LogFAQs > #898923163

Corrik posted...

Icehawk posted...

http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/03/news/economy/obama-china-tire-tariff/index.html

That's a pretty minor tariff and response compared to this.

"Tariffs accomplished what they intended but made no difference". That is basically what that article just said and it was mind blowing.

Tariffs successfully stemmed job losses in the sector. Tariffs accomplished nothing.

Tariffs increased costs of tires from American companies. Tariffs were skirted by just continuing to buy foreign tires from next lowest companies.

Which is it?

These other countries only can produce for cheaper because they have no environmental standards and worker standards.

How can we sit back and let American industry die off because we force our companies into higher standards that parts of the rest of the world don't adhere to?

If you want to force that on American companies, then force America to buy American so they are not killed off by them.

There is a benefit too though. Imports give us cheaper goods, and if we pay less for the things we need, that helps us. If we have to spend more on local stuff alone, that is less money we are spending on other things. We also rely on outside markets to sell some of our goods, so if countries strike back with trade war tactics, that still hurts our own industry.

You can see what happened with Obama's tire tariff. It helped that one industry a little bit, yes, but costs went up for everyone with that product, and the retaliatory tariffs hurt the industries that rely on other people buying. It's not cut and dry. The tariffs accomplished nothing, because they estimate businesses and consumers having to pay more for their tires, and the cost of the tariffs in other sectors hurt the economy in other ways.

This is also a big story because of Trump's rhetoric, as kev said. He said "trade wars are easy to win!", so there is concern about a trade war, which is good for no one.
---

I call girls "girlies".