My Proposal and Thoughts on Import Duties and Reindustrialization [from late 2016, reposted]

I believe we should abandon (officially denounce) trade treaties and go to a generally duty/barter-based system which would be updated from time to time by the Congress.

Congress should try to steer global trade into a generally financially balanced system with some exemptions for consumer friendly producers.

My proposal allows low-income countries to earn US dollars to pay for American drugs and other necessities.

In brief:
1. financially balanced trade in motor vehicles and their parts, with cheap electric car exemptions until January 2024
2. US-only for building supplies, except lumber, plywood and natural stone
3. consumer electronics with exemptions effectively slashing duty on lower cost items
4. low-cost garments duty-free
5. free trade in software, aircraft, many services
6. energy, coffee beans, cocoa, industrial/agricultural chemicals and solar stuff duty-free
7. somewhat lower duty on sugar

1. "FINANCIALLY BALANCED" MOTOR VEHICLE TRADE
Any motorized "road" vehicle first delivered to a US consumer on or after January 1, 2020 and able to travel faster than 20 mph on a road should
have US manufacture except for:
a. ore extraction and transport
b. integrated circuit chips
c. software
d. parts made under a US government/foreign government or company motor vehicle part trade agreement that is not out of financial balance by more than 5% of US exports under it
e. other components with a clearly known market value/cost basis that are less than 2% of the vehicle's price in total value
f. until January 2024, electric cars with at least two enclosed seats that can each comfortably hold a 200-pound adult selling to the consumer for less than $10,000 or the price of seven ounces of gold
I. without CO2-producing motors
II. with batteries normally good for at least 100 miles of 60 mph test track travel per charge with at least a 5-year/100,000 mile guarantee
g. until January 2024, electric cars with at least four enclosed seats that can each comfortably hold a 200-pound adult selling to the consumer for less than $12,000 or the price of nine ounces of gold
I. without CO2-producing motors
II. with batteries normally good for at least 90 miles of 60 mph test track travel per charge with at least a 5-year/90,000 mile guarantee

2. BUILDING INDUSTRY ITEMS
Any item historically/typically used by contractors for new construction (prior to receiving a certificate of occupancy) incorporated into a US building on or after December 31, 2019
or offered for sale in the USA after that date shall have US manufacture except for:
a. ore extraction and transport
b. wood for exposed use with no readily available US harvested equivalent
c. imported softwood lumber costing more than $1/board foot
d. imported hardwood lumber costing more than $3.50/board foot
e. wood harvested (and processed into lumber/plywood) with due respect for the environment (and nearby people):
I. from private land or from public land upon which a fiduciarily reasonable or multi-bidder competitive auction royalty has been paid
?II. for use in "affordable" housing required under state/local law when individually marked in 72-point or larger type: affordable housing use only
f. natural stone for exposed use
g. in the years after 2023, fundamentally essential items of a type/types that the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development believes:
I. will not be available in a reasonable timeframe at typical cost from any US source due to US domestic industrial labor action, upon which a 40% or greater duty has been paid to the US government]
h. in the years 2020 and 2021, imported items upon which a 30% or greater duty has been paid to the US government
i. in the years 2022 and 2023, imported items upon which a 40% or greater duty has been paid to the US government
?j. in the years after 2023, imported items upon which a duty three times [~15% in a housing boom to sometimes ~36% in a bad recession] the last released official US household unemployment rate [~5% to sometimes ~12%] has been paid
when the import of the class of items has been authorized by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
[to prevent domestic supplier pricing abuse]
?k. the following low-priced/good value items: A. bath faucets of chrome-plated brass...$10 plus a material cost allowance....

In the event a duty under this section has not already been paid to the US government, a 100% duty shall be due and payable to the building inspector for his/her use and the building inspector may lien the property at the contractor's (or owner's cost) until paid.]

3. CERTAIN CAPITAL EQUIPMENT, TEXTBOOKS, AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS, SERVICES and DRUGS
The duty on the following products and services:
a. software
b. integrated circuits, except image sensors
c. aircraft and aircraft components
d. wheeled/tracked construction equipment
e. machine tools
f. textbooks lent, leased or sold without:
I. any form whatsoever of national or regional discrimination as to wholesale supplier pricing (except for competitive common carrier transport costs)
II. any restriction on resale
g. fabric and artificial fibers
h. cotton and wool
i. fresh produce, except grapes having a wholesale value of over $2/pound
j. unfermented juice concentrates, except from grapes having a wholesale value of over $2/pound
k. canned vegetables/fruits, except grapes having a wholesale value of over $2/pound
l. financial services
m. insurance services
n. accounting, auditing and tax-related services
o. legal services
p. medical image reading with a per patient payment contract limit not exceeding $20
q. telecommunication-based psychiatric consults with contract limitations of:
I. 50 cents/minute maximum
II. 60 minutes/day maximum chargeable
III. 120 minutes maximum per contract
IV. unused paid-for minutes to carry over to contract renewals
r. FDA regulated within drug class prescription rewrites for a patient with a per patient service payment contract/daily limit not exceeding $10
s. FDA approved drugs sold after March 1, 2017 without national, racial, ethnic, gender discrimination as to pricing, except:
I. discounting to impoverished nations or health (financial payment) systems/organizations for aboriginal people, people in below national average income groups or armed forces veterans
II. product liability premium amounts due/paid to truly independent insurance companies

shall be:
A. the rate fixed by a US/foreign government agreement with respect to the item
B. the highest duty levied within the prior twelve months on American items of the same class by any country substantially involved in making the item imported.
C. 0% if substantial (primarily) American-made items of the same class were imported within the past three years [seven years with respect to aircraft] without duty by all countries substantially involved in making the item imported.
D. 40% otherwise

For the purposes of this section:
a. countries merely supplying (minimally processed) raw material shall not be considered to be involved in making the product
b. substantial involved shall mean contributing at least 5% of the value

"Out-of-state" gambling services of all types and financial services against any consumer protection law of the state where the consumer (officially) resides shall not be permitted.

4. FUEL, FERTILIZER and ENERGY for our economy, consumers and farmers
There shall be no duty placed on:
a. crude oil
b. coal
c. (compressed) natural gas
d. industrial/agricultural petrochemicals
e. industrial/agricultural chemicals (made) from coal tar or natural gas
f. fertilizers
g. solar cells
h. solar cell panels
i. products used to convert/regulate/store the electricity produced by solar cells/solar cell panels
j. nuclear power plant components
k. floating nuclear power plants
l. electricity

5. COFFEE, COCOA, SPICES and SUGAR
No duty shall be placed on coffee beans, dry cocoa products or spices most commonly (in the 20th Century) imported into the USA.

A 20 cent per pound duty shall be placed on imported sugar [to even the playing field for US producers with US level wage and benefit costs].

6. CERTAIN DRUG PRESCRIPTIONS
There shall be no duty levied on drug prescriptions costing at least $50 of a drug approved by Health Canada/European Union and not considered by US federal law to be addictive filled:
I. at any hospital in the UK, Canada, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Scandinavia or Germany
or in a foreign hospital participating an FDA-regulated US patient supply experimental program and
II. in the hospital's (main) local patient customer business work area and
III. from a source of the prescribed drug the hospital habitually uses to supply inpatient customers with the prescribed drug and
provided that the prescription is not marked up by more than 20% by the hospital.

7. IRON and STEEL
There shall be a duty equal to the last released official US household unemployment rate [~5 to sometimes 12%] on:
a. raw iron and steel
b. predominately ferrous alloys
c. ferrous ingots and equivalents
d. basic rolled/extruded ferrous items
e. the ultimate ferrous value of other predominately by weight ferrous metal items

To discourage dumping of:
a. raw iron and steel
b. predominately ferrous alloys
c. ferrous ingots and equivalents
d. basic rolled/extruded ferrous items
a globally assignable, auctionable warrant good for a period of five years for an equal amount of the same items imported at the import price plus 10% plus 3% per year in dollars FOB from the maker(s) shall be provided to USCIS at the time of importation.

Items that have historically been given catalog descriptions, listed on price sheets or considered stock items shall be considered basic.

Beverages under this section shall include all types of alcoholic beverages and juices, except unfermented juice concentrates.

Beverages shall be subject to duty starting at 13% on October 1, 2017 and raising 1% a month to 40%, but the following shall be exempt:
1. Canadian-made beverages
2. Mexican-made beverages, until May 1, 2018
3. Mexican-made beverages in cases where the factory/brewery workers make at least $10.10/hour
4. foreign beverages on a qualified barter basis in exchange for American-made beverages and concentrates

Qualifying barter basis deals shall be limited to an exchange of beverage products without financial payment
(except to appropriately compensate for previously paid competitive common carrier transport costs):
1. between independent foreign and domestic parties
2. between related foreign and domestic entities when:
a. FOB wholesale market values for the import(s) and export(s) are clearly established and are equal to within 5%, and
b. retail selling values of the beverages (and concentrates) exchanged would be roughly equal, and
c. certification & retail value & common carrier cost estimates are provided to USCIS by the entities prior to both export and import, and
d. a deal review fee of $100 has been paid to USCIS
e. USCIS chooses to authorize the deal

Beer/ale may not be imported after May 1, 2020, except from now existing breweries in:
1. Canada, to supply retail stores in states along or within 170 miles of the Canadian-US border
2. Mexico, to supply retail stores in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico
[Foreign brewers can and should open up US breweries and create US jobs.]

Packaged food & candy shall be subject to duty starting at 16% on January 1, 2018 and raising 1% a month to 40%, but the following packaged foods other than candy shall be exempt:....[as for beverages]

Additionally [to compensate for the price difference between American and foreign sugar]:
A. A duty of 20 cents per pound shall be levied on imported candy.
B. A duty of 20 cents per pound of non-US/Canadian sugar in/on products other than candy.

10. BASIC 40% TARIFF except on CERTAIN LOW-COST CONSUMER ITEMS [wherein the benefits of low foreign labor costs are passed on to US consumers]
a 40% federal import duty shall be applied on or after January 1, 2020 to all other imported items, except the following items made available to consumers at low-cost:

A. APPAREL
a. pairs of shoes:
I. sold to the ultimate retailer for under $2 + $.90 per inch of length of a shoe
II. with (mostly) leather uppers sold to the ultimate retailer for under $2 per inch of length of a shoe
b. underwear, except slips,
I. sold to the ultimate retailer for less than 12 cents per inch of waist area diameter + material cost allowance
II. sold to the ultimate retailer for less than 20 cents per inch of breast area diameter + material cost allowance
c. slips sold to the ultimate retailer for less than 50 cents per inch of waist/breast area diameter + material cost allowance
d. shirts, skirts sold to the ultimate retailer for less than 50 cents per inch of waist/breast area diameter + material cost allowance
e. pants sold to the ultimate retailer for less than 60 cents per inch of waist area diameter + material cost allowance
f. dresses sold to the ultimate retailer for less than $1 per inch of waist/breast area diameter + material cost allowance
g. suits of over one ounce of fabric per inch of waist/breast area diameter sold to the ultimate retailer for less than $2 per inch of waist area diameter + 125% of the standard material cost allowance
h. sweaters sold to the ultimate retailer for less than 40 cents per inch of waist/breast area diameter + 200% of the standard material cost allowance, excluding .3 ounce per inch of waist area diameter, prorated by material weight
i. jackets...
k. coats...

B. BOOKS
a. (except textbooks) printed on glossy paper with at least 20% of page area covered with multi-color images sold to the ultimate retailer for less than one cent for each 40 square inches of printed area (plus one penny per square inch of hard cover).
b. textbooks selling for less than one cent per printed page larger than 5x7 inches, but no more than $5 each

C. COOKWARE
a. (mainly) stainless steel cookware without parts that will rust/corrode/melt/normally fail in ten years of appropriate US consumer use sold to the ultimate retailer for less than:
I. $5/pound of stainless steel
II. $1/pound of glass in the lids
III. 150% of the manufacturer's wholesale cost of the plastic

D. DENTAL
a. upper dentures sold to the ultimate consumer for a total cost of less than $150
b. lower dentures sold to the ultimate consumer for a total cost of less than $150
c. dental implant posts (to be) sold to the ultimate consumer for a total cost of less than $10 plus a material cost allowance
d. crowns (to be) sold to the ultimate consumer for a total cost of less than $100 plus a material cost allowance

Licensed providers may charge clearly separate service fees, subject to state law.

E. OPTICAL
a. custom-made prescription eyeglasses sold complete to the ultimate consumer for less than $40 for single vision or $50 for progressive lenses

Licensed providers may charge clearly separate service fees, subject to state law.

F. MEDICAL
a. medical equipment of types designated by the Secretary of HHS for periods of four years, each type having a price cap set by the Secretary
b. medical test regents and supplies of types designated by the Secretary of HHS for periods of four years, each type having a price cap set by the Secretary
c. drugs designated by the Secretary of HHS for periods of four years, each drug dosage having a negotiated price cap approved by the Secretary and such supplier agreement(s) as the Secretary may require (to reliably supply the US market demand for the entire period)

The material cost allowance shall be:
1. $4/pound of garment wool
2. $2/pound of garment fabric other than wool, excluding the fabric of a zipper
3. $5/pound for all buttons/garment hardware, excluding zippers, up to 1% of the weight of the fabric of the garment
4. 15 cents plus 3 cents per inch for a zipper on a garment
5. for prescription eyeglasses and dental stuff only:
a. 120% of the "cost" of the silver/gold/platinum used at the New York (or London) price cost per pound at the time of importation
....

[The material cost allowance should be set to cover the appropriate manufacturing cost and to allow/encourage the supply to the US consumer of higher quality items without inappropriate add-ons.]

The same exemptions shall apply if the item(s) is/are:
A. sold directly to the ultimate consumer at prices not exceeding 140% of those listed or
B. held for future sale to independent retailers at no more than the listed maximum

Items in this section imported as "exempt" but sold to the ultimate consumer at more:
a. than 140% of the maximum listed ultimate retailer price
b. more than the maximum ultimate consumer price
shall have the 40% duty payable by the retailer within 7 days of sale, or if not paid within 30 days, then by the importer upon US government (authorized) request.

Each "exempt" item shall be labeled with its maximum exempt consumer (or a [more easily computed] lower maximum selling price) and the removal of such labeling except by the retail purchaser shall be a federal offense punishable by a fine equal to $500 plus no more than 40% of value of the value of the items which had their labeling removed.

11. ELECTRICAL/ELECTRONIC DEVICE EXEMPTION AMOUNTS FROM DUTY
Each
a. "room" air conditioner with an SEER>10 shall have a BTU value exemption of .7*one cent*(SEER rating/10) per BTU
b. cellular phone (device) reasonably expected to be used by a typical consumer as such shall have a cellular value exemption of $20
c. color LCD screen (device) shall have a color LCD screen value exemption of $2 per diagonal inch plus 50 cents per square inch of screen size
d. monochrome LCD screen (device) shall have a monochrome LCD screen value exemption of $1 per diagonal inch plus 25 cents per square inch of screen size
e. hard drive (device) shall have a hard drive value exemption of $35
f. rotating disk device capable of reading a DVD/CD shall have a rotating disk drive value exemption of $12
g. camera image sensor (device) shall have an camera image sensor exemption of $50 per actual diagonal inch plus $300 per actual square inch of image sensing area size
h. lithium battery (device/cell) shall have a lithium battery (cell) exemption of:
I. 25 cents per watt hour, on watt hours up to 100
II. 20 cents per watt hour, on watt hours over 100 and under 1000
i. flash memory devices shall have an exemption amount of twenty-five cents per gigabyte

[These exemption amounts will allow low-cost room air conditioners and electronic devices to continue to flow into the US.]

[The exemption amounts should be set somewhat below the costs of production so consumers don't have to pay for unwanted add-ons.]
[ Therefore, the items will almost never be totally duty-free.]

12. NO DUTY on the UNITED STATES CONTRIBUTION
In every case, the US contribution to the product shall be exempt from duty.

Sugar at 20%? Cane sugar is vastly superior to the beet crap and big agro corn syrup. It is cheaper to produce, it tastes better and it has vastly better effects in manufacturing. You don’t know what you are talking about.

gat hoed <-— Afrikaans

“Cane sugar is vastly superior to the beet crap and big agro corn syrup. It is cheaper to produce, it tastes better and it has vastly better effects in manufacturing. You don’t know what you are talking about.”

As I said, my tariff is specifically “to compensate for the price difference between American and foreign sugar”.

“Don’t be messing with my Mexican beer! Pacifico is one of the little pleasures in life I look forward to.”

‘Beverages shall be subject to duty starting at 13% on October 1, 2017 and raising 1% a month to 40%, but the following shall be exempt:
...
3. Mexican-made beverages in cases where the factory/brewery workers make at least $10.10/hour
4. foreign beverages on a qualified barter basis in exchange for American-made beverages and concentrates

The Mexican Pacifico maker would have two choices, raise worker pay or enter into a barter arrangement.

All you are doing with any sugar tariff is benefiting a couple of hundred beet farmers up north and Conagra and Cargil amongst other big agro. Why should American consumers subsidize the massive corn syrup producers and a handful of dumbasses that havent figured out they should be growing canola?

I know of what I speak. Used to sit across the trading desk trading veg oils from a sugar trader. We became drinking buds. I got the skinny on this FRiend. Hell I later worked for a company that was importing raw sugar refilling the bags with flour and taking a duty draw back when it was shipped to Haiti (Owner went to jail and I was not involved).

Also worked as a buyer for a large candy factory. Beet sugar sucks in processed foods (the foaming is terrible even under vacuum cooking and panning it is a nightmare) and corn syrup throws your glycemic index all out of wack. Corn syrup is bad for you. Big agro is bad for you. Inverted syrup fulfills all the purposes of corn syrup and doesn’t mess with your health. Corn syrup is a cruel joke. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_sugar_syrup

“How about we start producing our own cane sugar again, and quit paying subsidies to produce crappy beet sugar and corn syrup?”

We produce cane sugar.

“Since the mid-1990s, sugarcane has accounted for about 45 percent of the total sugar produced domestically”

https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/crops/sugar-sweeteners/background/

“All you are doing with any sugar tariff is benefiting a couple of hundred beet farmers up north and Conagra and Cargil amongst other big agro.”

The sugar tariff obviously should not be higher than necessary.

But if one insists that even a one cent per pound tariff is intolerable, then you are neglecting the impact of federally mandated wage and environmental requirements on US sugar producers.

Our cain production is cheaper than that of Latin America. Our beet production costs are much higher which is because getting sugar from beets is just inherently more expensive,but that is just gas lighting. The real reason is big agro corn syrup and their K street boys and gals. Don’t kid yourself. American consumers are getting raped by big agro. Have been for a very long time.

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