Stalin
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2008
- Messages
- 3,946
Trump’s main motivation for tariffs is arguably to increase manufacturing in the US, but factory activity has actually declined in recent months, according to the Institute for Supply Management. Harley-Davidson says it has reduced production because of tariff-induced uncertainty and higher expenses. Ford, which assembles more cars in the US than any other automaker, complains that Trump’s tariff mess caused its profits to fall by $800m in the second quarter. Trumps’s mishmash of tariffs, including steep import taxes on steel, aluminum and auto parts, have made Ford’s production more problematic and expensive.
Trump’s trade war has pushed relations with many countries to their worst point in decades. Acting more like a mob boss than a dealmaker, Trump has told various nations that if they promise to cough up several hundred billion dollars in investment in the US, he’ll make nice and lower their tariff rate. Or else. One economist called this “a global shakedown”. Many officials in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Canada are no doubt seething. Trump seems to treat Washington’s trading partners as punching bags—that’s not a winning strategy for the US or the world.
Another motivation behind Trump’s tariffs is his desire to erase the huge US trade deficit. That deficit has certainly been a problem, helping lead to myriad factory closings and job losses across blue-collar America. But even with that its record trade deficits, the US has, by many measures, the world’s richest, most successful economy.
Trump boasts that his tariffs are already bringing back some manufacturing—and there’s no denying that there are several examples, Last Wednesday, Apple vowed to invest $100bn in advanced manufacturing in the US, and GM plans to increase production of its Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra trucks in Indiana while trimming output in Canada.
Nonetheless, there’s a huge question mark as to whether Trump’s tariffs will inspire a major manufacturing rebound in the US. Many experts say the 15% tariffs imposed on the EU, Japan and other places are too low to persuade companies to move production to the US. For corporations to build a new $500m factory in the US, they will want solid assurances of what economic conditions will be four and five years from now. But does anyone actually think that the mercurial Mr Trump won’t issue new tariff threats or order tariff changes within four or five weeks?
Perhaps the newspaper headline should be, “Trump Has Already Lost a Pivotal Part of His Trade War.” All the months of Trump’s on-again, off-again, up-and-down tariffs may mean he has so spooked and alienated corporate planners that he will never achieve his goal of bringing back far more factories, notwithstanding other countries’ often-vague pledges of billions in investments
www.theguardian.com
comrade stalin
moscow
Trump’s trade war has pushed relations with many countries to their worst point in decades. Acting more like a mob boss than a dealmaker, Trump has told various nations that if they promise to cough up several hundred billion dollars in investment in the US, he’ll make nice and lower their tariff rate. Or else. One economist called this “a global shakedown”. Many officials in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Canada are no doubt seething. Trump seems to treat Washington’s trading partners as punching bags—that’s not a winning strategy for the US or the world.
Another motivation behind Trump’s tariffs is his desire to erase the huge US trade deficit. That deficit has certainly been a problem, helping lead to myriad factory closings and job losses across blue-collar America. But even with that its record trade deficits, the US has, by many measures, the world’s richest, most successful economy.
Trump boasts that his tariffs are already bringing back some manufacturing—and there’s no denying that there are several examples, Last Wednesday, Apple vowed to invest $100bn in advanced manufacturing in the US, and GM plans to increase production of its Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra trucks in Indiana while trimming output in Canada.
Nonetheless, there’s a huge question mark as to whether Trump’s tariffs will inspire a major manufacturing rebound in the US. Many experts say the 15% tariffs imposed on the EU, Japan and other places are too low to persuade companies to move production to the US. For corporations to build a new $500m factory in the US, they will want solid assurances of what economic conditions will be four and five years from now. But does anyone actually think that the mercurial Mr Trump won’t issue new tariff threats or order tariff changes within four or five weeks?
Perhaps the newspaper headline should be, “Trump Has Already Lost a Pivotal Part of His Trade War.” All the months of Trump’s on-again, off-again, up-and-down tariffs may mean he has so spooked and alienated corporate planners that he will never achieve his goal of bringing back far more factories, notwithstanding other countries’ often-vague pledges of billions in investments
Trump is losing his foolish trade war. This will cost ordinary Americans greatly | Steven Greenhouse
Trump’s trade war has pushed up inflation, slashed US job gains, slowed economic growth and caused the manufacturing sector to sputter
comrade stalin
moscow
