Well, if people want to pay more for everything they consume, a tariff war is a good way to get that accomplished.
The increase in the price of steel and aluminum isn’t the big problem. Instead it’s the inevitable retaliation that’s bound to occur.
If you want to turn the red states blue, starting a tariff war that ends with other countries putting tariffs on American farm products is an excellent way to do so.
Trump would be better advised to single out specific anti-trade policies of our trading partners and then negotiating better terms. Tariffs are a terrible idea that will inevitably hurt American consumers as well as any producers affected by retaliatory tariffs from abroad.
And as long as non-threatening countries have plenty of steel and aluminum to sell us, the national security argument is weakened also.
If China is the sole supplier of a commodity, or threatens to become the sole supplier, then just put a quota on how much of that product can be imported from anywhere and let domestic producers fill the gap, even if they have to build capacity to do so.
Sorry. The retaliation has already started and it is we who are doing it!!!!
Last figures I knew of few months ago were nada to importa car from Mexico. Twenty five thousamd to export a car to Mexico.
NAFTA was never fair trade. It was designed to make America a third world economy, keep the already third worlders poor and make the Globalists rich.
Canada 16%
Brazil 13%
S Korea 10%
Mexico 9%
Russia 9%
Turkey 7%
Japan 5%
Taiwan 4%
Germany 3%
India 2%
A country often mentioned on these trade threads is missing.