Free Republic

Just a friendly reminder: Americans increasingly don't make things. Any things! Another friendly reminder: Americans increasingly only buy things. A sad reminder: Every single thing we buy, is made elsewhere...

[snip] "A distorted picture" is the result, they say, one that exaggerates trade imbalances between nations. Trade statistics in both countries consider the iPhone a Chinese export to the U.S., even though it is entirely designed and owned by a U.S. company, and is made largely of parts produced in several Asian and European countries. China's contribution is the last step—assembling and shipping the phones. So the entire $178.96 estimated wholesale cost of the shipped phone is credited to China, even though the value of the work performed by the Chinese workers at Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. accounts for...

    Songs that are "golden oldies" have much less pleasant counterparts in politics— namely, ideas and policies that have failed disastrously in the past but still keep coming back to be advocated and imposed by government. Some people may think these ideas are as good as gold, but brass has often been mistaken for gold by people who don't look closely enough.One of these brass oldies is the idea that the government can and must reduce unemployment by "creating jobs." Some people point to the history of the Great Depression of the 1930s, when unemployment peaked at 25...

South Korea's kimchi crisis has deepened, after the president was forced to step in amid fears that cabbage rustlers were descending on farms to steal the key ingredient in the nation's national dish. Kimchi is a fiery side-dish of pickled cabbage President Lee Myung-bak has this week ordered the government to block the price of staple foodstuffs from rising above international levels after the price of cabbage, which is used to make the fiery dish, increased sharply. "There is no reason for people on low incomes to purchase items that are necessary to daily life at higher prices than international...

In his latest NYT op-ed, Paul Krugman takes a break from worrying about the GOP and spending to return to another one of his big issues -- Chinese currency manipulation. Japan's leaders, he notes, have rightfully been concerned about Chinese debt buying, and the effect that has on pushing up the yen (thus killing exports), and he wonders why we can't get the same level of outrage here. Basically, there are two reasons why American leaders are too scared to slap a tariff on China and penalize them for this kind of manipulation. The first is that they're worried China...

According to Wikipedia, Stern makes frequent visits to the Obama White House. According to Dreyfus, he also makes frequent trips to China to visit with China's Communist-controlled All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU). Stern justifies his trips to China with the claim that he is helping push the ACFTU in a positive direction. Dreyfus writes: "I get in trouble on Glenn Beck saying, 'Workers of the world unite!' It's not just a slogan," Stern says. It's critical, he adds, for US and Chinese workers to see each other as allies, and he argues that efforts such as his can help...

Sets deadline of October 1, 2010 for Administration to act(Washington, D.C.) –U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) included language in the Fiscal Year 2011 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations bill that calls on the Administration to put forward a plan that would end retaliatory tariffs on Washington state agricultural products by October 1, 2010. The bill passed the THUD subcommittee, which Murray chairs, as well as the full Appropriations committee, and will now head to the full Senate for consideration. “I am extremely frustrated that the Administration has not yet acted while farmers across my home state of Washington...

The AFL-CIO is pressing Congress to take action against the Chinese Government’s manipulation of the value of its currency—the “renminbi” also known as the “yuan.” “It’s bad enough that the Chinese work for lower wages than us,” complained Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO labor federation. “But holding down the value of their currency so the US Dollar has a higher purchasing power is a double whammy.” Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) is sponsoring legislation in line with the AFL-CIO’s complaint. “Not only is the Chinese Government wantonly increasing the purchasing power of the American consumer, it is undermining the US...

Look around at the merchandise at a Wal-Mart. Nearly everything is made in China with the sole exception of the label that says "Made in China"; that's made in America. Joking aside, America has lost its industrial base. Over the past four decades, nearly all our manufacturing has gone overseas. Steel is dead, electronics dead, manufacturing of every kind fallen victim to cheap imports. How can a nation survive if it doesn't make anything? Have we degenerated to such a point that we are now a dependent colony to imperial nations? We sell our trees to China and Japan so...

Brazil moved on Monday to raise tariffs on a wide range of American goods, potentially igniting a trade war with the US over cotton subsidies after eight years of litigation at the World Trade Organisation.The decision takes effect next month, starting a 30-day period during which US and Brazilian officials will attempt to negotiate a solution to the dispute.Gary Locke, US commerce secretary, and Michael Froman, deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs, are due to arrive in Brazil on Tuesday. The cotton dispute is expected to be raised in meetings with government officials.Under the Brazilian plan, duties would...

I am a Computer Hardware tech. I bought a computer display replacement part through eBay. I received the part today. The eBay listing said it was coming from Bkyln, NY, and the post mark confirms that. Here's the issue...It bears a label that says..."Not for Sale in, Use in, or Importation into the United States." I bought the same part number that was in the unit, which is the same as listed in the Dell Service Manual, with the slight exception of the Revision identifier, and it cross references back to the original revision identifier, as well.

This very readable book is aimed at both ordinary concerned citizens and people with a bit of sophistication about economics. It is a systematic examination of why free trade is slowly bleeding America's economy to death and what can be done about it. It explains in detail why the standard economic arguments free traders use all the time are false, and what kind of economic ideas — well within the grasp of the average American — justify protectionism instead. It examines the history and politics of free trade and explains how America came to adopt its present disastrous free trade...

China denounced as protectionist new U.S. anti-dumping duties on steel pipes on Friday and called for Washington's swift recognition that it is a market economy, a week before a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama. The United States on Thursday slapped preliminary anti-dumping duties ranging up to 99 percent on $2.63 billion in Chinese-made pipes used in the oil and gas industry, in the biggest U.S. trade action against China to date. The Commerce Department issued its preliminary decision a week before Obama heads to Asia on a trip that includes stops in Shanghai and Beijing. It follows counter-vailing duties...

Since The Wealth of Nations appeared more than two centuries ago, the case for free trade has been stated thousands of times, but perhaps never with more direct simplicity and force than it was stated in that volume. In general Smith rested his case on one fundamental proposition: “In every country it always is and must be the interest of the great body of the people to buy whatever they want of those who sell it cheapest.” “The proposition is so very manifest,” Smith continued, “that it seems ridiculous to take any pains to prove it; nor could it ever...

Two weeks ago, both the administration and the Fed announced with straight faces that the recession was over and the signs of economic recovery were clear. Then last week, the president made a stunning decision that signals the administration’s determination to repeat the mistakes of the Great Depression. Much like the Smoot-Hawley Tariffs that set off a global trade war and effectively doomed us to ten more years of economic misery, Obama’s decision to enact steep tariffs on Chinese imported tires could spark a trade war with the single most important trading partner we have. Not only does China manufacture...

Last week, the POTUS announced that it would impose a tariff of 35 percent on $1.8 billion of automobile tires imports from China, acting on a petition from one of his major constituencies, Big Labor (the United Steelworkers union). As you may expect china did not react pleasantly. Zhou Wenzhong, China’s ambassador to the U.S., warned that President Barack Obama’s decision to impose tariffs on Chinese tire imports may set a “dangerous precedent” as other industries ask for protection. Zhou said U.S. textile and steel producers may file similar so-called safeguard complaints against Chinese exporters, testing Obama’s commitment to avoid...

Earlier today, Doug Bandow weighed in with some commentary on the problems that Buy American provisions are creating for both Canadian and American businesses. Let me reinforce his view that such rules are anachronistic and self-defeating with some thoughts from a forthcoming paper of mine about the incongruity between modern commercial reality and trade policies that have failed to keep pace. Even though President Obama implored, “If you are considering buying a car, I hope it will be an American car,” it is nearly impossible to determine objectively what makes an American car. The auto industry provides a famous example,...

BEIJING (AP) -- Beijing filed a World Trade Organization complaint Monday over new U.S. tariffs on Chinese tires, stepping up pressure on Washington in the latest in a series of trade disputes. The conflict is a potential irritant as Washington and Beijing prepare for a summit of the Group of 20 leading economies in Pittsburgh on Sept. 24-25 to discuss efforts to end the worst global downturn since the 1930s. The Chinese complaint to the WTO in Geneva triggers a 60-day WTO process in which the two sides are to try to resolve the dispute through negotiations. If that fails,...

In May, the United States slapped new tariffs on steel pipe imports from China. In June, China imposed new barriers on U.S. and European Union exports of adipic acid, an industrial chemical used to make nylon and polyester resin. In July, the EU also decided to restrict imports of steel pipe from China. The important question now is, do these events foreshadow spiraling protectionism and tit-for-tat retaliation that threaten a global trade war? Or is trade policy always like this, and we’re just noticing more now, given the global slowdown and heightened fears of Smoot-Hawley-style protectionism? [snip]The count of newly...

PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - The U.S. government will get tough with governments that don't live up to trade deals, including those with substandard labor practices, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk was set to announce on Thursday. The USTR and U.S. Labor and State departments will identify and investigate labor violations in countries with which it has free trade agreements and insist problems are fixed, instead of waiting for complaints to initiate enforcement, according to prepared remarks. "If they won't fix their labor problems, we will exercise our legal options," Kirk was set to say in a speech at a U.S. Steel...