Master Yoda at the end of the second of the Star Wars prequels:
Begun the clone war has
Exactly the right sentiment with this news:
President Donald Trump is expected to announce new tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum as soon as Thursday, a move that could trigger significant economic repercussions. “Our Steel and Aluminum industries (and many others) have been decimated by decades of unfair trade and bad policy with countries from around the world,” Trump tweeted Thursday morning. “We must not let our country, companies and workers be taken advantage of any longer. We want free, fair and SMART TRADE!”
I wonder if the agriculture sector will see this as smart:
The tariffs would most likely trigger retaliation from other countries. China is already looking into restrictions on US exports of sorghum and soybeans, both of which are important crops for American farmers. Additionally, the European Union was said to be mulling tariffs on US agricultural products like cheese and bourbon.
A follow-up focusing on the aluminum:
http://econospeak.blogspot.com/2018/03/on-those-aluminum-tariffs.html
Make Iceland Great Again!
In trade under free trade treaties there were winners and there were losers.
When the winners are ready and willing to compensate the losers for their losses then a deal might be possible. Compensation should begin with the payment of the sum of trade deficits over the last 17 years.
So if Agriculture has $796Billion for last years trade deficit just laying around then let negotiations begin. That shocking amount is the United States’ trade deficit with all other countries.
But otherwise there are winners and losers, and they will have to take their turn at the losers window.
From: http://angrybearblog.strategydemo.com/2013/11/trading-the-gdp-away-2008.html#comment-345358
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As I pointed out before “In 2010 when Obama advocated for a 4% limit on trade surpluses, it was loudly rejected”.
See: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/23/business/la-fi-trade-limits-20101023 –
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Actually 4% was also too high a trade defict or surplus, but at least it showed some recognition of the problem.
Personally I would like to see China retaliate. I don’t think that President Trump will take that lightly.
A sharp trade war with them might be enough to rebalance the relationship.
Only a complete moron can believe that we should purchase $505.6Billion in imports from China, while they purchase $130.4Billion from us. And they only purchase that amount if they get inside access to the corporations’ intellectural property. But American corporations have rushed into those deals.
Why do working class American workers always have to be the patseys in these US free trade agreements?
CNBC says NBC says he started that war because Hope Hicks resigned:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/02/trump-made-tariff-decision-in-a-fit-of-anger-nbc-news.html
pgl,
Nice insight. .. electricity prices in the US are too high for profitable Al smelting production (at present competitive capital return rates).
I say this based solely on the assumption that the quarterly reports are accurately stated real reasons.
But then why or how do other non-US Al producers remain profitable enough since clearly there’s a competitive reason involved. There’s more besides electricity prices in the US though I think.
Whatever the reason putting a tariff on Al (and Steel) imports will only give less incentive to US producers to become more competitive. Maybe competitive global producers price wars dropped the Al price in 2015, or maybe it was a glut of global inventory, or maybe it was just a slowdown in demand But all that says is that the Al production business is highly competitive. So Alcoa wants an exemption..
Hmmm:
Not seen much bourbon in China unless I was allowed to drink a private reserve of someone’s. Lots of Blue and Green label though. Always gave two bottles to each plant manager which the Japanese drank like water.
Run, it’s interesting what some societies cherish. Some years ago I worked a Black Market project for DOD. Panamanians cherished Black Label scotch. I sat in a base liquor store and watched 5 out of 6 customers buy Black Label. In S. Korea the hot products were bananas, large bags of rice and cigarettes. Base exchanges were always short of inventory.
Go figure.
CoRev:
I could never get bourbon in China or even Thailand for that matter. I was always drinking Scotch whiskey. The Japanese would guzzle Blue Label like the westerns on TV and throw it down. It was not a cherishing to speak of when I was there. It was more because they could do it. Just sipping and relishing the taste was out of the question. I think we as westerners taught them this. There is some truth to the movie “Rising Sun” as compared to the “Karate Kid” reflection of a culture.
They always took good care of me when I was there for weeks at a a time and I reciprocated.
Thank you for your comment CoRev. It was nice just to talk.
It’s the European governments who want to put tariffs on Kentucky bourbon. The Chinese love California wines which is no surprise to anyone who has ever endured Chinese wine.