georgia Pacific and Boeing who can easily set up shop in South Carolina and Texas which are content with a 10% affluent and a large population not receiving the health, education and welfare of our liberal democracy. We believe in taxing the Kochs and Boeings because they are most able to pay. You are pre-revolution France.
We have been a satellite economy for too long. We still have a country to run and our ethics go far beyond how best reward our shareholders and executives.
You pay too high a cost for government of the corporations. Every house built with Georgia Pacific softwood and every time you board a Boeing.
We have a country to care for while you have your owners to serve.
Please tear up Nafta , we need fair trade not extortion.
19
Be careful. Roads can traveled in two directions and Canada is also guilty of its share of trade protection issues. Now if we could just get rid of Trump it might be possible to have a reasonable conversation.
2
Boeing imposed tariffs? I recall them asking for them but I don't remember tariffs actually being imposed. A quick google search confirms that- the International Trade Commission voted against the tariffs.
1
you are right.
This article by Thomas Friedman:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/13/opinion/trump-trade-china.html?action...®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region
validates the premise that China has taken unfair advantage by demanding intellectual assets, and praises Trump for combating this.
Trump needs personal power to debase anyone whom he interacts with, except those acolytes who will show absolute obeisance. If his international policies were being implemented by one without his distorted personality, they could be an appropriate correction for our current distribution of international power.
I have no idea how to remove the personality from the person.
As it is, the evidence is that
If tihs had been done systematically by joining the TPP, or by non hostile negotiations his policy would be applauded, but he has the emotional need to debase his interlocutors, to exact political gain which negates adjustments that should be made.
3
Trump is messing with my pension. Don't mess with Boeing!!!
2
I can't help be happy about this. Boeing tried to bully Bombardier, a company that doesn't directly compete with Boeing) using tariffs. Turnabout is fair play.
13
And what makes you so sure you have received all the correct details?
2
Well the US Department of Commerce ITC seems to believe they've received all the details, as they struck down the 300% tariff that was imposed at Boeing's request... it appears Boeing were not harmed as they had no product offering in the segment that the Bombardier aircraft were in (100 to 150 seats)
Covert action against US corporations was always where it was likely to happen. And ground zero for this is Boeing. The Chinese and others just buy Airbus, Embraer, or Bombardier. They must have been hugging themselves with glee at Airbus when these tariffs were announced.
I also believe other sectors are going to get squeezed. Agriculture, autos, medical equipment spring to mind. No big fuss. Their business just shrinks over time.
6
A very nuanced explanation of the many moving parts in this complex nexus--and what I take away is it is actually quite unlikely Trump or Boeing or the USA will pay any significant, visible or direct price for the aluminum and steel tariffs in terms of damage to Boeing, its workers or the American economy.
Boeing is simply not a very attractive target for China, and while there are better targets out there, China has little reason to go to trade war with the US over these tariffs.
Too bad, in a way. I'd love to see the bloviator pay a price for his grand standing. Apparently won't happen.
The European Union may be a different story.
1
Here is an example of Donald Trump performing exactly what Russia and China want, reduce our global market reach, our global influence and our global banking controls. Donald Trump is doing exactly what Russia and China want. Turn inwards so they can expand outwards and take more control. Donald Trump can only be doing that to the detriment of many high paying jobs in this country. Donald Trump can only be doing this not to satisfy his base, which honestly does not understand the global economy from which Donald Trump is quickly disconnecting us from. Donald Trump is the only business man who sees what he is doing as a good thing. My conclusion then is that Donald Trump is doing this because he is not only the President of the United States, but he is working for Russia. One day, he will be neighbors with Steven Segal and hold a Russian Passport where he will receive his Federal POTUS pension each month from the US Government.
8
No worries. Boeing will be building the x wing fighters we need for Trump’s war in space. After we conquer the lizard people we’ll go on to build a Trump tower on Mars for all the tourists.
11
...but only after he builds a Big, Beautiful Dyson Sphe—er, "covfefe" Ball (which he invented of course, just like the phrase "Fake News", y'know), and makes the Klingons pay for it.
5
Not just that. It will be the biggest and most beautiful and the cheapest that any president will have done before him, and Fox news will celebrate him every day in the morning news
2
China China China - the author forgot the whole little battle with Bombardier, and how Boeing thinks it is helping Canada, by charging huge tariffs on Canadian built planes.
5
Any weapon you wield - physical or not - will eventually be used against you, and not necessarily by the one you intend to harm
3
Trump only cares about districts that can leverage him votes in his re-election bid, which he launched on the day of his inauguration. He isn't interested in governing, except for how it might score him points in swing jurisdictions down the line when, once again, he gets to strut and fret his way upon the hustings..
Blue states don't exist for him. He is only interested in you if you voted for him. Or cheer him at his increasingly bonkers rallies.
When he gets through firing his way through his staff, advisors and cabinet members, only individuals who hail from Indiana or Kansas, it seems, will remain circling in his orbit and telling him what he wants to hear.
By and large, Boeing has been a decent, even model employer. How do I know? My father worked there as a senior and executive engineer for the bulk of his career. But airplane manufacturing is a boom and bust business. Boeing is only as good as its next big sale. China is a future market. But Trump doesn't understand business. Astonishing, but true.
He also doesn't seem to be remembering that China is a substantial holder of US debt. Poke the dragon? It's in the driver's seat.
6
China is already winning the trade war. They've destroyed our solar panel production, decimated our steel production, and Trump, in all his idiocy, recognizes that denying them the killing blow against our steel industry is critical.
Despite the anti-trump apolexy, this is not about a trade war, it's about maintaining an industry that is absolutely vital to national security. Without a steel industry, our economy and military can be crushed with a blockade.
I hope everyone that voted for Trump suffers economic hardship equal to their hatred of America.
6
ALL countries should retaliate against the United States.
WE deserve it.
6
Boeing aircraft are the standard. Airbus mised the mark entirely by bilding 550 seat aircraft that do not reflect the market. The last two decades we suffered through poor trade agreements. Between Bush the free trader, and Obama's incompetent academics managing our trade agreements, we gave away the farm. Now that we are wising up to the unfair agreements, other countries who have benefitted greatly in these agreements accuse the US of protection. I don't blame them, they were simply more clever than us.
1
China will probably not take retaliatory measures on the steel tariffs. But they WILL when Trump announces tariff on electronics and other items in the next couple of weeks. And the first people to feel their ire will be farmers in red states that sell, among other things, soy. Will Republican senators from this state care?
What's infuriating is that, up to now, Trump hasn't met any resistance from anyone who can resist him. Not those in his cabinet. Not his party. Not even EU, who now, it seems, stands in front of him, begging for exemption from the tariffs, instead of just telling him that they will put their own tariffs on American products, if he dares puts any on products from the EU.
Bullies don't get reason or fairness or friendship. The only thing that can stop them is force and forthright language about the blow-back their actions will cause.
4
China should target the red states like Europeans. There are other sources of soybeans and replacing just 1m tons with beans from Brazil, which will be hit hard by the Trump Tariff btw, will send shudders to the Trump base. That would be a perfectly legal way of interfering with American politics unlike Trumpian collusion.
2
Please do not refer to a person installing overhead bins as a mechanic. They are assemblers and at the South Carolina plant they are non-union workers. Aircraft mechanics are licensed and require years of experience before anyone would turn them loose on a B-787.
7
What does union status have to do with this?
1
The airbus is most likely better anyway and will benefit from trumps tariff ! Don't buy American !
2
Trump announced the steel and aluminum tariffs as a ploy to stop the beginning of the upcoming blue wave of Democratic Congressional candidates beginning in Pennsylvania yesterday, and woo those voters back to the Republican side. This ploy apparently failed.
Now, to save his own skin, Trump will have to cook up another scheme from the potential economic backlash of a possible trade war. Since Trump rarely has the nation's best interest at heart, my guess that Trump need to start a "hot" war....probably North Korea.
5
only one answer more billions in tax breaks ..
1
Trump is a narcissist who is more concerned about his image on CNN and Fox News than he is with the welfare of the US. He is not well spoken and doesn't begin to know how to act presidential. He never struck me as being particularly bright his claim to be a genius notwithstanding. His tariffs will end in disaster for US manufacturers of everything other than steel and aluminum. This in turn will translate into jobs lost.
2
I thought the tariffs were just to win the special election. Hopefully they will fade away like the voter fraud commission
1
A trade war, tax cuts that make no sense, insulting allies, ignoring Russia, threatening NK and a massive arms race, should finish us off. The Democrats slogan for 2020 should be "Make America Great Again."
3
I’m a pretty big liberal, but we have to do something about “free trade”.
How is it ok for China to demand technology transfers from American companies, and make a requirement that 51% be owned by a local Chinese player, but here in the America we sit by and do nothing?
I’m no fan of trump, but we need to begin doing something, otherwise we will lose our competiveness. China has far more to lose than the US in a trade war.
2
No doubt some astute adviser to Trump pointed out that Boeing is in Washington (he showed him where it is on a map), a state that Republicans also targeted in their flim flam tax bill. No meaningful Republican votes there, so let them sink along with as many blue states as possible.
3
We have a idiot making policy that does not think things through and does not listen to people who's job is to think things through, that is if those people haven't been replaced by his hairdresser's nephew.
12
We have seen the prestige and power of the United States diminish on the foreign affairs, environmental and military fronts. Now we see how Donald Trump is setting about harming this country on the economic front as well.
4
As Paul Krugman has been writing, the tariff policy is self-defeating for America in a variety of ways that will increasingly play-out as the president persists in applying tariffs as a weapon.
2
I love Paul Krugman, but he's just wrong about this.
The tariffs are a reaction to Chinese cheating. They've violated every trade rule on the books since they were allowed into the World Trade Organization 17 years ago.
One of the big problems is mentioned in this story: "But if China wanted to exact revenge on the United States through Boeing, it would be uniquely positioned to do so. The government has a significant stake in its national airlines and can easily direct them to cancel orders."
This is a communist country where the government owns industry. Just like the airlines, China owns many of its aluminum smelters and steel mills.
It provides them with free land, loans that don't have to be repaid and under-priced raw materials. That means the price of Chinese aluminum and steel sold on the international market is below production cost -- the definition of dumping -- a violation of trade laws it agreed to abide by.
In addition, China keeps producing steel and aluminum whether anyone needs the metal or not. That keeps its workers and local governments happy. But the excess metal is dumped on the international market, killing mills in the United States, Britain, Spain and elsewhere.
The United States -- and other nations-- have stood by like babies and let China kill off their domestic industries. Instead of capitulating, Trump is responding to China's trade war.
1
It couldn't happen to a better company. I'm Canadian, and Boing complained about our airplane manufacturer Bombardier, and wanted to have the U.S. government raise tariffs on Bombardier's airplane sells into the U.S.
Trouble was that Boeing didn't even make the kind of planes that they complained about regarding Bombardier.
"Reap what you sow"!
15
Yes, the irony is sweet.
3
Piecemeal measures, such as selective tariffs, are not going to solve OUR problem, which is a chronic, negative imbalance of trade. OUR probem is that we need, but do not yet have, a policy of BALANCED trade! We could have one. Grant our exporters $ trade credits that importers of goods and services must buy on a regulated exchange, before releasing equivalent $ to pay for imports. That targets no other country, and neither attacks nor defends any specific industry. It is not warfare. It is common sense spending of no more than we earn.
1
Trump is a moron. You should never ever put a tariff on a raw material because it makes every U.S. company that uses that raw material less competitive on the world stage. Further if countries like Mexico or Canada are exempt, they will just buy cheap steel or aluminum on the international market and trans ship it to the U.S. making a killing in the process. If you need to use tariffs to make a point you put the tariff on the offending countries finished products. This makes U.S. companies that make the finished product more competitive, and you use the tariff money to subsidize the U.S. steel and aluminum industry. Why do you think the EU is going to respond with tariffs on Harley Davidson's and orange juice? Finished products. Duh. Even a third grader can figure it out.
20
“There is this rippling effect where Boeing lays off people, and then the suppliers lay off people,” said Rajeev Lalwani, a Morgan Stanley analyst.
Exactly.
There are thousands of jobs at small and large manufacturing plants that survive on contracts from big companies like Boeing.
Reading that line reminds me of when Jimmy Carter cancelled the B1 bomber. There was this loud crashing sound that thundered through the machine shops throughout Los Angeles in 1977, companies contracted by Rockwell. That loud crashing noise was the sound of companies slamming their doors, out of business, the ripple effect. Different circumstances, the result of a cancelled defense project, but many in the aircraft industry remember that day well.
I'm still waiting for Trump to explain the "good" part of trade wars.
18
Donald was able to run the Trump (Airlines) Shuttle into the ground in 1992.
There's no reason he shouldn't be able to run Boeing into the ground in 2018.
49
Interesting points, but I don't think China will retaliate directly against Boeing quite yet. The steel and aluminum tariffs barely affect China at all, they're really damaging to our major allies instead. We get hardly any steel or aluminum from China, and while Trump doesn't know that, China knows it.
So they will probably make a token protest of putting a tariff on something specific to the U.S. but unimportant in China, like bourbon. I think they'd wait to nail Boeing until they were being really affected by Trump's trade war, no reason to deploy the big guns when they're not suffering at all.
17
Do you know why China exports precious little aluminum and steel to the United States.
TARIFFS!
There already are more than 100 tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum products based on their flagrant violation of international trade laws they agreed to abide by when they gained entrance into the World Trade Organization.
They don't need to "retaliate. they may just stop buyng US planes. Or US products in general
And so could the EU countries. And so could Mewico, and so could.
And according to Trump, " A tariff war is easy to win" but who will be the looser?
3
Not just China. Any national airline in a nation hurt by these tariffs can buy an Airbus.
28
China can't build entire aircraft, but they do manufacture major parts for Boeing planes. Boeing sources parts from around the world, as a strategy to sell planes.
They foreign customer now has companies that make a profit when the "national airline" of that county buys a Boeing plane.
If China stops or delays shipment of critical parts [in one case, the tail section of a jet liner] Boeing can't ship any planes until it find a replacement source, or builds it in-house.
9
"China can't build entire aircraft, but they do manufacture major parts for Boeing planes."
China does manufacturer jets by a company called Comac. The company has connections to the Canadian manufacturer Bombardier, for mutual cooperation for jet development.
If Chine does get more heavily into airplane manufacturer, then Boeing should be prepared for some interesting competition. We all know what has happened to all kinds of U.S. industries, when China put their mind to it!
Yes. It won't be too long before China builds all of its own jets. Then it will sell jets on the international market at prices artificially low because the manufacturing process is polluting, the workers are abused, and the industry is subsidized by the government.
(Sounds a lot like what is happening with Chinese steel and aluminum, huh?)
Then Boeing will ask for tariffs to prevent the Chinese planes from being sold in the United States.
And, frankly, they should get the tariffs if China continues to violate trade laws.
China has much to lose by escalating the trade war. They will simply brush aside the tariffs 9pay lip service), which have limited impact on their exports and allow other countries most affected to take the lead. They will kiss up to Trump (a time tested effective strategy) and hope he fades away or better still self destructs, as he eventually will.
3
Unfortunately the American voting public (or the Electoral College) elected a President in 2016 who is not a critical thinker and does not evaluate all the possibilities of an action before deciding. He makes his decisions based on his gut feeling. That is no way to run any business. Whether the tariffs announced by Trump are good or bad I really don't know. I do worry however that we have an undisciplined adolescent as the CEO of the U.S. government making decisions that affect millions, yet he knows so little about the possible ramifications of his decisions. This is no way to run a government.
60
Mr. Trump's thinking is so narrow that he cannot lift himself up 10,000 feet, let alone 50,000 feet when it comes to understanding macro-economics. He appears to believe China is the root of all that is bad about our economy and if he can fix that, he will be the superhuman who tamed China; endearing himself to his supporters for all time.
This tariff tactic is nothing more than that; a tactic to prove to his base that he is going to solve their woes by creating a trade war. He is so limited in his understanding in all of this is that his very supporters will lose jobs they so desperately wanted to maintain or gain.
No tax cuts can override the loss of a job. Mr. Trump apparently has failed to understand that simple political reality.
20
it was also interesting that the timing of his tariff announcement occurred just before the election in Pennsylvania. It doesn't look like it did him much good.
21
Trump's voter base is even less sophisticated that he is, they respond to jingles and sayings that have little basis in hard complex facts. After 50 years of brain drain in the Rust Belt and the South (to higher paying jobs on the coasts) we in America are in deep trouble, since these areas still have significant population and electoral college votes.
1
Just FYI, trump did not CREATE a trade war.
The trade war was begun by China in 2001 when it entered the World Trade Organization, pledged to abide by its trade rules, then proceeded to violate virtually every one of them.
Until now, the U.S. government has capitulated.
Now it is fighting back.
The steel and aluminum tariffs may be a small thing, but they and other actions Trump is taking based on his "America First" policies send a far bigger message to the world, namely that the US is no longer a reliable trading partner. No one knows where US politics is going, Trump plans to run for a second term, which would be 7 more years of this, too long for other countries to stand by and watch. New long term world trading patterns will develop leaving the US out of the loop. Boeing and many other US industries will likely be losers in this, as will American workers and consumers.
26
You are very confused about what is going on here.
It's not the U.S. that is the unreliable trading partner. That would be China.
What the United States is now saying is that it won't capitulate in China's trade war. It is going to fight back.
And just remember one thing, the United States is a massive market, to which many foreign producers long for access.
So why are the tariffs targeting the EU, Australia, Brazil, etc?
Oh don't be silly. China's entire economy is based on hacking companies for intellectual property and massively exporting cheap goods to Long Beach California. Somebody finally called them out on it. Big deal. Should have happened a long time ago.
The bigger question is how long do you think the US can afford a negative trade balance of $50 Billion per month. No matter how wealthy we once were, sooner or later, all our wealth will be gone. (And then the Chinese will have to find some other sucker to drain.)
2
"massively exporting cheap goods to Long Beach California"....So why is he putting a tariff on steel and aluminum? From dozens of examples we know Trump doesn't think very deeply, but that doesn't prevent other people from applying thought and reason.
This is a wonderful example of how ignorant and short-sighted some people are, these days. I'm going to ignore a statement as 'China's entire economy is based on hacking ...': that's ridiculous. Period. It's very, very easy to change that negative trade balance: just don't buy those cheap goods. Pay a bit more for non-Chinese goods. I do. Because of the un-democratic nature of the Chinese state and the horrific things they did in Tibet (which i saw with my own eyes in 1986), i have systematically avoided to buy Chinese-made merchandise. Granted, sometimes i had no choice, but that was not that often.
The US can afford a good trade deficit (the one Trump seems to focus on) nearly forever, as the US runs a massive trade surplus in services (from Florida tourism to Apple iTunes to computer services to movie rights) AND a massive surplus in investment income (from all those American subsidiaries overseas).
In fact, without the trade deficit in goods, the US dollar would rise, and that would kill both US exports and the tourism industry. Do you really want to have all those Wyoming hunting guides and Florida restaurant owners unemployed?
1
It is amazing that the president can simply announce tariffs with such huge consequences. Needless to say, this would not be possible in any other democracies. There is a need to revise the powers of the presidency and shift them to congress. It is about time somebody puts an end to this American carnage.
9
Those Wharton MBAs must be different from others.
14
I believe he has implied that he received an MBA there, but the truth is he was an undergrad in real estate economics. It appears that he learned how to use other people's money to enrich himself, but not much about economics.
4
Trump got a bachelor's degree in finance from Wharton, not an MBA. He graduated not at the top of his class as he proclaims and without honors.
http://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/02/what_is_trumps_real_record_at.html
1
It isn't just Russian money that goes into Trump's and GOP coffers.
3
blah blah blah
the Chinese and others have much more to lose than gain in a trade war. They have been dumping goods for decades.
The multi-national elite and foreign governments, with the complicity of American politicians have been impoverishing the American middle and working class for far too long.
Nearly half of American households have no net worth.
HRC was in India over the weekend.
Americans need to think like investors and think about their futures and the futures of their families, and stop acting like childish consumers.
2
Exactly. Thank you.
Invest in AirBus. The Chinese need to boycott Boeing.
7
The world have seen this film already: you put tariffs in one product, the affected country retaliates with other; so you add a new product and the affected country add other.....The game never ends
4
Killing off America's economy, one industry at a time.
33
I would add ...by saving dying industries.
Boeing ALONE has 174,000 employees.
More than the entire number employed in US steel production.
31
The numbers are meaningless.
How would you like to have a country unable to forge its own steel and smelt its own aluminum?
That's the question here.
U.S. mills and smelters are going bankrupt, closing, firing workers and decimating towns. The United States has only five smelters left and only two of them are running at full capacity. Only one makes military grade aluminum. Only one steel mill now makes military grade steel and one makes the steel essential for electrical transformers.
You gonna get that steel and aluminum from China if we're at war with China or North Korea? I wonder how that would work out for ya.
The reason for the great wave of bankruptcies is the surge over the past decade of deeply under-priced Chinese steel dumped on the international market. The steel is subsidized by the Chinese government in ways that violate international trade law. The U.S. and the E.U. have tried repeatedly to get China to stop subsidizing and overproducing, and it always says it will, and then it doesn't.
How would you solve that problem, John?
You need two things to smelt aluminium, bauxite and large quantities of cheap power. The US has little of both. Maybe the countries that have bauxite reserves should refuse to sell to the US.
“The likelihood of retaliation by their biggest single market, China, elevates this from an irritant to potentially disastrous, if not catastrophic,” said Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis at Teal Group Corporation, a consulting firm in Fairfax, Va. “A trade war is the simplest way to cut off this fantastic growth they have enjoyed.”
Trade wars have consequences and that's the part of the equation that Donald Trump doesn't understand because he follows his gut feelings. And they are always right, according to Navarro, his latest sycophant. But they are not.
What Trump feels in his guts has resulted in multiple bankruptcies and thousands upon thousands of lawsuits during his business days. That's not a business model the US Government should follow, and Boeing is a gem that should not be so stupidly put at risk. It's time for the grownups to stand and be heard.
40
The fixation of transnational USA businesses with quarterly results leads always to their support of any politician pandering to their greediness. Boeing, amongst others, salivated at the prospect of Trump-Pence-GOP victory, and their desire has been met. Now, as T-P-GOP begin a trade war and embark on the crusade to destroy the nuclear deal with Iran, Boeing stands to lose a few billion in total sales - USA jobs will be lost from Boeing through their supply chain and the greedy executives will lose their juicy bonuses. More important, the entire USA will suffer.
6
Boeing's contributions went heavily D in 2016. Check Open Secrets.
Perhaps you should read again 'Open Secrets'? Clearly this website states $855K to Democrats vs. $1,084K to Republicans, and looking more into this document one finds these are individual contributions; not listing executive or corporate donations. Historically, the big 3 transnational corporations based in the Seattle metro region contribute about equally to both parties, with small favor towards GOP.
Boeing has made a name for itself in unfair trade dealings. It launched a trade dispute process against Canada for unfair trade practices in subsidizing the Bombardier C Series planes, claiming high damages. However, Boeing does not make a 100-seat aircraft that competes with Bombardier's plane, and was unable to prove any harm against Bombardier. In fact it lost its complaint before the US International Trade Commission, which agreed with Canada that no harm had been done to Boeing.
In retaliation, however, for creating this baseless trade dispute, Canada announced it would no longer consider Boeing as a supplier for a contract worth between $15 and $20 billion for fighter jets. How many potential jobs did this action cost Boeing?
Similar retaliatory action may be repeated by other countries as the US considers ending many free trade relationships, and wants to add tariffs on some trade items while not tariffing goods in which it enjoys an advantage. Boeing would be an attractive target by Europe, as applying a 300% tariff on airplanes and parts from Boeing would not harm Europe whatsoever. But would be devastating to the US aircraft manufacturing industry.
You can not demand free trade only for the products that your country enjoys a trading advantage.
35
National Security and Dumping
Getting hooked on foreign steel, aluminum, and other strategic materials puts national security at risk.
Tariffs are justified when countries dump these materials in the US at below cost. I would like to see the FULL cost to supply aluminum and steel. Example for overseas suppliers: The full cost would include production, transportation to shipping port, shipping port handling, ocean shipping, destination port handling, USA domestic shipping to final destination.
Dumping: "In economics, is a kind of predatory pricing, especially in the context of international trade. It occurs when manufacturers export a product to another country at a price below the normal price. The objective of dumping is to increase market share in a foreign market by driving out competition and thereby create a monopoly situation where the exporter will be able to unilaterally dictate price and quality of the product."
But why put a tariff on raw materials which will make all U.S. products that use aluminum and steel less competitive on the world stage? Why not put the tariffs on finished products produced by the offending country? Its dumb.
So if the product is produced in a country with free markets, and sold at the same price to US customers as to other customers, then it is not dumped.
Oddly enough, that is exactly the case with most of the aluminum and steel that the US imports, as it is imported on the free market from free market countries.
Dumping is exceedingly rare these days. The Chinese have discovered that it costs too much to provide the subsidies to allow dumping, and they are only the 8th largest supplier of steel and aluminum to the US anyway.
National security as a worry only comes in if you think that the US is likely to go to war with one of its major suppliers of aluminum and steel. Exactly how likely is the US to go to war with Canada, or Sweden, or Brazil?
1
You do realize that bauxite, which is used to make aluminium, is found in very low quantities in the US. Maybe the countries that have large reserves in bauxite should start smelting all their bauxite and thus leave none for the American smelters. Make Guinea, Australia, Vietnam, Jamaica, Brazil, Guyana, India, China, Greece and Iran Great Again! How do you like them apples?
1
Does anyone actually believe the average Chinese citizen wakes up in the morning and says: "I'm going to think about the efficient means of production in the world today." The Chinese like winning at trade and understand zero sum perfectly. How else does one explain China's demand that Chinese workers be included in bids on foreign projects? Why the everything 'made in China 2025' initiative? And why China's huge public debt?
We wait until our trading system is on the verge of collapse before allowing central banks to swallow vast amounts of toxic waste from the financial community and ride to the rescue with asymmetrical monetary bailouts. China is smart and industrious. And poised to dominate.
The West believes in comparative advantage because, evidently, anti-trust laws are too cumbersome to enforce, and we locals can't be relied upon to produce in a trustworthy way. Meanwhile, every western nation has a fiscal system so obscure and opaque, it's a challenge to understand if a country is competitive or is competing from a system of hidden taxes, tariffs and duties.
End the fiscal race to the bottom. Navarro is the right man for the time. America first.
1
Trump imposed tariffs for a few votes in the Pennsylvania 18th Congressional District Special Election. The tariffs lacks strategy as the small gains in Pennsylvania are more than offset elsewhere.
5
Economists estimate 6 jobs lost in the broader economy for every potential job gained in steel production
trump loves to brag about his undergrad degree his dad bought from Wharton. He must have slept through...well, everything. But especially econ.
There is a reason that Wharton's newspaper and Wesleyan's paper joined to have a co-endorsement of the woman we the people elected in 2016.
15
With 65,829 employees in Washington State, dominated by a diverse work force represented by both a machinist union and engineers union, Trump could visit the Everett plant and answer questions about how tax cuts and tariffs make Boeing more competitive.
23
Tax cuts, etc., are worthless without sales. What Trump giveth with one hand he taketh away with the other hand. Let's all be clear, Trump-Pence-GOP are simply shilling for the top few percent in our Country; thereby making our Country another banana republic where power and money is concentrated in the top 1-2%.
14
I would imagine Airbus management is giddy with excitement over the tariff that could have serious ramifications for Boeing world sales.
This is just one more example of the individual who sits in the oval office being more interested in the show than the details or consequences of his actions. The decision to make the "Big Splash" and meet with Kim Jung Un without any preliminary groundwork is another prime example of look at me folks, aren't I great?
75
It's very sad that the Champion of free trade - the US, i mean - gives up as soon as they see that such a principle works sometimes against them. Then, all of sudden, free trade is no good anymore. On the other hand, it is one of the few things that Mr. Trump has done that i am happy about: a trade war will inevitably slow down the economy world-wide. That's good news for the climate: the warming-up will slow down, hopefully, even diminish. So, at the end of the day, thank you, Mr. Trump, the Climate owes you one.
4
Technically, it isn't the US, it is the US in the form of one person. The affect may be the same so possibly a distinction without a difference. But an important one none the less.
3