Posted on 12/14/2010 5:26:52 AM PST by 1rudeboy
The World Trade Organization handed the U.S. a big victory in a fight with China over tire imports, bolstering the Obama administration's effort to show it is tough on enforcement as it girds for a battle in Congress over passage of a free trade pact with South Korea.
The WTO's dispute-settlement panel ruled Monday in favor of President Barack Obama's decision in September 2009 to levy tariffs of up to 35% on Chinese tires.
Mr. Obama's move, made under a rarely used safeguard provision to protect against import surges, provoked one of the biggest trade spats between the two countries in recent years. In addition to taking the case to the WTO, China had retaliated by announcing a series of duties on U.S. chicken, nylon and other exports.
By going after China, the second-largest trading partner of the U.S., the White House aims to signal to unions and trade skeptics in Congress that it won't be lax in enforcing the Korea pact, the administration's first Asian trade deal. "This administration is doing what is necessary to enforce trade agreements on behalf of American workers and manufacturers," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said Monday.
Wang Baodong, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in the U.S., said that Beijing would continue to defend the legitimate interests of Chinese enterprises and that strong trade ties benefit both nations.
The tires ruling came as a 100-strong Chinese delegation landed in Washington for annual trade talks with Mr. Kirk and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke this week and sets up a confrontation over a string of U.S. trade complaints against Beijing. The poor U.S. economy has fanned anti-China sentiment, and members of Congress were quick to demand Monday that U.S. negotiators do more to address issues from intellectual-property protection to the valuation of the Chinese currency.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
It’s a trick.
‘cause no one in their right mind would by Chinese tires?
I sure as hell wouldn’t, unless I was building an artificial reef.
Don’t forget, it’s winter season, so make sure to have VR-rated snow tires if you spend much time north of 130mph.
This means we all agree the WTO is not always against America, just like the world now agrees Americans aren’t racist because of Obama’s election.
Yes, the subtext is that the United Steelworkers Union is tossed a bone by the Obama Administration, but if it’s enough to shut them up only a Dem can know. That being said, there are a lot of tire plants in the U.S., even ones that are foreign-owned (gasp!), and the tire market has more varieties of product than one can imagine, so I’d hate to see it turn Soviet just because the Chinese want to screw it over.
The tires failed and were recalled. The distributor went bankrupt. The independents were left with replacing the tires until each shop went bankrupt and closed.
Peanuts.
We are as a nation sending our jobs, factories, technology and the national wealth accumulated through a century of American manufacturing, elsewhere.
And we’re wasting time arguing before an international tribunal which cares nothing about American interests, about TIRES?
A frivolous waste of time! A distraction.
What is needed is resolve and action. 100% import tariffs, on everything, everything imported to America.
Across the board.
The value of our imports in 2009, was almost exactly the same as our national tax receipts. Spot on, the same.
So - enact a 100% across the board tariff on all imports.
The benefit (beyond bringing back American jobs):
We can at the same time - eliminate income and corporate taxes.
As the slogan for (importer) Nike goes:
Just do it.
I've got 100+ old tires on my property right now. I’ probably going to get a bunch of money for them from Al Gore (selling the carbon credits) by announcing that I PLAN to burn them, but then at the last minute agreeing not to burn them so that others may burn THEIR tires in a state that has stricter emissions standards than Virginia.
However, I would have been happy to set them on fire one at a time and launch them at China from a Trebuchet in Taiwan if only they someone had told me about the war
Resolve and action, got it. You first--the next time you buy $150 of firewood, insist on paying $300. To keep those sneaky Canadians from importing more.
Imported firewood from Canada is hardly the problem.
The problem, is our massive manufacturing trade deficit. The ‘giant sucking sound’ - which it turns out, Perot was right about.
Our nation is literally collapsing around us, while and other globalist puppets, play silly word games.
Then it looks like "100% import tariffs, on everything, everything imported to America" really aren't that necessary.
Actually it is, if tariffs are to work as a replacement (yes, replacement) to our entire income/cap gains/corporate tax regime. Their application will have to be uniform and firm.
Simplicity is good. Simplicity is easy to apply, and easy to understand. Simplicity is, at the risk of using a liberal buzzword: Fair.
We can adopt a simple blanket, 100% no exceptions tariff on everything imported into America. Replacing dollar for dollar - all our taxation. All of it! While encouraging the return of America’s once-great manufacturing.
Or we stick with the patchwork of lobbyist-written, thousands of pages of tax code, monstrosity we have now.
Which mostly benefits - lawyers.
Lawyers are democrats.
I’m pro free trade but I’m completely against submitting ourselves to these organizations like NAFTA and the WTO. We will determine what we will import and export, not some stupid organization.
Occurs to me that we don't really need the WTO or anyone else to intercede vis a vis S. Korea. At this juncture, I believe S. Korea does not have a lot of leverage with the U.S.
“What is needed is resolve and action. 100% import tariffs, on everything, everything imported to America.”
The imnpacts of your policy would be much higher prices, substantial increase in the power of labor cartels and government regulations, retaliation by every trading partner, a decline in competitiveness of US industry, and inferior consumer goods.
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