Free Republic

A majority of voters say they support slapping a 10 percent tariff on all imports, according to an exclusive new poll, in a boost to President Donald Trump's plan for reducing U.S. reliance on foreign producers. According to the latest J.L. Partners/DailyMail.com 2024 poll, 24 percent of likely voters strongly support the policy proposal while another 30 percent tend to support it. 'European capitals and businesses might be quaking in their boots at the idea of Trump 2.0 on tariffs, but the American people welcome the policy.' The poll tested the opinions of 1,005 likely voters on March 21. It...

The next time a doctor examines you, a phlebotomist draws blood from your arm, a nurse takes your temperature, or you undergo any medical procedure, there is an increased likelihood—thanks to the failures of the Democrat administration of President Joe Biden—that the Chinese made the gloves the medical professional is wearing. Data from the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) shows that since Biden took the White House in early 2021, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has rapidly seized market share for U.S. imports of nitrile medical gloves. In 2019, during former President Donald Trump’s administration and before the coronavirus pandemic,...

U.S. incentives to boost consumption of more environmentally friendly fuel has created a new market for used Chinese cooking oil, worth almost $390 million in the last 12 months and growing rapidly, China's customs data shows. China has been shipping more waste oil to the U.S. since October 2022, two months after the Biden administration passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to promote clean energy, which included tax credits for production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and extended incentives for biodiesel. In the first eight months of 2023, Chinese exports of used cooking oil (UCO) to the U.S. totalled almost...

In a speech to a Seattle crowd Wednesday, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm made the claim that lower oil imports improves U.S. energy security. Praising Biden’s historic green energy funding and 100% clean electricity goal by 2035, Granholm said “With all this electrification, we could slash our net crude oil imports by almost 60%, and that strengthens energy security.” Granholm, who appeared with Vice President Kamala Harris also said Harris "has been amazing inside the White House as the champion for clean energy." One of the most common critiques of Biden’s green agenda is that it has thus far achieved the...

The Panama Canal, one of the major shipping routes through which 40 percent of container goods sold in America travels, currently has a 21-day wait time for ships attempting to make the passage. And the situation will only get worse before it gets better. The number of vessels waiting to sneak between North and South America currently stands at 154. The traffic jam is thanks to a severe drought that has afflicted the area since this Spring. About $270 billion in cargo travels through the canal every year... snip Not only are reservations for making it through the canal cut...

India's rice export ban has triggered panic buying at US supermarkets, causing the price of a 20-pound bag to surge from $16 to almost $50 in some stores. The south Asian country, which accounts for 40 percent of world rice exports, ordered a halt to its largest rice export category, non-basmati rice, on Thursday to calm domestic prices, sparking fears of global shortages. Videos and reports shared on social media over the weekend show Indian-Americans standing in long lines or panic-buying rice in Texas, Michigan, New Jersey Alabama, Ohio, Illinois and California. Some stores have hiked the price of a...

Former President Donald Trump unveiled a key talking point for his 2024 campaign - an "America First" trade plan which would include universal tariffs on most goods imported into the US. Trump laid it out in a Feb. 27 statement, which called for a system of universal baseline tariffs on most foreign products, while rewarding American domestic production. The new policy will "tax China to build up America," according to Trump."Joe Biden claims to support American manufacturing, but in reality, he is pushing the same pro-China globalist agenda that ripped the industrial heart out of our country," Trump said in...

There’s a headline.Manufacturing orders from China down 40% in unrelenting demand collapseShipping companies are already reacting with “blank” (canceled) sailings and reallocating cargo shipments (“vessel utilization”) to make sure they have full boats before they pull out of port. All this is raising hell with the logistic delivery schedules people waiting on the other side of the pond depend on. …Carriers have been executing on an active capacity management strategy by announcing more blank sailings and suspending services to balance supply with demand. “The unrelenting decline in container freight rates from Asia, caused by a collapse in demand, is compelling...

Slump in imports, cargo diversions to other ports help shrink queue of dozens of vessels The backup of container ships off Southern California’s coast that was at the heart of U.S. supply chain congestion during the Covid-19 pandemic has effectively disappeared. The queue of ships waiting to unload at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach fell from a peak of 109 ships in January to four vessels this week ... . U.S. import volumes are declining ... The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together handled 686,133 loaded import containers in September, down 18% from a year...

The latest ocean container bookings data reveals that despite the strong levels of inbound cargo during the first five months of 2022, import demand is not just softening — it’s dropping off a cliff. Because capacity on the trans-Pacific has remained relatively stable, Drewry’s container spot rates from China to the West Coast have plunged 41% month-over-month to $9,630. Freight forwarders will enjoy expanding margins on ocean freight, while U.S. trucking carriers and intermodal volume providers may start to see volume risks. Consumer buying patterns are rapidly normalizing to pre-COVID levels, and U.S. retailers are stuck with too much inventory....

Food prices are continuing to rise at an alarming rate. The 8.8% year-over-year increase (March 2022 compared with March 2021) is the largest in more than 40 years. Over the past seven months, each month’s year-over-year food price increase has been above 4% and each successive month has been higher than the previous month (starting at 4.6% in September and reaching 8.8% in March). This upswing in food prices is being reflected across multiple food categories, from fresh fruit (10.1%) to fish and seafood (10.9%). Skyrocketing food prices are regressive and particularly damaging to low-income Americans, as they spend a...

Like what Freddie King sang (Going down), we are going down the drain. Export prices by end us YoY is up to 18.8%, the highest in recorded history (or since 1983 when they started recording export prices). Import prices by end use rose to 12.5% YoY. Unrelated to US export and import prices, the MBA’s mortgage credit availability index slumped with the Covid outbreak and the explosion of The Fed’s Balance Sheet. As I have said before, nothing has been the same since Covid. Like Freddie King, “I’m Feeling Torn Down” by rising prices.

It is entirely accurate to say that the U.S. is addicted to waste and distant sources of essentials.The downside of dependency is in the air. The U.S. has allowed itself to become dependent on other nations for essentials, a policy that I view as an insanity fueled by greed.The problem with dependency is the cost can't be calculated until it's too late. Restoring independence is a massive, costly undertaking, but if you wait until the cost of dependency is clear to all, it's too late to escape the collapse triggered by the cut-off of essentials from other nations.The happy story...

Biden's short-sighted policies strike again! The U.S. merchandise-trade deficit unexpectedly widened in January to an all-time high, reflecting a record value of imports and a drop in shipments overseas. The shortfall grew to $107.6 billion last month from $100.5 billion in December, according to Commerce Department data released Monday. Meanwhile, the US Treasury 10Y yield fell to 1.884%. Meanwhile, the Russian Ruble is getting clobbered. At least Putin hasn’t put himself on Russian currency … yet. Or nyet.

Mexico has acknowledged that the U.S. government has suspended all imports of Mexican avocados after a U.S. plant safety inspector in Mexico received a threat. The surprise, temporary suspension was confirmed late Saturday on the eve of the Super Bowl, the biggest sales opportunity of the year for Mexican avocado growers - though it would not affect game-day consumption since those avocados had already been shipped. Avocado exports are the latest victim of the drug cartel turf battles and extortion of avocado growers in the western state of Michoacan, the only state in Mexico fully authorized to export to the...

A Department of Commerce report on supply chain issues regarding American semiconductors has found ''a major supply and demand mismatch,'' and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has called for ''extremely urgent'' legislation to address the crisis. ''This is why domestic semiconductor funding is extremely urgent,'' Raimondo wrote in a statement following the Biden administration report. ''The House of Representatives is preparing to introduce its version of the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA), which includes $52 billion in domestic semiconductor funding to help us create long-term solutions. The Senate has already passed its version of the bill with strong bipartisan support....

Planning to import goods from Asia by ocean and sell them in America this summer? Better act fast. The trans-Pacific cargo move can now take over three months. According to multiple sources, average transit times have risen to double pre-COVID levels — and they’re still increasing.Methodologies and data sources differ, so time estimates vary. But each dataset shows the same trend: With every passing month, more vessels, container equipment and goods inventories are getting waylaid in the Pacific.FlexportFlexport launched its weekly Ocean Timeliness Indicator (OTI) in early December. The OTI uses data from Flexport’s freight forwarding customers back to March...

The U.S. Senate approved legislation on Dec. 16 to ban all imports from China’s Xinjiang region, where Beijing is holding more than 1 million Uyghurs in internment camps, over forced labor concerns. The measure is now headed to the White House, where President Joe Biden has said he’ll sign it into law.The move complements a series of actions by the Biden administration aimed at holding the Chinese regime accountable over its repression in Xinjiang, which Washington has labeled as a genocide. The Senate approved the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act by unanimous consent two days after the House approved it...

China’s exports to the United States and the European Union now amount to nearly 30% of manufacturing GDP, after an unprecedented surge in shipments this year. US imports from China are 30% higher than before the Covid-19 pandemic, and Europe’s imports are 50% higher. These margins of increase have an important macroeconomic impact. Taiwan and South Korea, in turn, are important suppliers of industrial goods – especially electronics – to the West, and their imports from China include components that are re-exported to the US and Europe. This reflects closer economic integration among the major Asian industrial economies. In effect,...

China’s exports rose 28% in September from the year-earlier level, more than the analyst consensus had forecast. More important is that China’s exports to the United States have risen by 31% since January 2018, when President Trump imposed tariffs on a wide range of US imports from China. At a seasonally adjusted annual rate, the US is buying $635 billion of Chinese goods, equal to a staggering 27% of US manufacturing Gross Domestic Product. That’s the sort of import dependency economists associate with Third World countries dependent on former colonial powers. US exports to China during the past 12 months...