Posted on 02/20/2018 5:01:29 AM PST by reaganaut1
The economy is picking up steam, but President Trump could reduce the benefits of his tax cuts and regulatory rollback with protectionism. This risk became more serious after the Commerce Department on Friday recommended broad restrictions on aluminum and steel imports that would punish American businesses and consumers.
Last year the President directed Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to investigate whether steel and aluminum imports threaten national security under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Commerce concluded that they do and has proposed quota and tariff options to mitigate the putative harm. But the evidence in Commerce’s reports belies this conclusion. And the wide-ranging economic damage from restricting imports would overwhelm the narrow benefits to U.S. steel and aluminum makers.
Start with national security, which Commerce construes broadly to include “economic welfare.” There’s little risk that the U.S. couldn’t procure sufficient steel and aluminum for defense even during a war. Defense consumes 3% of U.S.-made steel and about one-fifth of high-purity aluminum. U.S. steel mills last year operated at 72% of capacity while aluminum smelters ran at 39%. Both have ample slack to raise production for defense and commercial demands.
Commerce says only one of five aluminum smelters in the U.S. produces the high-purity metal required in defense applications. “Should this one U.S. smelter close, the U.S. would be left without an adequate domestic supplier for key national security needs,” the report says. But Commerce also notes that “Canada, which is highly integrated with the U.S. defense industrial base and considered a reliable supplier, is the leading source of imports.”
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
If you increase tariffs on JUST metals, then your domestic manufacturers who use those metals have costs go up. You also need to raise tariffs on foreign-made manufactured products using metals.
While tariffs will have an effect, this dribble is overhype BS.
Why is it that tariffs are bad when used in the US, but are a normal part of the business landscape in other countries that sell those same products into the US?
Precisely
That and they hate Trump
Gotta do these tariffs carefully. As McCain said about fixing Social Security, “It’s all about tweaking the knobs”.
>> We just put tariffs on washing machines to help domestic producers. Now we are going to put tariffs on the steel and aluminum they use, taking away any cost advantage they had against imports <<
Please stop being so logical. It’s not wanted on this thread.
What's good for Wall St doesn't necessarily mean its good for the US. China, Brazil, et al have been dumping steel and aluminum on the American market for years and in the process destroyed significant portions of our industrial base.
The WSJ is all about cheap illegal labor and foreign, subsidized products.
I wish someone would convince Lars Larson. It’s one of only a couple things on which we dont see eye-to-eye.
Sounds like good thinking on the incentives; your plan would certainly juice the expansion.
I think that the tax changes and an opportunity for profit will accomplish some of that momentum. The decrease in red tape and EPA regulations will also help. That is actually one of the problems effecting American Timber Industry. The spotted owl...http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/us/18owl.html...https://agriculture.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1440
I think POTUS is aware that he has a window of opportunity and he wants to make changes that will can be off to a sustainable start & endure if there is a change of leadership.
Stop the bullshit. The reason for the tariffs is to get the cost back to even.
We have a balance of trade deficit, the countries with a surplus get hurt the most in a 'trade war'.
But, but, Smooooooot
Tariffs are bad. That just increases overall domestic taxes.
Tariff shifting is good. Reduce and shift other domestic taxes of income, property etc to the tariff. Then tariffs are good. Overall taxes are lowered while favoring the nation over foreigners.
WSJ always omits this, as they represent foreigners, not you. WSJ are losers.
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