Tariff update 3/26/19

Trump tariffs costing Americans $1.4 billion a month, have "no impact" on foreign exporters https://t.co/O5AO6StAje
— Salon (@Salon) March 26, 2019

So it looks like Trump may have gotten his aluminum prices mixed up. According to metals ace @JoeDeaux Trump appears to have quoted global (LME) prices. The picture for US domestic buyers is, er, a little different… https://t.co/QS1czt379b
— Shawn Donnan (@sdonnan) March 8, 2019

‘A punch in the gut’: Farmers hit by tariffs see crops swept away by flood. Great to work w the insightful ⁦@anniegowen⁩ on this story. https://t.co/1hLGDQP4Wg
— FrancesSteadSellers (@FrancesSSellers) March 23, 2019

"To put a $1.2 billion loss into perspective, every person in the state of Nebraska would need to contribute $632 to cover that volume of lost dollars [from Trump's tariffs]."

– Jay Rempe, Nebraska Farm Bureau, senior economist.@highbrow_nobrow https://t.co/rEOOhn6gMg
— Cheri Jacobus (@CheriJacobus) February 17, 2019

High % https://t.co/yeVWjK9rHN
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) February 23, 2019

China trade talks are pushed back as tariffs continue to bite https://t.co/bTBFyf1Ubv via ⁦@nytimes⁩
— Ana Swanson (@AnaSwanson) March 17, 2019

It's been a full year since President Donald Trump claimed his trade war would be "good and easy to win." Now, the data strongly suggest otherwise.https://t.co/zRlFeWzcvG
— Eric Boehm (@EricBoehm87) March 5, 2019

“The concern is that a deal could end up seeing only a short-term increase in Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural and energy products.” https://t.co/cBa6sf6MUK
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) February 24, 2019

See? Wasn't all that worth wrecking the rules-based trading system? https://t.co/l0WUJG0KCe
— Paul Blustein (@PaulBlustein) February 23, 2019

New #FactChecker –> Trump’s repeated claim that China is paying ‘billions’ in tariffs to the Treasury https://t.co/MwZD8dVPOO
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) February 22, 2019

American consumers are paying the costs of tariffs

Trump either lies or misunderstands tariffs. The American public is paying the costs.

New study from economists at NYFed, Princeton, & Columbia: "using standard economic methods, we find that the full incidence of [Trump's tariff policy] falls on domestic consumers, with a reduction in U.S. real income of $1.4B per month by the end of 2018" https://t.co/MPoSJTGipQ pic.twitter.com/4Xgfuzu8yb
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) March 2, 2019

Another just-updated trade war paper by leading economists also finds 100% pass-through of US tariffs to consumer prices, slightly smaller DWL https://t.co/aG3b4gZ3Gh HT: @tylercowen pic.twitter.com/T6gctJUUwu
— Douglas Irwin (@D_A_Irwin) March 4, 2019

Why, it's almost as if tariffs not only impose immense economic costs but also fail to achieve their primary policy aims and foster political dysfunction along the way. https://t.co/1gNVSG69hN
— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) March 5, 2019

Yep. But honestly China’s slowdown would have happened anyway. And this still would’ve generated a similar trend in results. The bigger lesson is that a structural readjustment of the US-China trade balance requires far more than silver bullet mega purchases of soybeans https://t.co/I4Hp2ByEwN
— Steve Clemons (@SCClemons) March 7, 2019

Trump doesn’t understand MOUs

Trump doesn’t understand that MOUs are binding.

Robert Lighthizer had to explain a memo of understanding to Trump in front of Chinese Vice Premier Liu He.

Trump: "They don't mean anything." RL: "It's a legal term. It's a contract."
Trump: "By the way I disagree."

The Vice Premier laughed out loud. https://t.co/kqF0yM7eJx
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 23, 2019

Reminiscent of telling Mulvaney he effed it all up during spending bill negotiations for wall money…there can only be one chief negotiator, and he sits behind the Resolute Desk https://t.co/s4yI143Qq7
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) February 24, 2019

Amazing. In front of Chinese VP, Trump declares the MOU meaningless. Lighthizer, seeing the havoc this statement could wreak, corrects him. But Trump repeats that it's meaningless. So Lighthizer changes his words to appease the toddler. See last 5 minutes: https://t.co/cE6O0kiScK https://t.co/UKkGEGooym
— Will Saletan (@saletan) February 23, 2019

Trump either lies about tariffs or doesn’t understand them

I don’t care which it is. Either way is bad. Tariffs are being paid by American businesses and consumers. This has been pointed out many times before so I think he’s just lying.

China is paying the U.S. zero dollars in tariffs. Zero. https://t.co/3dhfdkcAy8
— Ben White (@morningmoneyben) February 17, 2019

If Trump still think that China pays the tariffs, this must be a helluva briefing session https://t.co/IkdArEdXtr
— Matthew Waxman (@mattwaxman1) February 17, 2019

How Tariffs Work, and Why China Won’t See a Bill https://t.co/44W7eIB0u2
— Executive-Time Bong Hits (@jerweber) February 16, 2019

No, actually the billions are not being paid by China. They’re being paid by American consumers. Tariffs are paid by consumers, not by countries. They’ve a tax on imports. https://t.co/KrXYbH7o5C
— Bob Rae (@BobRae48) February 17, 2019

China raised equal trade tariffs on the United States. It’s a zero sum game, well minus an increase in the cost of manufactured goods that require steel and aluminum for American consumers and the pain being caused to farmers.
— James Kosur (@JamesKosur) February 17, 2019

You really don’t understand how all of this works. There isn’t a big bucket of money China hands over called tariffs. TARIFFS ARE TAXES PASSED ON TO THE CONSUMER MEANING WE PAY MORE FOR THAT PRODUCT. For tonight’s Executive Time activity, play with a Boston Tea Party legos. pic.twitter.com/chaGXeWHRD
— Melissa (@melissadawes) February 17, 2019

So it looks like Trump may have gotten his aluminum prices mixed up. According to metals ace @JoeDeaux Trump appears to have quoted global (LME) prices. The picture for US domestic buyers is, er, a little different… https://t.co/QS1czt379b
— Shawn Donnan (@sdonnan) March 8, 2019

Trump lies about tariffs

Does he even understand how they work? US businesses and consumers pay the tariffs when they buy the foreign goods.

“We recently imposed tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods — and now our treasury is receiving billions of dollars,” Trump said at the #SOTU. True, but he neglected to mention that the money mostly comes from U.S. businesses and consumers. #APFactCheck https://t.co/yqTn4QRHpe
— AP Fact Check (@APFactCheck) February 6, 2019

Tariff update 1/29/19

Domestic manufacturers like Whirlpool had hoped that President Trump's tariffs on washing machines would help them. It hasn't worked out that way. https://t.co/n7uq7jH2Mi

— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 26, 2019

60 Second Fact Check: Is America actually getting rich off President Trump's tariffs as he claims? https://t.co/Xbhy2v4WLF

— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 9, 2019

China imported no US soybeans in November

This is what Trump’s trade policies get us. He’s not making good deals – he’s harming US businesses.

The U.S. soybean stockpile is growing and that's an issue https://t.co/Az6fCqEhZR by @adrianambells pic.twitter.com/CfLdvOyLT9

— Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) December 29, 2018

Quitting TPP was stupid for so many reasons. Gave all other members a competitive advantage over the US, as this recent news shows.
But biggest giveaway was geopolitical. Imagine how much stronger US position would be if confronting China as head of a large bloc rather than alone https://t.co/nn0VrGULhd

— Nicholas Grossman (@NGrossman81) December 30, 2018

And because trump threw out TPP which went ahead without us, exports for farmers in Canada and Australia are booming. Yep, trump sure does care about his constituents in the farm belt. Their customers are never coming back. https://t.co/NZQqshESo1

— Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean) December 29, 2018

This is monumentally bad news for American agriculture and there is no public subsidy that can fix it. https://t.co/v9k1SbmwmY

— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) December 30, 2018

One of the only GOP House pickups was in Minnesota’s 1st District, home to many soybean farmers, who voted to support the party enabling the trade war threatening their livelihoods. GOP attack ads focused on the patriotism of the Democrat—a veteran who served two tours in Iraq. https://t.co/qD6mh8pxHZ

— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) December 29, 2018

China's soybean imports from the US plunged to zero in November, marking the first time since the trade war between the world's two largest economies started that China, the world's largest soybean buyer, has imported no U.S. supplies. https://t.co/CS5AIB9gpM

— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 29, 2018

Trump tariff update 12/25/18

more bad news

Trump's steel tariffs create big profits but few new jobs https://t.co/DD46AOfIRv pic.twitter.com/66AMr5x0yI

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) November 13, 2018

"Instead, Trump hit Britain, as well as other trade partners, with steel and aluminum tariffs in the summer of 2018—and then threatened a follow-on strike against autos, an important British export to the U.S." https://t.co/s83f1ptO30

— Scott Lincicome (@scottlincicome) November 16, 2018

I think we need to consider the possibility that maybe, just maybe, Donald Trump does not fully understand the nuances of trade policy. pic.twitter.com/ZqIDmlRgBC

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) December 4, 2018

It’s unclear what the president wants to accomplish with tariffs. He may not even understand how they work. The latest from @AnnieLowrey: https://t.co/db49IChwmB

— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) December 9, 2018

This is what Trump has given the American people: ‘Another damned Trump lie’: Iowa machinist unloads on president after his factory shuts down before Christmas https://t.co/HnVIxN1Trj #TrumpResign

— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) December 21, 2018

Sure there’s more tax revenue but consumers bear the brunt of the tariff when they pay more for imports.

On Tuesday, Navarro said the US had collected $7 billion from new tariffs. https://t.co/Op4VlcByq2

— Alan Rappeport (@arappeport) December 7, 2018

Trump said China had agreed to end auto tariffs. They haven't. The president and his administration have rattled markets — and at times each other — with muddled and contradicted messaging since returning home, while Trump trumpets success. Our latest: https://t.co/WR0eNK0pGf

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) December 5, 2018

"China imports zero U.S. soybeans in November for first time since trade war started" https://t.co/99TdEySkjz

— Scott Lincicome (@scottlincicome) December 24, 2018

Trump apparently doesn’t understand tariffs

Tariff Man!

New York Times ridicules Trump for surrendering on tariffs after he boasted trade wars are ‘easy to win’ https://t.co/X6eDXWvSlZ

— Raw Story (@RawStory) December 4, 2018

Causing the stock market to tank with bad tweets is Tariff Man's superpower pic.twitter.com/duvqiKE1SW

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 4, 2018

Check out how Tariff Man just trashed your 401k pic.twitter.com/HNgDBoxIvQ

— Mark Follman (@markfollman) December 4, 2018

I'm sorry, Mr. President, but you got this wrong. Tariffs are paid by American consumers. They raise the prices of many things we buy. They function exactly like taxes. So you have in effect raised taxes on most Americans. You have made Americans poorer. https://t.co/ZT60nabLTc

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) December 4, 2018

Trade policy was supposed to be Trump's signature issue. But he has never grasped even the basic fact that consumers, not foreigners, pay tariffs 1/ pic.twitter.com/RGUUDE1VBw

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 4, 2018

And even if there were a deal on autos, it would cut tariffs for all exporters to China, meaning most of the benefits would not go to the US. This is not optional: Most Favored Nation status is integral to the WTO 3/ https://t.co/Q3XB5K6za1

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 4, 2018

Reminder: the “billions” in tariffs is a pittance to the US Treasury but a new tax on American consumers. https://t.co/efRws0umkb

— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) December 4, 2018

Local Tariff Man Still Doesn't Appear To Understand Foreign Countries Don't Pay His Tariffs, Americans Do pic.twitter.com/4SFvd94JgD

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 4, 2018

update 12/4/18

The Dow dropped 800 points today, and investors are racing into the shelter of long-term bonds. Trump's economic illiteracy isn't the only culprit, nor are his trade wars, but both are helping push our economy over the ledge. https://t.co/ZT60nabLTc

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) December 4, 2018

Massive staff reductions at General Motors

Looks like they were partly caused by Trump’s tariffs. Now he is threatening GM.

Is Trump to blame for GM’s 15,000 layoffs? https://t.co/stjSGKAeMf pic.twitter.com/dp50dIbRxG

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) November 26, 2018

from the article:

GM may have been forced to restructure to accommodate a changing market regardless of whether Trump instituted tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, but the effect these tariffs — and the threat of potential tariffs on all imported automobiles — exacerbated the pressure to do so. GM announced on Monday that Trump’s tariffs have cost the company $1 billion, and that while they are not directly responsible for the layoffs, they are among the “headwinds,” as Barra put it on a conference call, that the company is facing as it struggles to remain profitable.

Donald Trump never cared about the men and women who build cars in places like Michigan and Ohio. He lied to them. He made promises he could not keep. Now, the plants are closing and the workers are looking at the prospect of a future without work. ⁦ https://t.co/vsTlaflgEv

— John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) November 26, 2018

“If I’m elected you won’t lose one plant, you’ll have plants coming into this country, you’re going to have jobs again, you won’t lose one plant, I promise you that.”
— Donald Trump addressing MI autoworkers 2016

5 plants to close, 14K layoffs
— GM 2018 https://t.co/jZ779dXdCg

— John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) November 26, 2018

In June, General Motors warned of the "fallout within the auto industry" from the @realDonaldTrump tariffs.

GM also said the tariffs "risked 'undermining GM’s competitiveness against foreign auto producers by erecting broad brush trade barriers that increase our global costs.'” https://t.co/5ULO3Ipbau

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) November 26, 2018

How the GM layoffs rank among the auto industry’s biggest job cuts: https://t.co/wJQd29jrHD pic.twitter.com/uxP4URS0gf

— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) November 26, 2018

President Trump's economic moves fail to prevent GM closures https://t.co/SJBQfCP1n3 pic.twitter.com/a93EqHEGFY

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) November 27, 2018

Trump blasts GM for plans to close Ohio factory: “You’re playing around with the wrong person” https://t.co/tp4FxUlYu9 pic.twitter.com/GLpeTci5tu

— The Hill (@thehill) November 26, 2018

The GM layoffs are another victory for capital over laborhttps://t.co/xOMd23XBgm pic.twitter.com/ojDKqXjnpY

— Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) November 26, 2018

General Motors plans to halt production at 3 assembly plants in Canada, Ohio, and Michigan by not allocating new products, Reuters reports.

Cost pressures have increased. GM also has said Trump-imposed tariffs on imported steel have cost it $1 billion.https://t.co/h2Bzl0DlAM

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 26, 2018

Remember the conservative freakout about Obama's "gangster government" for bailing out GM? Since then, Republicans elected an almost literal mob boss. Today he threatened GM not to screw up a swing state for him: https://t.co/IJVx5PVpVi

— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) November 26, 2018

General Motors plans to halt production at 3 assembly plants in Canada, Ohio, and Michigan by not allocating new products, Reuters reports.

Cost pressures have increased. GM also has said Trump-imposed tariffs on imported steel have cost it $1 billion.https://t.co/h2Bzl0DlAM

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 26, 2018