06-25-2018, 03:53 PM
(06-22-2018, 10:54 PM)sally Wrote: He made tariffs on aluminum and steel that won't do anything but put American businesses out of business because they can't pass the price down to consumers.
I agree with this too, but hope we're wrong. Right now, though, Trump's trade wars and tariffs are indeed causing problems.
Trump thanked Harley Davidson in Wisconsin for manufacturing in the U.S. during his campaign. He promised to make it financially beneficial for U.S. companies to continue or come back to manufacturing in the U.S. to win support from blue collar workers and manufacturing companies.
As a result of his recent tariffs, however, Harley Davidson is creating a manufacturing facility in Europe. The company simply can't afford to eat the extra $2,200 per bike and the EU consumers won't bear such a high downstream price increase (according to the company).
And, the Dow is down 300+ points.
Wait til U.S. farmers get hit a little harder by the retaliatory tariffs slapped on the U.S. by China and Europe. Soy bean farmers face probably the highest risk. The U.S. is the biggest global exporter of soy beans, but Brazil is poised to take over in supplying the large Chinese demand.
Ivanka Trump's fashion and beauty label does virtually all of its manufacturing in China. I guess it doesn't make a company unpatriotic to outsource overseas for low labor costs IF that company is headed by a Trump family member, in President Trump's mind. At any rate, let's see if tariffs that severely hurt her business will be imposed by China on the export side or the U.S. on the import side. I imagine she's building quite a consumer base inside China though, so it won't surprise me if she's already buffered any potential losses.
I don't mind re-negotiations where appropriate. But, trade wars that hurt businesses and farmers can be avoided with good strong behind-the-scenes negotiations. That's not what's happening here. It's another dramatic for-show pressure and name-calling campaign.
And, those dairy tariffs by Canada that caused Trump to have a fit? That's a protectionist tariff to protect farmers in Canada, just like the U.S. does for peanut farmers, and Japan does to protect rice farmers. The U.S. is not 'being treated very unfairly, very unfairly' in that regard, in my view.