In separate but overlapping efforts, former President Donald J. Trump and President Biden have sought to revive and protect American factories by making it more expensive to buy Chinese goods. They have taxed imports in legacy industries that were hollowed out over the last quarter-century, like clothes and appliances, and newer ones that are struggling to grow amid global competition with China, like solar panels.
Mr. Biden’s decision on Tuesday to codify and escalate tariffs imposed by Mr. Trump made clear that the United States has closed out a decades-long era that embraced trade with China and prized the gains of lower-cost products over the loss of geographically concentrated manufacturing jobs. A single tariff rate embodies that closure: a 100 percent tax on Chinese electric vehicles, which start at less than $10,000 each and have surged into showrooms around the world, but have struggled to crack government barriers to the U.S. market.
@DrearyOwlGreen2wks2W
What is interesting about all this rhetoric against China is that it was US corporations that outsourced manufacturing from the US to China. China did not force those US corporations to do so. Why do we not hear criticisms of those US corporations, such as Walmart, Apple, Amazon, Elon Musk’s Tesla, Lionel Trains, etc., etc., etc?
@LovingCrackersDemocrat2wks2W
Bring on that criticism.
If an American paper-pusher or fry cook pays more to buy American goods, then maybe Amazon and Walmart should pay for the space to stock them in warehouse or store.
But regarding our making stuff "only at the top of the value chain, where our innovation can compete":
For want of a nail, the F-35 was lost...
I remember walking around Home Depot, reading labels at random, and wondering just how far DOWN the value chain, from a finished aircraft carrier you'd have to go to find no American parts. It's beginning to look as though we'll find out soon enough. The last date I read was 2027. Don't worry, 2025 is probably a bit ahead of the realistic schedule
you are off on a tangent. These tariffs will cost Americans $15,000 to $20,000 more to buy an EV. Not commonly understood is that ALL vehicles will increase in price because of this legislation.
Even worse, this exercise in poor leadership pushes China into the arms of Russia — exactly what Kissinger was trying to avoid fifty years ago.
@lemans3427Republican 2wks2W
100% of Teslas sold in the US are made in the US
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
Biden lurching from one populist decision to another. Tariffs will only stoke inflation and not bring manufacturing back. He does nothing to address our uncompetitiveness in manufacturing. We talk about Chinese stealing our blue collared jobs when they’ve already moved into robots. They didn’t steal our jobs, our CEOs outsourced them. Short-term, the tariffs will feel good. Longer-term, we are turning protectionist and have less incentive to innovate.
I don't have all the answers, but I think the US should have been protecting manufacturing capacity, broadly defined, all along. It would have been much better for the middle class, without a doubt. And it can easily be seen as a national security issue: look at the failures in manufacturing capacity during the CoV2 pandemic and that becomes obvious.
But it would be true for any major emergency: shipping products halfway around the world is obviously lunacy that would only be proposed by MBAs and their spreadsheet. The manufacturing country would come first in essential products, and long supply chains break down, as we saw with inflation, traffic jams in ports, and sending empty container ships back across the Pacific Ocean.
@B1partisanCur2wks2W
Economic policy changes depending on our experience and our values. Now, we've learned that the most important thing is not cheap Chinese goods but rather good American jobs. We've also learned that letting big business have its way with us leaves us vulnerable to bottlenecks in critical goods like computer chips built in distant lands.
Well, the irony is that if Trump wins the White House, all his supporters and the conservative media sphere will simply cast the higher prices as a form of patriotism. The rest of the media will spend some time saying “b-b-but it’s a tax on all of us” but eventually the indifference from GOPland will mute these protestations.
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