Posted on 08/31/2018 9:39:10 AM PDT by SpeedyInTexas
If you buy a Chinese made vehicle, will you buy another in 60 months?
The current Focus is assembled in Michigan. You might be thinking of the Fiesta.
Ford had announced intention to shift the Focus to Mexico, then switched and said it would be built in China. Now China is off the table, so maybe Mexico is too.
I remember that. If I had to choose between a foreign built Focus and an American built Cruze, I would take the Chevy and that’s even with my disgust with the bailouts.
You must be under age 50. Or your memory is not as good as it used to be. Back in 1950’s and 1960’s American car manufacturers faced little competition from foreign countries. Only foreign cars were compacts such as the Beetle and compact Japanese cars.
So what did American manufacturers do? They kept raising prices! As soon as foreign car makers began sending larger cars to US, what did the American manufacturers do? They cut prices!
A PERMANENT 25% tariff on imported cars as you are advocating is a clear go ahead signal to US manufacturers to raise prices by 25%.
What Trump is doing is exactly right. He is threatening tariffs simply as a tool to get better trade deals and REDUCE existing tariffs on American exports by Europe and Asian countries.
Prosperity and cheap goods are first cousins. Today most have smart phones, cars with built in GPS & A/C & Cruise & Automatic, MP3 players, multiple color TV’s, Air conditioned homes, and cable TV. Very few had these items back when we did not import many items. We had to pay American wages to buy American goods.
Prosperity is absent if people can’t afford half the goods. Foreign imports increase competition, and competition creates prosperity.
So foreign trade is good, but unfair foreign trade is bad. If China imposes 25% tariff on American cars but we charge only 2.5% tariff on cars made in China, that is stupid trade.
Built Ford tough and quieter than ever due to quality Chinese insulation made from their sheetrock - may be hazardous to your health
Volvo has select models produced in China
Buick Envision and Cadillac CT6 Hybrid are built in China and exported to the US. There are probably some others.
Up to the early 70s, Japanese cars were pieces of junk, and Heaven help you if you got into an accident in one. They got the market because their products and quality continually improved while the quality of Detroit's offerings just got progressively worse. It wasn't that they were cheaper (they sure aren't now) but that they offered more bang for the buck that drove Americans into Japanese cars.
But that's an invalid analogy anyway. The Japanese won our market fair and square by offering a superior product. The trade deals we have in place now literally force American workers to compete with slave labor, not to mention funding China's infrastructure and military at the expense of ours. Factor that in, and that $.10 you save on a Chinese made paint brush isn't much of a bargain.
Today most have smart phones, cars with built in GPS & A/C & Cruise & Automatic, MP3 players, multiple color TV’s, Air conditioned homes, and cable TV. Very few had these items back when we did not import many items.
A lot of those items didn't exist 30 years ago, and I don't see how I'm missing out by not having a TV in every other room.
We had to pay American wages to buy American goods.
If that was all there was to it then I could see your point, but it isn't. Yes, the goods themselves are cheaper, but we end up paying for their infrastructure and military at the expense of ours. Also, don't forget all of the money we're borrowing to pay for this stuff. Remember the stimulus checks Bush sent out in 2007? Borrowed from China, and the goods we bought were made in China, so the money bounced around retail for a while but ended up back in China. We paid them once for the goods, and again for the loans to buy the goods.
Foreign imports increase competition, and competition creates prosperity.
Those closed manufacturing plants in once growing cities that are now decaying is hardly a sign of prosperity.
So foreign trade is good, but unfair foreign trade is bad. If China imposes 25% tariff on American cars but we charge only 2.5% tariff on cars made in China, that is stupid trade.
Yes. I have no problem with free trade, as long as it's fair trade, which we do not have now.
That was my point all along. Foreign trade is great if Tariffs are similar. Right now EU & China & even Canada have higher tariffs and in places like Japan & China there are many roadblocks to American imports in addition to tariffs. The president is doing everything exactly as I would have.
“A PERMANENT 25% tariff on imported cars as you are advocating is a clear go ahead signal to US manufacturers to raise prices by 25%.”
You make good points. However, much has changed in the past 2-3 decades. There is much more competition in the USA now because of foreign auto manufacturers who produce in the USA.
Lets take an example. The Lexus RX is imported (from Canada I think). If there was a permanent 25% tariff put on the RX, could Cadillac for example increase their SUV prices by 25%? The answer is likely No. Why? BMW produces luxury SUVs (in South Carolina?). Cadillac would price themselves out of the market unless BMW hiked locally produced SUVs by 25% also.
What you are saying, will only be true if American manufacturers AND foreign manufacturers who produce in the USA hike prices together. While possible, I think that is unlikely. (we may disagree on this). But I’d like the odds for my belief.
President Trump does not want permanent tariffs on anything or any country. Neither do I. Because tariffs are another tax money for the government to waste.
What Trump is attempting to do is force all trading partners to sign mutually fair deals tending towards zero tariffs.
Right now we have unfair trade, not free trade. I have personal experience with this when I worked at a machinery manufacturer. Our customers preferred our machines because our delivery was quicker and our service response to maintain those multi-million dollar machines was much quicker than our Japanese competitors. However Japan offered them financing at very low interest rates, and our government did not offer any such help to us. Unless the buyer had cash on hand, they could not afford to go to a bank and get a prime rate+2 interest loans.
But it was worse than that. We could not export our machines to Japan because of the bureaucratic barriers and tariffs Japan imposed, while Japanese machines had no such barriers in USA and much lower tariffs.
We have been in trade talks since before Reagan with partners. They hold meetings in interesting places in luxurious resorts and nothing changes. Trump knows this and understands this and has the balls to play hard ball.
2007’s too?
I’m over smart asses. And I blame 3 decades of bullshit trade for this!
Next...
A fucking American!
P.S. Kiss My Ass
Meanwhile, Nissan and Toyota Full Size Pickup Trucks are Manufactured in America by Americans.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.