Posted on 07/06/2018 7:57:56 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Much to the shock of liberals, being tough on trade works better for American exports than being nice and hoping other nations will be “fair” to us in return. That works in kindergarten where a teacher is present to enforce the triumph of being nice. But in the real world, where politicians respond to domestic interests, it takes more than flowery rhetoric to get action.
When President Trump threatened to slap heavy tariffs on European auto exports to the US unless they brought their tariffs down to equal our tariffs on them, he was lectured that this was “no way to treat our allies,” and other such piffle. The four-to-one difference in tariffs on our exports to the EC over their exports to us was an ongoing outrage that didn’t bother people who buy BMWs, Audis, and Mercedes products, and who would never consider a Cadillac.
But now that he has the attention of European auto makers:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday she would back lowering European Union tariffs on U.S. car imports, responding to an offer from Washington to abandon threatened levies on European cars in return for concessions.
However, she added EU tariff negotiations required a "common European position and we are still working on it."
I’ll bet they are working on it. Germany accounts for at least half of Europe’s auto exports to the US.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
We should just set our tariffs equal to theirs, assuming no other trade barriers against our products. Or set ours equal to the approximate cost of any non-monetary barriers. If their barriers completely block our products, then a hundred percent tariff on their goods.
Never trust A Merkel , she’s up to something
If the result is American factories producing those products, we shouldn’t be in any big hurry to lower the tariffs. After all, whats good for the goose is good for the gander.
More “blinks” the calculated risk or the art of the deal
Yep, and put in regulations to lower tariffs automatically if they do so. It’s not rocket science. We should have been doing this decades ago.
Ditto the truth is free trade is not free. Is time free trade meant free
In the days before the income tax, we supported ourselves with tariffs.
We have the capability to be almost completely self-sufficient. We couldn’t easily put tariffs on everything except what we can’t mine here.
This began with German industry going to German auto industry and getting THEM to say, they, German auto makers, thing EU tarriffs on autos should come down from their 25% to the U.S. 10% tarriff on autos.
Merkel did not draw this out of her feeble mind. It was delivered to her by German industry. THEY don’t want a trade war with Trump and THEY can admit EU tarriffs are too high.
In the days before the income tax, we supported ourselves with tariffs.
We have the capability to be almost completely self-sufficient. We could easily put tariffs on everything except what we can’t mine here.
RE: We could easily put tariffs on everything except what we can’t mine here.
Sure, as long as we go back to where we were before — eliminating the income tax.
Merkel is barely hanging on to power right now - she cannot afford a single mis-step and while Trump will negotiate, he is not backing off.
Trump is supremely confident about leveling the playing field with good reason. They need us far more than we need them. I am expecting some serious fireworks at the NATO summit and while it is mostly tied to what others pay for their own defense we can fully expect that trade will be part of the equation.
Trump also has Russia’s number. His comments yesterday about Europe needing NATO to protect against Russia even as they fund the Russian military by purchasing oil had to have sent huge shockwaves throughout Europe and Putin’s crowd. Cut that off and Russia would implode - they are basically a nation state gas station funding an obsolete military.
I’m not against the income tax per se, but I am against the loss of privacy implicit in the way the income tax is collected in the US.
But the Globalists have always theorized that we need to be taken down a few notches anyway.
I haven't seen them this happy since they thought Hillary would win. Eyes flashing, speech fast and excited... their only disappointment is the stock market's up.
What disgusting jackasses.
Bill Maher 'elites' wanting citizens to suffer so they get their place back on top back. I hate these people.
And a lot of them originally came from Turkey.
The media hasn’t reported this, it’s a huge Trump tariff win. They ae too busy, like CBS this morning, finding a chees company that might temporarily lose money. Corrupt media.
It’s almost as if Trump knows how to negotiate for things he wants.
> “We should have been doing this decades ago”
That’s exactly what the President said!
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