The lies and exaggerations of Aluminum and Steel tariff increases

Anyone performing a simple internet search will find domestic production and import figures and related prices and overall costs just about any product you could name.

The US is the largest importer of steel and aluminum in the world. Canada and Mexico are at #8 and #10, yet Canada and Mexico are two of the worlds major importers of steel and aluminum into the US. The data is not so easily available to show that these two countries are buying cheap foreign goods, adding a markup and using NAFTA to ship those cheap foreign goods to the US

The US has become the worlds dumping ground for excess capacity from countries throughout the rest of the globe - Global Corporations buy those cheap goods, add a markup and use NAFTA to ship through Canada and Mexico to the USA without those goods ever leaving the containers. All of this is at the cost of American jobs - it's easier to buy cheap foreign goods and cut American jobs when the government supports such dumping tactics.

The bad press against the Presidents proposed tariff increases is the global corporations being upset at President Trump taking away more profit and giving the USA more good paying jobs.

 

Amen , when the E. U. and the main stream media hate it and start belching up BS .you know it is good for America and Americans .

 

The face of war has changed significantly since WWII but do we want to wake up to a large protracted conflict with all of our steel coming from half way around the world or worse from behind enemy lines? It only takes months to shut down a factory but years to start one up. Self sufficiency goes hand in hand with National Security and should take priority over possible price increases and profits for globalists.

 

Remember when Don was courting China in an attempt to keep N. Korea's nuclear ambitions in check? You think they'll be more or less receptive to cooperate now? Strategic thinking is not his strong suit unless we're talking about how to keep the women he cheated on Melania with quiet by paying them off............and even that didn't work.

 

Canada is the 18th largest exporter and importer of steel in the world. it imports about 1 million metric tons more than it exports and 88% of its exports are to the US. Funny but Canada also IMPORTS close to the same amount from the US as it exports.

But no worries, trade wars are easy to win. Yep just trust the erratic lyin' king. He'll bring back good payin' jobs. Sad.

 

You couldn't be more wrong. Quit following the fake news who are partially owned by chinese corporate interests and check out the real facts. The Chinese have had no intention of agreeing to any "deals" with the USA. They see our country as vain and corrupt. And who can blame them with the Democrat and Republican leadership licking their arses.

 

Consider your statement - Why would Canada import steel to the US and then have steel exported from the US to them.

Hello? Hello? They sell it to the US for an inflated price and then buy it back at a much lower cost.

Try thinking, instead of the usual knee jerk blame Trump even if he's blameless. You're the sucker for listening to these liars tell you what they want you to hear. These trade treaties are sending our jobs and our money everyplace but to the US.

 

No, a strongly interdependent, cooperating world economy leads to national security due to the dependence of bad actors on that economy.

No trade action by the US against any nation is going to have a noticeable affect on that nation's economy, as there is just too much diversity today.

Enemy lines? What does that mean? Are you aware that we're talking about Mexico and Canada - two serious and constant allies?

 

Steel does not come as one product.

Like many other products, imports are modified to add value and then exported.

And, suggesting that by making foreign steel expensive our economy will improve is ridiculous. We buy steel from where we do because it is less expensive. That means US employers can do more with it.

If you artificially raise the price of the components they need, US employers will become less competitive.

 

Tariffs are anti free market. I wonder why the free market proponents are now cheering the tariffs that Trump imposed? If Obama had done the same thing, they would have called him a socialist and worse.

What those tariffs are really doing is pick winners and losers. The winners are a very minor company and workers segment in the steel and aluminum industry (no wonder steel bosses were sitting next to him during the announcement, I wonder what the payback is behind close doors for such special favors). The losers are everyone else who will have to pay more for products that contain steel. A car, for example, will increase $200 in price due to this tariff. There goes your annual tax cut.

So, do Trump fans go full in support of anti-free market policies and government picking winners and losers? It seems that way.

Personally, I am not against leveling the playing field in international trade. However, a better way would be to impose taxes on US companies that offshore, independent of the exact market they are in. This way, everyone will be affected the same way and the benefit doesn't go only to select market players.

 

How much of the total steel and aluminum used by industry each year is from imports?

 

We both import and export steel and aluminum. These products aren't of one single form. Different corporations buy stuff, improve it in some way and then resell it in a form that is not final. Some company may buy steel, create steel rope, rebar, or whatever and then resell that.

You can look it up.

 

The issue is that most of the countries were are trading with have leveraged an average 3% VAT on imports on % on exports while the USA has 0% VAT on imports and 3% on exports. Then there is dumping. The main advantage of dumping is selling at an unfairly competitive lower price. A country subsidizes the exporting business to enable them to sell below cost.

The working people in the USA have been getting screwed.
Consider that during the years 2000 through 2016, The average hourly wage kept pace with inflation.
Based on inflation, the average house cost should have risen from $200,000 in 2000 to $280,000 in 2016
https://www.statista.com/statistics/185335/median-hourly-earnings-of-wage-and-salary-workers/
That's an inflation rate of 40%for the 16 years or an average of 2.5% per year.
However:
The cost of the average house in the USA went from $200,000 in 2000 to $380,000 at the end of 2016.
https://www.census.gov/construction/nrs/pdf/uspricemon.pdf
That's a housing inflation rate of 90% or 5.625% per year for the same 16 year period.

In case you were wondering, the cost of rent went from an average $841 in 2000 to $1478 in 2016.
That's a total inflation of 75.75% for the 16 years or 4.73% per year.

In other words, imported trade goods are cheap and holding inflation down while the cost of housing has been just about double the given inflation rate depending on whether you rent or buy. Either way the American worker is getting screwed. Consider the average retiree getting those small cola increase every year while true costs have doubled the actual inflation rate - most of this due to the anti-American trade policies the government has embraced.

One final but worthy note - consider how many trillions the Bush and Obama government saved over the past 16 years in savings through half sized COLA increases.

 

Look up the meaning of compounding. Dividing a price rising by 90 % over 16 years is not an average annual rate of 5.625%.
Compounding at a rate of 5,625% for 16 years would result in an total increase of just over 140%.

 

I applied the same math across the board based on an average of the total change - as the numbers in each year are different, I would end up with a chart that arrived at the same total - averaging makes it simpler to understand.

 

With respect, no, you are not taking compounding into account. Your average 5.625% results in an increase of 140%, not 90%

 

Yep, that's the litmus test.....if the America haters hate it, it's good for America.

 

Since June of 2015 Trump hasn't said anything right or done anything right. Don't you watch TV? Don't you bleve?

 

The question then becomes - will US companies build products with more expensive steel and aluminum made in the US and be at a disadvantage selling said products overseas - or will they simply build factories overseas to take advantage of both cheaper labor and cheaper steel and aluminum ... not really a question. Trump's trade wars are going to back-fire in the long run.

 

.The same applies to the 2.5% inflation rate I gave - if you compound the 2.5% each year you end up at a higher end result than the the actual 140%.

That is why I point out the number I give is an average.

If you want to use Compound Annual Growth Rate or CAGR then the two rates would be 2.215% for given inflation and 4.1% for the housing inflation using the formula :

 

China isn't going to do jacksh*t for the USA about N. Korea. Never has. Never will.

 

You're kidding. Consider the size of the US economy - A few retaliatory tariffs won't mean a thing either way. Also, consider that the US is the largest consumer in the world - you don't bite the hand that feeds you.

One point a lot of people rarely consider - the other large global economies in India and China are net exporters and the US is their biggest customer. Both countries have made it a habit of cheating and President Trump is showing them that the US policies have changed. As for Canada and Mexico - the welfare check is not in the mail.

 

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

If President Trump had not reached out to China, the same critics would be bad mouthing him.

By the way, is it me or is Kim courting the Donald?

 

And never should. China should act in China's best interest.

 

I would think that Chinas best interests would be a pacific Pacific (pardon the pun)