Will tariffs make America great?

Here is more information for you to summarily dismiss without reading regarding the value of Trump's tariffs:

U.S. Steel Praises Trump's Tariffs

United Auto Workers Union Backs Trump's Tariffs


Fact Sheet on Tariffs

Harvard-trained attorney Joe Klein has a written a great article titled "Trump's America-First Tariffs" that explains and defends Trump's tariffs. Here's an excerpt:

President Trump announced that he intends to impose reciprocal tariffs on all U.S. trading partners on April 2nd that match the existing tariffs they have imposed on American goods. Reciprocal tariffs are the essence of fair trade. Too many of America’s trading partners impose substantially higher tariffs on their imports of U.S. goods than the U.S. imposes on imports of their goods. Hopefully, these countries will get the message that it is in their best interest to sharply reduce their tariffs to avoid reciprocal U.S. tariffs at the higher levels these countries are currently charging. Once the reciprocal tariffs are set, they will form the baseline from which the U.S. and its trading partners can negotiate lower tariffs that will benefit all parties.

supply chains.”
Edited by jimbob: 
snipped for Rule 4
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Finally, imposing tariffs on imported products, parts, components, and vital raw materials that are essential to America’s national security will incentivize more domestic investment in these critical industries, including the defense, communications, energy, and health sectors. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also noted that President Trump views steel and aluminum as “fundamental for our national security.” (Trump’s America First Tariffs | Frontpage Mag)
 
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Olmstead said:
Great is relative. After the deprivation, starvation, and social upheaval, the population might be receptive to making America more like China.
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to be fair i think china has become more like america over time. it's the money
 
mikegriffith1 said:
Here is more information for you to summarily dismiss without reading regarding the value of Trump's tariffs:

U.S. Steel Praises Trump's Tariffs

United Auto Workers Union Backs Trump's Tariffs


Fact Sheet on Tariffs

Harvard-trained attorney Joe Klein has a written a great article titled "Trump's America-First Tariffs" that explains and defends Trump's tariffs. Here's an excerpt:

President Trump announced that he intends to impose reciprocal tariffs on all U.S. trading partners on April 2nd that match the existing tariffs they have imposed on American goods. Reciprocal tariffs are the essence of fair trade. Too many of America’s trading partners impose substantially higher tariffs on their imports of U.S. goods than the U.S. imposes on imports of their goods. Hopefully, these countries will get the message that it is in their best interest to sharply reduce their tariffs to avoid reciprocal U.S. tariffs at the higher levels these countries are currently charging. Once the reciprocal tariffs are set, they will form the baseline from which the U.S. and its trading partners can negotiate lower tariffs that will benefit all parties.

ome countries are beginning to take President Trump’s threat of reciprocal tariffs seriously and are adjusting accordingly. For example, India, which has extremely high tariffs on imports into its country, has shown signs of tempering its restrictive trade policies. During a meeting between President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month, the two leaders agreed to initiate talks on a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with the goal of finalizing the first phase by this fall. Negotiations between India’s Commerce Minister and his U.S. counterpart, along with U.S. trade officials, got underway shortly thereafter. As reported in the Financial Express, India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal “stated that the BTA aims to enhance India-US trade, increase market access, reduce barriers, and integrate supply chains.”

President Trump’s tariff threat is also paying dividends by influencing decisions by Asian and European firms in the automotive, technology, and apparel industries to shift some of their production capacity to the United States. . . .

President Trump’s increase in the tariffs he is imposing on China and other countries that dump their government-subsidized goods in U.S. markets is intended to counter their strategy of flooding the U.S. market with goods sold below cost. This protects domestic companies from potentially being driven out of business by unfair competition.

President Trump also wants to protect American workers’ jobs. This objective is one of the primary drivers behind the president’s decision to impose a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum imports from all of America’s trading partners, including Canada and Mexico. Foreign steel and aluminum producers are competing unfairly with American companies by charging artificially low prices for the steel and aluminum they export to the U.S. that the foreign companies’ governments subsidize and otherwise support. Tariffs are a way of leveling the playing field. If successful, this would keep more U.S. workers employed by helping American companies to stay in business and spurring them to invest in building more production capacity in the United States.

Finally, imposing tariffs on imported products, parts, components, and vital raw materials that are essential to America’s national security will incentivize more domestic investment in these critical industries, including the defense, communications, energy, and health sectors. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also noted that President Trump views steel and aluminum as “fundamental for our national security.” (Trump’s America First Tariffs | Frontpage Mag)
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Yeah, never mind how the markets are reacting, mikegriffith1 has links!
 
mikegriffith1 said:
Harvard-trained attorney Joe Klein has a written a great article titled "Trump's America-First Tariffs" that explains and defends Trump's tariffs. Here's an excerpt:

President Trump announced that he intends to impose reciprocal tariffs on all U.S. trading partners on April 2nd that match the existing tariffs they have imposed on American goods. Reciprocal tariffs are the essence of fair trade. Too many of America’s trading partners impose substantially higher tariffs on their imports of U.S. goods than the U.S. imposes on imports of their goods. Hopefully, these countries will get the message that it is in their best interest to sharply reduce their tariffs to avoid reciprocal U.S. tariffs at the higher levels these countries are currently charging. Once the reciprocal tariffs are set, they will form the baseline from which the U.S. and its trading partners can negotiate lower tariffs that will benefit all parties.

ome countries are beginning to take President Trump’s threat of reciprocal tariffs seriously and are adjusting accordingly. For example, India, which has extremely high tariffs on imports into its country, has shown signs of tempering its restrictive trade policies. During a meeting between President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month, the two leaders agreed to initiate talks on a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with the goal of finalizing the first phase by this fall. Negotiations between India’s Commerce Minister and his U.S. counterpart, along with U.S. trade officials, got underway shortly thereafter. As reported in the Financial Express, India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal “stated that the BTA aims to enhance India-US trade, increase market access, reduce barriers, and integrate supply chains.”

President Trump’s tariff threat is also paying dividends by influencing decisions by Asian and European firms in the automotive, technology, and apparel industries to shift some of their production capacity to the United States. . . .

President Trump’s increase in the tariffs he is imposing on China and other countries that dump their government-subsidized goods in U.S. markets is intended to counter their strategy of flooding the U.S. market with goods sold below cost. This protects domestic companies from potentially being driven out of business by unfair competition.

President Trump also wants to protect American workers’ jobs. This objective is one of the primary drivers behind the president’s decision to impose a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum imports from all of America’s trading partners, including Canada and Mexico. Foreign steel and aluminum producers are competing unfairly with American companies by charging artificially low prices for the steel and aluminum they export to the U.S. that the foreign companies’ governments subsidize and otherwise support. Tariffs are a way of leveling the playing field. If successful, this would keep more U.S. workers employed by helping American companies to stay in business and spurring them to invest in building more production capacity in the United States.

Finally, imposing tariffs on imported products, parts, components, and vital raw materials that are essential to America’s national security will incentivize more domestic investment in these critical industries, including the defense, communications, energy, and health sectors. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also noted that President Trump views steel and aluminum as “fundamental for our national security.” (Trump’s America First Tariffs | Frontpage Mag)
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this is like a 5th grade book report
 
I'm also gonna say this, then I'll shut up about it. Monospaced fonts are not particularly readable. They certainly have their place in some contexts, but large blocks of text are not one of them. Quote tags exist for a reason.

Okay, that's all I wanted to say. Carry on.
 
Oh, wait. Tariffs must be bad, indeed "fascist," since Donald Trump is using them. If he's doing it, it must be evil.

Of course, it was not all that long ago when leading Democrats were all for tariffs and protectionism, for exactly the same reasons that Trump gives for using them now. Democrats such as Howard Dean, Bob Kerry, John Edwards, and Bernie Sanders, to name a few, are on record as favoring protective tariffs (although Edwards later changed his tune).

Major labor unions have long favored protective tariffs. As I've mentioned, the UAW and U.S. Steel support Trump's tariffs.
 
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mikegriffith1 said:
Oh, wait. Tariffs must be bad, indeed "fascist," since Donald Trump is using them. If he's doing it, it must be evil.

Of course, it was not all that long ago when leading Democrats were all for tariffs and protectionism, for exactly the same reasons that Trump gives for using them now. Democrats such as Howard Dean, Bob Kerry, John Edwards, and Bernie Sanders, to name a few, are on record as favoring protective tariffs (although Edwards later changed his tune).

Major labor unions have long favored protective tariffs. As I've mentioned, the UAW and U.S. Steel support Trump's tariffs.
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want to go on record that the tariffs will be good for the economy and workers?
 
mikegriffith1 said:
Oh, wait. Tariffs must be bad, indeed "fascist," since Donald Trump is using them. If he's doing it, it must be evil.

Of course, it was not all that long ago when leading Democrats were all for tariffs and protectionism, for exactly the same reasons that Trump gives for using them now. Democrats such as Howard Dean, Bob Kerry, John Edwards, and Bernie Sanders, to name a few, are on record as favoring protective tariffs (although Edwards later changed his tune).

Major labor unions have long favored protective tariffs. As I've mentioned, the UAW and U.S. Steel support Trump's tariffs.
Click to expand...
Maybe "America" should have thought about all of that before outsourcing all their manufacturing abroad to maximize profits. How long will it take for American companies to revive local Industry and also placate shareholders while they rebuild local manufacturing capacity? Will there be a special visa category for low paid migrant workers to ensure companies maintain can lower labour costs?
 
One question that hasn't been answered is: why?

For what reason does the US want to reduce its Trade Deficit?

It's certainly not for the consumers.
It's not for the workers, either, since companies are making record profits but don't pass them on to their workforce - selling more domestically won't change that one bit.
It's not even for the companies, as they are happy with their supply lines.
 
Susheel said:
Maybe "America" should have thought about all of that before outsourcing all their manufacturing abroad to maximize profits. How long will it take for American companies to revive local Industry and also placate shareholders while they rebuild local manufacturing capacity? Will there be a special visa category for low paid migrant workers to ensure companies maintain can lower labour costs?
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No one with any sense is going to invest money in doing the highlighted when Trump might do a U turn on the tariffs that make it economically viable at any moment. It's impossible to make any long term plans based on anything a POTUS as ignorant, capricious and easily manipulated as Trump says or does.
 
that's a given - but why is everyone so eager to jump off the cliff after the fat orange lemming, knowing full well that (unlike you) he has a parachute?
 
Pixel42 said:
No one with any sense is going to invest money in doing the highlighted when Trump might do a U turn on the tariffs that make it economically viable at any moment. It's impossible to make any long term plans based on anything a POTUS as ignorant, capricious and easily manipulated as Trump says or does.
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Well, quite. Capricious is exactly the word. The brilliant plan appears to be that tariffs will push prices up far enough to persuade domestic and foreign manufacturers to go all-in on making stuff in the US instead of importing. The immediate downside is US customers will pay for it.

Unfortunately no sane business is going to invest in long term plans based on a tariff regime that might only persist for a matter of days or weeks.
 
Jack by the hedge said:
Well, quite. Capricious is exactly the word. The brilliant plan appears to be that tariffs will push prices up far enough to persuade domestic and foreign manufacturers to go all-in on making stuff in the US instead of importing. The immediate downside is US customers will pay for it.

Unfortunately no sane business is going to invest in long term plans based on a tariff regime that might only persist for a matter of days or weeks.
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it's extremely unlikely that works, there's much more involved in using tariffs that way than applying them. government spending on building the necessary infrastructure is a large part of that. but they're cutting spending. plus they're tariffing raw materials, like lumber and aluminum for example. you need that stuff to build the plants and equipment, and you can't build a factory that makes lumber and aluminum.

long term business plan? you can't even get an accurate quote for next week.
 
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Pixel42 said:
No one with any sense is going to invest money in doing the highlighted when Trump might do a U turn on the tariffs that make it economically viable at any moment. It's impossible to make any long term plans based on anything a POTUS as ignorant, capricious and easily manipulated as Trump says or does.
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Didn't he already try something similar in his first term in the form of incentives to encourage local manufacture and increase employment in the form of some sort of incentives? The companies involved made some token gestures and then just laid the hired workers off after a few months. Don't remember the details though.
 
Susheel said:
Didn't he already try something similar in his first term in the form of incentives to encourage local manufacture and increase employment in the form of some sort of incentives? The companies involved made some token gestures and then just laid the hired workers off after a few months. Don't remember the details though.
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ppp loans?
 
That could be it...not sure. That was the one where quite a few MAGA cronies opted in to make a quick buck and later charged with fraud right?
 
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Jack by the hedge said:
Well, quite. Capricious is exactly the word. The brilliant plan appears to be that tariffs will push prices up far enough to persuade domestic and foreign manufacturers to go all-in on making stuff in the US instead of importing. The immediate downside is US customers will pay for it.

Unfortunately no sane business is going to invest in long term plans based on a tariff regime that might only persist for a matter of days or weeks.
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Add in how long infrastructure can take to build and bring up to speed and apart from small-scale operations most would not have USA based factories etc. ready before Trump is meant to leave office.
 
Susheel said:
That could be it...not sure. That was the one where quite a few MAGA cronies opted in to make a quick buck and later charged with fraud right?
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well they weren't charged with fraud. the ppp loans were just free money. it was intended to keep payroll running during covid, but what they did is they gave out giant loans to anyone who applied, the media widely reported that those loans were very likely to be forgiven, then they didn't ask for any documentation on what it was being used for or any proof it was paid out as payroll, then forgave it all. what was done with the money? good question.
 
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