I don’t know how I feel about Trump’s tariffs on China. I realize we are all hurt in a trade war and that free trade is generally the best policy, but the Chinese have taken unfair advantage of decades of American politicians being asleep at the switch. Over all I think Trump has identified the right problem, but is employing the wrong solution.
I think it is hilarious that this guy is asking BoneSpurs to “act rationally” — name me one single incident where he has ever acted rationally.
If the article in “The New York Post”,two days ago,is correct we will be hearing from McConnell.
He will keep his mouth shut on Trump and Russia but not Trump and China tariffs.
Yeah…that’s asking a lot
You know, after all those years when they called our leaders as mad dogs, rabid, bloody-fanged wolves tearing apart the carcasses of the workers and so forth, this brings you up short a bit because it’s a calm, dry statement of fact.
Hint to China: Give him praise or money and he will bend over for you. There is your rational response.
He does realize who he’s talking to, doesn’t he?
Unfortunately, we have failed to address China’s violation of conditions and requirements when they joined the World Trade Organization.
However, there has been some pushback from the US.
During the Obama administration, we filed 16 enforcement complaints with the World Trade Organization against China.
(also, we filed three trade enforcement challenges against India, and several others against a series of major economies including Indonesia, Argentina, the Philippines, and the European Union — more than any other WTO member.)
The U.S. has won every single one of those complaints that have been announced by the WTO so far. To ensure the greatest economic benefits and a level playing field for American workers and exporters, the Obama administration used trade enforcement actions to emphasize opening these large, strategic markets to which the U.S. exports a diverse array of products and services.
I agree that China has abused its position as a WTO member, but I am uncomfortable with the Trump administration’s willingness to scapegoat China, Mexico and other nations of “stealing American jobs,” particularly when there was no apparent shortage of American firms willing to invest in Chinese facilities and facilitate technology transfer, to the point that it undercut the interests of American workers.
And this crude scapegoating on trade issues seems to be just another facet of Trump’s general tendency to promote xenophobia and nativism when it comes to immigration, diplomacy and other issues.
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang appealed to Washington on Tuesday to “act rationally” …
<img src="/uploads/default/original/3X/2/9/293b9c817e6242d7a82d3b6a020ab60702540591.png" width="299" height="168">BEIJING (AP) — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang today announced that he will kick off his long awaited “Act Rationally” comedy tour with a two-week engagement at The Venetian Macao on March 30.
We all read about assorted crazy, erratic, unhinged world leaders in other nations. Duterte, Kim Jong-il, Ceausescu, Amin, Suharto, Duvalier, Pinochet. We shake our heads at their lunacy, and pity the people they lead.
Weird to think now other nations view us through the same prism.
Trump’s announced tariffs clobber our closest allies while leaving china almost untouched. It’s possible that no one pointed this out to trump, but it’s also possible that he’s really that much of a vicious coward.
Meanwhile, on the whole economic opening up of china, I see that people have learned from trump’s example that bald-faced lies are the way to conduct successful negotiations.
How many complaints has the U.S. filed against domestic retailers selling clothes made by Chinese children shackled to sewing machines? The Chinese are the bad guys, not Kohl’s or Macy’s.
Mexico smuggles drugs into the U.S. They’re the bad guys, not the U.S. users they sell to.
East Asian nations violate working condition and wage agreements in making goods sold to the U.S. They’re the bad guys, not the U.S. consumers buying the goods.
Illegal immigrants are taking our jobs (allegedly) because they’re willing to work for less, under harsher conditions. They’re the bad guys, not those employing them or the U.S. consumers buying the fruits of their labor.
Seems legit.
Agree.
Also, NAFTA was but one factor in a decades-long exodus of American jobs from our country. Does anyone really think manufacturing was strong up to and until NAFTA? There was also the effect of decades of disinvestment in American manufacturing, decades of union-busting, tax policies that undermined support for long-term industrial strength and domestic manufacturing, China’s entry into the W.T.O. and obtaining “Most Favored Nation” status, etc.
I worked summers in a steel factory in the Midwest starting in 1974 and through to 1979. The newest overhead press there was built in 1941, and it was not even made in the U.S.A., but in the former Soviet Union. It, and all the other presses there, pre-dated OSHA safety regulations, and worker injuries were commonplace. And some of the nearby steel mills were originally pig iron mills from the 1800s that were converted as cheaply as possible.
And by the early 1980s, most of those firms already had begun the process of subcontracting out their labor operations to the non-union South, or moving overseas.
The fact is, before NAFTA was even a glimmer in the eye of President Reagan – who spearheaded the initiative under the banner of the North American Union – the private sector was engaged in a policy of active disinvestment in these kinds of facilities, which hollowed out our industrial sector.
And lawmakers enacted legislation that provided incentives for them to do just that:
Leveraged buyouts of manufacturers created huge amounts of corporate debt which resulted in pressure from shareholders to downsize, shift priorities and budget allocations, or otherwise trim expenses in order to maximize revenues and boost stock prices;
Private equity firms and corporate raiders acquired industrial firms only to raid pension funds, spin-off or outsource profitable divisions, and sell off valuable real estate or other assets for short-term gains;
Tax laws were enacted to provide firms with incentives to shut down factories and outsource, write off “phantom” losses that existed only on paper, take advantage of accelerated depreciation schedules, etc.