Posted on 11/02/2010 5:11:48 AM PDT by expat_panama
Big business interests are hopeful that a Republican takeover of the House -- now looking more likely than not -- will thaw free-trade deals that have languished since President Obama took office. Those agreements are on a short list of priorities the White House has in common with GOP leaders.
But a rising protectionist tide brought about by the sour economy is threatening to complicate the task. And business groups in Washington are already preparing for the possibility that a new Republican majority stocked with populists from Rust Belt districts and beyond will present a less receptive audience than they once anticipated.
"We're going to have our work cut out for us," says Christopher Wenk, the senior director of international policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Even under the current Congress, Republicans have proven more inclined to register protectionist sentiment. That was on stark display in late September, when 99 Republicans joined 249 Democrats in approving a measure to strengthen the administration's hand in pushing the Chinese to let their currency rise.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Lol, it's hardly a problem of personalities. The American people have been lied to about the 'benefits' of our one-sided trade policies for at least fifty years. One of the best things that could come out of the Tea Party movement in the near future would be an objective look at the results of the one-sided trade arrangements, and our mushrooming trade deficits, and budget deficits, and unemployment, etc.
Time to ignore the globalists' rhetoric and evaluate the results.
We can huff and puff and beat our patriotic chests, but at the end of the day, tariffs are taxes, and just like other business taxes, they contribute to a lowering of GDP.
Because currency manipulation worked out so well for the Japanese?
....largest corporations in this country are so desparate to exploit the 1.2 billion slaves in China
Slaves earn wages? Who knew?
“We can huff and puff and beat our patriotic chests, but at the end of the day, tariffs are taxes, and just like other business taxes, they contribute to a lowering of GDP.”
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Actually China, and even most of our so-called trading “partners” all have (far) more tariffs and trade barriers than we do.
Seems to be working for them, actually.
Perhaps it is our approach, which is fundamentally flawed.
Perhaps selling our jobs and technology blindly, to nations which very methodically advance their own countries strategically by taking advantage of that, is naive.
Dumb even.
Exactly, our real problems are issues like excessive taxes. So how about we start tax-cutting by eliminating taxes on imports?
Our trade deficit is caused more by our budget deficit than than the lack of import duties or quotas. If Beijing can keep buying T-bills with their dollars, there is no reason for them to buy american products or make american investments.
The loss of manufacturing is due more to regulations and taxes than import duties or quotas as well.
Theoretical mumbo-jumbo!
Our trade deficit is caused by imports.
Nothing else. Not a budget deficit. Not global warming.
Imports.
Maybe everyone here actually knows that, but what's not well understood is how really bad all this tax'n'spending is for America.
religion of free trade bump for later............
The American people have been lied to about the fact that more government intervention in the market means higher prices and lower efficiency? It is fascinating to me that some people will argue that greater government control of the economy is bad except when it comes to trade. Do you believe that when the issue of trade is involved all of a sudden government becomes capable, reliable and responsible? If so, you may be a big government conservative - whatever that is.
Budget deficit = trade deficit ping.
Maybe what we're looking at here is a capital surplus being equal to a debt surplus?
And inflation is caused by people charging more money for things, and deflation is caused by people charging less money for thing, and you get a pay raise because your boss want to pay you more and death is caused by being to old and ignorance is cause by not being smart enough . . .
The country is going to have taxes. This isn't an anarchist site, so why can't those taxes be tariffs? All I see in this argument is a false choice of slapping tariffs on top of the high income tax or no tariffs.
Why can't we lower income taxes and raise tariffs?
Some of these free traders you see posting on these threads seem to have confused Conservatism with anarcho-capitalism.
We're going to have taxes, so no reason some of them or even most of them can't be tariffs.
How will they fascilitate easier manufacturing over here?
I’m totally for free trade. No buts, no qualifications.
Just as no one wins a currency war, no one wins a trade war; the wounds are always self-inflicted. A country imposing tariffs is like a general attempting to win a battle by massacring his own divisions.
We support lower taxes, less regulation, and right to work.
The country is going to have taxes of some kind. Are you saying they should only be on internal trade and not external? What's the logic behind that?
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