The best reciprocal rate for tariffs on imports for everyone is zero. Like so many things government does, tariffs hurt consumers. They drive up the prices of domestic products and reduce choices.
This is my response to a person who thinks we should not challenge other country’s tariffs on our exports:
“I don’t know where you live, but I am a Midwesterner who grew up in a town devastated by our factories shutting down as the production was sent overseas. I sense you don’t care about that but I do. Trump was wrong to conflate tariffs and the balance of trade deficit the way he did but they are related. We buy cheap Chinese goods (I am certainly guilty) and we send IOU’s to China in return. China is using those IOU’s to buy up our farmland and our skyscrapers. The very essence of our country’s strength going to a potential enemy, while our own capacity to produce the weapons we need to defend ourselves decays. Are you blind to what has happened and is happening? It must change and although I didn’t vote for Trump, I do support his attempts to bring back some of our lost manufacturing to our country. Do you know of a better way to do that?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcw3Z3vMqWw I'll go with Milton Friedman and Bastiat and others -- tariffs are never good. Not for the tariffed or the tariffee. Tariffs take away consumer choices, drive up consumer prices and protect/enrich/privilege existing companies in ways that are unfair to other businesses. That's why tariffs should be zero. As we see with Trump, they are just political weapons or crude tools that usually are employed to help favored domestic producers that cretinous politicians in DC want to please. I'm not blind. I'm from Pittsburgh, capital of the Rust Belt, and live now in WVa in the industrial ruins of what's left of the northern Ohio River valley. I care when factories and mills close, but even with the protection of steel tariffs, Pittsburgh's mighty (ex)signature industry was doomed to shrinking and shuttering. It took WWII to give the steel industry here an extra 20 years of life. Factories open and close for many reasons, domestic and foreign. No one said capitalism was nice. When it's free, it's terribly creative and terribly destructive, constantly. Politicians and unions screwed up a lot of economic things in the last 50 years. I don't pretend to know 'a better way' to bring back our lost manufacturing or if even needs to come back. We make more stuff now with fewer people than we ever did, thanks to innovations, high tech and automation -- just like we grow much more food (albeit, not always good food) with about 97 percent fewer farmers than we had 200 years go. Tariffs might turn out to be a useful negotiating tool for Trump. Maybe he'll get global tariffs to average zero, which would be a good thing for everyone. But tariffs shouldn't be used to bring Maytag factories back to Iowa from Mexico or widget companies back to Pennsylvania. Staying out of wars in every corner of the planet, trading with everyone, minding our own business overseas, being a shining example of political and economic freedom (hah) should be our policies, not bureaucratic cat fights over tariff rates.
bill: I certainly agree with you that all tariffs should be eliminated. Hopefully that might actually result from Trump’s crude blackmail. We shall see.
This is my response to a person (not anyone in this thread) who thinks we should not challenge other country’s tariffs on our exports:
“I don’t know where you live, but I am a Midwesterner who grew up in a town devastated by our factories shutting down as the production was sent overseas. I sense you don’t care about that but I do. Trump was wrong to conflate tariffs and the balance of trade deficit the way he did but they are related. We buy cheap Chinese goods (I am certainly guilty) and we send IOU’s to China in return. China is using those IOU’s to buy up our farmland and our skyscrapers. The very essence of our country’s strength going to a potential enemy, while our own capacity to produce the weapons we need to defend ourselves decays. Are you blind to what has happened and is happening? It must change and although I didn’t vote for Trump, I do support his attempts to bring back some of our lost manufacturing to our country. Do you know of a better way to do that?”
It’s not just tarrifs, there are also non-tariff trade barriers to be reckoned with, and of course, the UAW would LOVE it if their members were making $220k/year, which is why they’re running around with MAGA hats as Trump co-opts what used to be a Democrat working class agenda.
Amen, amen, amen.
This is my response to a person who thinks we should not challenge other country’s tariffs on our exports:
“I don’t know where you live, but I am a Midwesterner who grew up in a town devastated by our factories shutting down as the production was sent overseas. I sense you don’t care about that but I do. Trump was wrong to conflate tariffs and the balance of trade deficit the way he did but they are related. We buy cheap Chinese goods (I am certainly guilty) and we send IOU’s to China in return. China is using those IOU’s to buy up our farmland and our skyscrapers. The very essence of our country’s strength going to a potential enemy, while our own capacity to produce the weapons we need to defend ourselves decays. Are you blind to what has happened and is happening? It must change and although I didn’t vote for Trump, I do support his attempts to bring back some of our lost manufacturing to our country. Do you know of a better way to do that?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcw3Z3vMqWw I'll go with Milton Friedman and Bastiat and others -- tariffs are never good. Not for the tariffed or the tariffee. Tariffs take away consumer choices, drive up consumer prices and protect/enrich/privilege existing companies in ways that are unfair to other businesses. That's why tariffs should be zero. As we see with Trump, they are just political weapons or crude tools that usually are employed to help favored domestic producers that cretinous politicians in DC want to please. I'm not blind. I'm from Pittsburgh, capital of the Rust Belt, and live now in WVa in the industrial ruins of what's left of the northern Ohio River valley. I care when factories and mills close, but even with the protection of steel tariffs, Pittsburgh's mighty (ex)signature industry was doomed to shrinking and shuttering. It took WWII to give the steel industry here an extra 20 years of life. Factories open and close for many reasons, domestic and foreign. No one said capitalism was nice. When it's free, it's terribly creative and terribly destructive, constantly. Politicians and unions screwed up a lot of economic things in the last 50 years. I don't pretend to know 'a better way' to bring back our lost manufacturing or if even needs to come back. We make more stuff now with fewer people than we ever did, thanks to innovations, high tech and automation -- just like we grow much more food (albeit, not always good food) with about 97 percent fewer farmers than we had 200 years go. Tariffs might turn out to be a useful negotiating tool for Trump. Maybe he'll get global tariffs to average zero, which would be a good thing for everyone. But tariffs shouldn't be used to bring Maytag factories back to Iowa from Mexico or widget companies back to Pennsylvania. Staying out of wars in every corner of the planet, trading with everyone, minding our own business overseas, being a shining example of political and economic freedom (hah) should be our policies, not bureaucratic cat fights over tariff rates.
bill: I certainly agree with you that all tariffs should be eliminated. Hopefully that might actually result from Trump’s crude blackmail. We shall see.
This is my response to a person (not anyone in this thread) who thinks we should not challenge other country’s tariffs on our exports:
“I don’t know where you live, but I am a Midwesterner who grew up in a town devastated by our factories shutting down as the production was sent overseas. I sense you don’t care about that but I do. Trump was wrong to conflate tariffs and the balance of trade deficit the way he did but they are related. We buy cheap Chinese goods (I am certainly guilty) and we send IOU’s to China in return. China is using those IOU’s to buy up our farmland and our skyscrapers. The very essence of our country’s strength going to a potential enemy, while our own capacity to produce the weapons we need to defend ourselves decays. Are you blind to what has happened and is happening? It must change and although I didn’t vote for Trump, I do support his attempts to bring back some of our lost manufacturing to our country. Do you know of a better way to do that?”
I agree.
It’s not just tarrifs, there are also non-tariff trade barriers to be reckoned with, and of course, the UAW would LOVE it if their members were making $220k/year, which is why they’re running around with MAGA hats as Trump co-opts what used to be a Democrat working class agenda.