Tag: China trade war

Guest Post by Jeff Thomas via International Man

“Trump is doing the right thing. Without him, we have no protection against China. China doesn’t only wish to dominate Asia, but the world.”

Here in Hanoi, so said my dinner companion – a major manufacturer and worldwide exporter of steel products.

He, like so many other major Asian producers, sees an opportunity in international trade for all of Asia to capitalize on.

In the Western world, the argument rages as to whether the US tariff war will benefit the US or not.

Continue reading “Dinner in Hanoi”

Guest Post by The Zman

As is always the case in these matters, the Michael Crichton observation about the media should be kept in mind. The growing rift between China and the United States is a complicated matter by itself. The impact it will have on global trade, the US economy and geopolitics is even more complex. Even people paid to risk real money in these areas don’t have a firm grasp of all the moving pieces. The people posting in the media know even less. Often they know nothing at all.

Continue reading “The China Questions”

Submitted by Hardscrabble Farmer

For those of you who have been paying scant attention to how a communist takeover progresses through a body politic, time to dust off your copy of The Gulag Archipelago and start reading.

We are in the midst of a Bolshevik rout of American society and it leads to one outcome.

Forewarned is forearmed.

Via Economic Collapse Blog

“Worst Year Ever”: The Chinese Ban On U.S. Agricultural Products Will Be A Death Blow For Countless U.S. Farms

U.S. farmers have never experienced a year quite like this.  During the first half of 2019, endless rain and unprecedented flooding were the major problems.  As a result of the incredibly wet conditions, millions of acres of prime farmland didn’t get planted at all, and tens of millions of other acres are going to yield a lot less than usual.  Even without anything else happening, we were going to see farm bankruptcies soar to absolutely crazy levels, but now the Chinese government is essentially cutting off U.S. agricultural imports.

Continue reading “The New Kulaks”

Guest Post by Tom Luongo

I’ve been making arguments for months that Donald Trump’s trade war with China is the height of stupidity. While Trump has the power to do what he’s been doing — sanctioning actors and applying tariffs — some power is best left not used.

The simple fact is that America is uncompetitive. This is at a deep and structural level. It’s at an education level. And this is something Trump’s trade team and his adherents refuse to admit.

When it comes to manufacturing and assembly, U.S. workers are not worth the money they are paid. Period.

Don’t take my word for it. Take Tim Cook’s. In an eye-opening interview from the end of 2017 Cook explains the basic problem with the U.S.

Continue reading “Tariffs on China Do Not Solve Lack of U.S. Competitiveness”

Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

Trump is living in an old world view of trade. The numbers are not accurate to begin with. The United States for years actually relied on economic interdependence with China as a stabilizing force in relations with Beijing on geopolitical levels. In other words, China needed the US market to sell products to provide employment for its people. The business between the two nations formed a check on U.S.-China affairs. However, as Trump escalates his trade dispute, he is playing with fire.

Continue reading “Trump’s Trade War with China – Just Wrong!”

Guest Post by Paul Craig Roberts

Wherever I look at US policy, foreign or domestic, I see only insanity, ignorance, and incompetence.

Take the issue of tariffs, which is Trump’s mistaken approach to bringing the jobs back home. The tariff “solution” overlooks that offshored US production counts as imports when US firms bring their goods into the US to be marketed.

Continue reading “The Tariff Issue”

Guest Post by Brett Arends

Are you kidding me?

I’m used to partisan, inaccurate drivel from all sides these days, but the media’s coverage of President Trump’s tariffs and the so-called “trade war” takes some kind of cake.

There’s no serious doubt that some in the media would absolutely love to tank the stock market. They figure that would hurt Trump’s re-election chances in 2020. Monday’s stock market slump, which saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.82% tumble 2.4% and the Nasdaq Composite 3.4%, looked just like what the doctor ordered.

I write this, incidentally, as someone who is no fan of the president. But I remember when politics was supposed to stop at the water’s edge.

And, anyway, facts are facts. Most of what the public is being told about these tariffs is either misleading or a downright lie.

I’ve been following the coverage all weekend with my jaw on the floor.

Continue reading “The media is lying to you about Trump’s China tariffs”

Guest Post by Caroline Baum

Every time I hear President Donald Trump articulate — maybe “ramble on about” would be a more apt description — his theory of trade, I want to scream.

Why? Because it makes absolutely no sense. He insists that China pays the tariffs on its exports to the U.S. when it’s U.S. businesses and consumers (mostly) who bear the cost.

For some reason, reporters refuse to follow up on Trump’s outlandish assertions in interviews or at impromptu press gaggles. So I have taken it upon myself to play that role and ask Trump the tough questions about trade, the one subject on which he has been curiously consistent for over 30 years.

CB: Mr. President, you said in a tweet on Sunday that “For 10 months, China has been paying Tariffs to the USA;” that “we have billions of dollars coming into our Treasury — billions — from China” as a result of the tariffs on Chinese imports. Can you explain how that works exactly?

DJT: “The U.S. has been losing $800 billion — not million, billion — a year on trade. We’ve been paying China $500 billion a year for many, many years. It’s a disgrace. Previous administrations let China rip us off. That stopped with Donald Trump.”

Continue reading “Donald Trump’s cockamamie, upside-down, inside-out theory of trade”

Via ZeroHedge

After vowing over the weekend to “never surrender to external pressure”, Beijing has defied President Trump’s demands that it not resort to retaliatory tariffs and announced plans to slap new levies on $60 billion in US goods.

• CHINA SAYS TO RAISE TARIFFS ON SOME U.S. GOODS FROM JUNE 1
• CHINA SAYS TO RAISE TARIFFS ON $60B OF U.S. GOODS
• CHINA SAYS TO RAISE TARIFFS ON 2493 U.S. GOODS TO 25%
• CHINA MAY STOP PURCHASING US AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS:GLOBAL TIMES
• CHINA MAY REDUCE BOEING ORDERS: GLOBAL TIMES
• CHINA ADDITIONAL TARIFFS DO NOT INCLUDE U.S. CRUDE OIL
• CHINA RAISES TARIFF ON U.S. LNG TO 25% EFFECTIVE JUNE 1

Here’s a breakdown of how China will impose tariffs on 2,493 US goods. The new rates will take effect at the beginning of next month.

• 1,078 items to be subject to 20% of tariffs
• 974 items subject to 10% of tariffs
• 595 items continue to be levied at 5% tariffs

Continue reading “Markets Tumble As China Unveils Retaliatory Tariffs, May Dump “Some Treasuries””

Via Ben Garrison