Category: Trade

Trump’s tariff and trade deficit rants

Trump lies about the trade deficit.  It’s $566 billion, not the $800 billion Trump says because he won’t count the US surplus on services.

Has it ever occurred to him that we spend more money on other countries products and services than they spend on ours because we have more money?

Trump exaggerates the impact of NAFTA and won’t acknowledge that the US has a trade surplus with Canada.  His tariffs on aluminum and steel are likely to cost more jobs than they add.  Sad!

 

Tariffs would have bad consequences

A roundup of articles on the potential negative effects of the US and Chinese tariffs on American businesses and workers.

Winemakers who sell to China will be hurt. China is the fifth biggest market for exported wines.

China’s retaliatory tariffs will affect agricultural areas that voted for Trump.

China’s tariffs will affect luxury cars made in the US (though the auto companies are mostly foreign).

Tariffs against companies such as soybean producers could hurt Republicans in the 2018 elections.

Another article on soybeans

On the other hand, people in Minnesota’s mining country approve of the tariffs.

Tariffs on machinery imported from China could affect the manufacturing of goods in the US that use those machines.

The potential impact on the price of large TVs

The tariffs will raise prices for consumers who depend on the big-box stores for cheap goods.  According to the column, “You think we have anger and resentment now in parts of the country where the factories have shuttered and the banks are closing and families are coming unglued? Try raising prices on imported toys and cellphones and barbecues, just enough so that American families living on the edge of solvency can’t make the numbers work anymore.”

Why tariffs on China won’t work.

Trump advisers have connections to steel companies that will benefit from tariffs.