Why Is the GOP Terrified of Tariffs?

Townhall.com ^ | March 6, 2018 | Pat Buchanan

[Alberta's Child]

I look at the currency valuation issue very differently. In fact, I'd make the case that the Chinese yuan is a worthless currency, not an "undervalued" one. Because the Chinese economy is dominated by state controlled industries and there are enormous barriers to private investment, very few companies involved in international trade would accept Chinese yuan as a form of payment if the yuan wasn't convertible to the U.S. dollar at a fixed exchange rate. Companies involved in global commerce want dollars, not yuan.

You'd have to pay me (in dollars) to take Chinese money off your hands.

[DesertRhino]

“He was running around campaigning on a promise to protect American industries ... while driving around in a Mercedes-Benz. “

Pure sophistry. Protecting US industries does not mean one must avoid all foreign products. But nice straw man.

[Alberta's Child]

I’d have to see some concrete examples of a state-subsidized industry that has ever been able to maintain a competitive advantage over a long enough period of time to really impact the industries of its trading partners.

[Alberta's Child]

Pure sophistry. Protecting US industries does not mean one must avoid all foreign products. But nice straw man.

He can buy and drive whatever the hell he wants, as far as I'm concerned.

My point was that the political optics were awful. Even Hillary Clinton was smart enough to make sure her "Scooby-Doo van" was a Chevrolet.

[GOPJ]

Does Senator Flake think Japan rose to post-war preeminence through free trade, as Tokyo kept U.S. products out, while dumping cars, radios, TVs and motorcycles here to kill the industries of the nation that was defending them. Both Nixon and Reagan had to devalue the dollar to counter the predatory trade policies of Japan.

The GOPE is afraid tariffs will work FOR THE AMERICAN WORKER and against the CHEAP LABOR EXPRESS. The GOPE fears American citizens who build this country AND they're afraid of their own shadows (for starters).

And one more thing: God Bless Pat Buchanan ...

[ek_hornbeck]

China has been dumping its surplus steel on the world market for years. I’m not sure whether this dumping is due to a direct effort to subsidize at cost/at loss production, or simply a by-product of Chinese firms producing a glut of steel for building projects that wind up dead in the water (many of the latter are state projects, which means that in a sense it is effectively a subsidy of steel production, albeit indirect).

[DesertRhino]

No, state subsidized is Airbus, where it was formed by a government.

[DesertRhino]

“In fact, I’d make the case that the Chinese yuan is a worthless currency, not an “undervalued” one.”

Freepmail me for an address and you can send me all the yuan you can get your hands on.

[Alberta's Child]

Freepmail me for an address and you can send me all the yuan you can get your hands on.

That's exactly my point. I don't get my hands on any yuan at all. I would never bid on a project in China unless I was paid in dollars.

[DesertRhino]

Pat didn’t lose because of his car. He lost becaise he was “too radical” and “too aggressive”. They painted him as a rabid war mongering Goldwater daisy campaign type.

[Alberta's Child]

I don't dispute that -- but the optics were still awful.

He lost because he was Donald Trump without the entertainment value.

[Truthsearcher]

Tariffs are instruments of economic warfare. Like their conventional warfare counterparts, in an ideal world you’d like to not use them at all. But realities being what it is, you have to selectively use them or threaten to use them.

I can’t take free trade absolutists seriously because they are like the peaceniks who wanted the US to unilaterally disarm.

But trade between nations are in general a good thing, I don’t think it’s a good idea to go full protectionist either, removing too much foreign competition will inevitably cause the domestic companies to get lazy and have less incentive to innovate.

[aquila48]

Good discussion!

[DaveA37]

“Why Is the GOP Terrified of Tariffs?”......

Better revise that question to read, “Why is the GOP Terrified of liberals”?

[Mariner]

“I look at the currency valuation issue very differently.”

Whether it’s an adequate reserve currency is not relevant.

It’s is pegged to the dollar, dictating an exchange rate and exchange value of goods and services.

[rb22982]

overhead production, regulatory and environmental costs.

[rb22982]

1) Why do we tax US production (corporate income tax) and US wages, but not imports (especially since nearly all of our exports are subject to very large VAT taxes among other tariffs). It's the exact opposite of what we should do - it's the same reason hotel taxes are MASSIVE because they are born from non-locals rather than locals even though it discourages visits - it's still better than directly taxing the populace.
2) If we are going to have wage, labor, environmental and other regulatory laws, you should have a tariff on countries that don't have similar ones otherwise you are needlessly hurting US production and still allowing companies to do whatever they want.

[rb22982]

Because it’s a tax increase on most consumers and will probably cost more jobs than it saves or creates. That’s why the GOP is afraid of tariffs.

1) I don't buy that. The fastest our country has grown was during periods of high tariffs and 2) Especially not if you eliminate corporate taxes entirely with the $ you get from imports as there would be a massive incentive for US production at that point.

[trebb]

Those who complain are either in the “Globalist Welfare by the USA is a good thing” camp or they have found a way to leverage huge trade deficits to their own personal advantage....

[DoodleDawg]

1) I don't buy that. The fastest our country has grown was during periods of high tariffs and 2) Especially not if you eliminate corporate taxes entirely with the $ you get from imports as there would be a massive incentive for US production at that point.

1) You don't see any difference at all between the 19th Century and the 21st Century? 2) Nonsense. There would be no such incentive for business to invest trillions into manufacturing that could be made worthless by the repeal of a tariff.