China hammers U.S. goods with tariffs as ‘sparks’ of trade war fly

[mentalfloss]

China hammers U.S. goods with tariffs as ‘sparks’ of trade war fly

China has increased tariffs by up to 25 per cent on 128 U.S. products including frozen pork, wine and certain fruits and nuts, escalating a spat between the world’s biggest economies in response to U.S. duties on imports of aluminium and steel.

The tariffs, to take effect on Monday, were announced late on Sunday by China’s finance ministry and matched a list of potential tariffs on up to $3-billion in U.S. goods published by China on March 23

Soon after the announcement, an editorial in the widely read Chinese tabloid Global Times warned that if the U.S. had thought China would not retaliate or would only take symbolic counter-measures, it can now “say goodbye to that delusion.”

“Even though China and the U.S. have not publicly said they are in a trade war, the sparks of such a war have already started to fly,” the editorial said.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said it was suspending its obligations to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to reduce tariffs on 120 U.S. goods, including fruit and ethanol. The tariffs on those products will be raised by an extra 15 per cent.

Eight other products, including pork and scrap aluminium, will now be subject to additional tariffs of 25 per cent, it said, with the measures effective from April 2.

“China’s suspension of its tariff concessions is a legitimate action adopted under WTO rules to safeguard China’s interests,” the Chinese finance ministry said.

The retaliatory tariffs came amid escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington, which have rocked global financial markets in the past week as investors feared a full-blown trade spat between two countries will be damaging for world growth.

U.S. President Donald Trump is separately preparing to impose tariffs of more than $50- billion on Chinese goods intended to punish Beijing over U.S. accusations that China systematically misappropriated American intellectual property - allegations Beijing denies.

China has repeatedly promised to open its economy further, but many foreign companies continue to complain of unfair treatment. China warned the United States on Thursday not to open a Pandora’s Box and spark a flurry of protectionist practices across the globe.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/wor...-on-more-than-100-us-products-in-response-to/

 

[justfred99]

One of the many trade items that Donald Trump should impose import tax on is finished goods. A lot of US companies have taken their equipment to China, have them build products with cheap labour and then import a finished product to sell to the American people, making a ton of profit. When they do this, do the Chinese then take US technology and produce products to sell to the US people at. lower price? When these companies in the US make a lot of money with low wages, they then manufacture costs to cover up the profits and avoid paying corporate tax on same. Win, win for the corporation. Would some of the expenses that they use would it be to buy politicians by making large donations to their campaigns so the politicians look the other way, or just make donations to the politicians Swiss bank accounts?
And the USA think that Africa is corrupt.

 

[Danbones]

CHINA is a leftist slave plantation...and MF is cheering for them.

 

[mentalfloss]

I'm not cheering for anyone.

 

[Danbones]

Not cheering for their nemesis is de fackteau cheering for them.

 

[White_Unifier]

Let's see which country can kick itself in the foot the hardest in this trade war. Neither Trump nor the Chinese seem to understand basic economics.

 

[Twin_Moose]

Hurting the consumer from buying cheap crap while giving the U.S. manufacturers a foot back in the door growing the GDP and lowering the unemployment isn't all bad news

 

[White_Unifier]

Hurting the consumer from buying cheap crap while giving the U.S. manufacturers a foot back in the door growing the GDP and lowering the unemployment isn't all bad news

The poor consumer will hurt the most. But you're right that the caviar-eating type won't suffer too much.

 

[Twin_Moose]

The poor consumer will hurt the most. But you're right that the caviar-eating type won't suffer too much.

It wouldn't be all bad if they can get a lot more persons into the caviar eating crowd

 

[White_Unifier]

It wouldn't be all bad if they can get a lot more persons into the caviar eating crowd

And how will making people pay more for everything do that?

 

[OpposingDigit]

This is all propaganda .... The imported goods might be imported from China, but many of the manufacturing plants are owned by the U.S. Capitalists. The U.S. Capitalists Used the profits earned in America to build huge/massive manufacturing plants in China and China can now satisfy the North American market with just what falls off the assembly lines.

Richard Wolff talks about tariffs here:

Franklin Delano Roosevelt did not introduce the "New Deal" because it was "Kind To Animal Week".
"And, it didn't happen because FDR was a great guy. It happened because people in this country were so radicalized, were so determined, were so organized, that he was able to sell the new deal to the elites as a compromise because the alternative was revolution."
--Naomi Klein, National Conference for Media reform, June 07, 2008--

The coming collapse of the American economic system
Economist Richard Wolff discusses the coming economic collapse of the United States of America.
RT - On Contact
Host Chris Hedges interviews Richard David Wolff
April 01, 2018
https://www.rt.com/shows/on-contact/422893-richard-wolff-economic-collapse
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_D._Wolff
(Flash Video)
https://www.rt.com/shows/on-contact/422893-richard-wolff-economic-collapse

As the economy continues to crumble, they gotta blame it on "Others".

In the 1930's, when the Great Depression began, America blamed it on the immigrants.

Over a million Mexican-Americans were expelled in the 1930s. Now, history is repeating itself
When Francisco Balderrama hears U.S. President Donald Trump demonize Mexican-Americans and promise to deport undocumented immigrants to bring back jobs, he is reminded of a forgotten chapter in American history — one he has spent decades trying to bring back into the light.
In the 1930s, the United States expelled more than a million Mexican nationals and American citizens of Mexican descent.
Some were rounded up in mass raids and deported, often without due process. Others were worn down by threats and economic deprivation, and lured back by the hollow promise of a better life in Mexico.
"Many of them had been in this country for 20, 25 years. They had created lives here. They had contributed to American society in prosperous times. Most of them were documented, or had come in legally to the United States. They had children that were born here — automatically, by birth, U.S. citizens," Balderrama says.
Balderrama is professor emeritus of American History and Chicano Studies at California State University in Los Angeles, and the co-author of Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s. He spoke to The Sunday Edition host Michael Enright about the parallels he sees between what happened in the 1930s and what's happening today.
"One key factor to keep in mind, as we deal with the Trump era, as we we deal with the activities of ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] today, is that there is this legacy," Balderrama says.
"A lot of times, the language that Trump uses, the language that Attorney General Sessions uses, is the same type of language that was used in the 1930s."
The Great Depression:
Balderrama says the wave of deportations was triggered by the Great Depression. Many Americans believed that if Mexicans were removed from the workforce, they would have an easier time finding work.
"Mexicans were the last hired, and they were going to be the first fired," says Balderrama.
At the time, the Immigration and Naturalization Service was run by the Department of Labour. Herbert Hoover's labour secretary William Doak launched a plan to create more jobs for "real Americans" by expelling immigrants.
Organized raids, Balderrama says, created a climate of fear, discouraging Mexicans from leaving their homes.
On February 26, 1931, immigration officers stormed La Placita, the historic founding area for the City of Los Angeles, and rounded up everyone in the park.
While the raid didn't result in a large number of deportations, Balderrama believes the real impact was to create a sense of terror and anxiety.
"The city of Los Angeles — which had and has the largest Mexican population — became a very fearful place," he says. "People would not go out. People locked themselves up. Mexican businesses closed."
"[It] created a scenario in which the local LA County then was free to encourage Mexicans to accept railroad tickets and to go to Mexico."
Self-deportation:
Most Mexican-Americans who left during the 1930s were driven out by local governments and agencies.
Only the federal government had the legal authority to order deportations, but local agencies were able to pressure many people into "self-deporting." Some states also passed laws prohibiting the employment of "aliens," which gave Mexican nationals an additional incentive to leave.
"To cut the welfare cost in their community, and also to create jobs for American citizens, [local agencies] rounded up Mexican families and told them, 'You would be better off in Mexico'... Ford Motor company, U.S. Steel, Southern Pacific Railroad — the private sector — told their workers the same story. 'You would be better off in Mexico with your own people,'" Balderrama says.
"There were a number of individuals who, reading the newspaper, hearing about the raids, hearing about the non-hiring of Mexicans, then decide, 'The hell with it, the hell with this situation. We're not wanted here.' They then pack up their belongings and just drive themselves to the border."
'Returning' to a new country:
After years of living in the United States, many Mexicans returned to a country they didn't recognize.
"They [were] going to a new nation, a new Mexico," Balderrama says.
He says the transition was particularly traumatic for children who had grown up in the United States. One of the people he interviewed for the revised edition of Decade of Betrayal was a man named Ignacio Piña, who was born in Idaho and expelled to Mexico with his family when he was a child.
His family had been in the United States for approximately 25 years. Shortly before Piña's first day of school, sheriffs came to his family's house and took them into custody. After spending a week in jail, the family was placed on a train and sent back to Mexico — without any of their belongings or documentation about their legal status in the United States.
Though it took Piña many years to make it back to the United States, he desperately wanted to return to the country he thought of as home.
"Ignacio recently died, and as a senior citizen would still have nightmares over what happened to him," Balderrama says.
Parallels to today:
Balderrama sees strong parallels between what happened to Ignacio Piña and the experiences of 'Dreamers' today.
"It's the very same dynamics," he says.
"Individuals that are American, that have been socialized, have been here long enough, have been exposed to this culture, who have an ability in the language that surrounds them here, that are part of the fabric of American society ... we're cutting them out of this society, tossing them away."
Balderrama believes that this process does more than tear apart the families and lives of those directly affected.
"We are not only hurting them," he says. "We're hurting what makes up this country — what makes this country what it is."
CBC - Sunday Edition
Host Michael Enright interviews Francisco Balderrama
March 25, 2018
The Sunday Edition

 

[Twin_Moose]

And how will making people pay more for everything do that?

It"s not exactly about making consumers pay more, but put more confidence in onshore manufacturing creating more employment in turn churning out more blue collar workers creating more wealth to invest back into the local economy thus into the U.S. economy driving up the GDP.

 

[White_Unifier]

It"s not exactly about making consumers pay more, but put more confidence in onshore manufacturing creating more employment in turn churning out more blue collar workers creating more wealth to invest back into the local economy thus into the U.S. economy driving up the GDP.

In the modern economy, economies of scale count for efficiency. Protectionism undermines economies of scale. It might create more jobs, but push prices up even more. That just creates a working poor.

 

[OpposingDigit]

Hi! Twin_ Moose:

Even if you brought back every manufacturing plant that closed down since 1980, there is no infrastructure to support it. The shipping ports are ancient, and the highway system is Kaput.

And it would take at least 10 years to refurbish/equip the manufacturing plants. (Another 5 Trillion Dollars added to the Federal Deficit just to accomplish this task. Plus continue with the Trillion Dollar deficit spending in the meantime.)

There are not enough engineers to man the plants.

America produces abot 60 thousand engineers per year and China produces 275 thousand per year.

Trump just gave the Capitalists the largest financial gift in history and they are buying up their own company shares and not planning on creating jobs, because no American has any money to buy any product manufactured in America. They are living on MacDonald wages. And, you can't sell it to the world offshore, because there is no infrastructure to ship it anywhere.

 

[Twin_Moose]

In the modern economy, economies of scale count for efficiency. Protectionism undermines economies of scale. It might create more jobs, but push prices up even more. That just creates a working poor.

Hi! Twin_ Moose:

Even if you brought back every manufacturing plant that closed down since 1980, there is no infrastructure to support it. The shipping ports are ancient, and the highway system is Kaput.

And it would take at least 10 years to refurbish/equip the manufacturing plants. (Another 5 Trillion Dollars added to the Federal Deficit just to accomplish this task. Plus continue with the Trillion Dollar deficit spending in the meantime.)

There are not enough engineers to man the plants.

America produces abot 60 thousand engineers per year and China produces 275 thousand per year.

I agree with both of you but you can't sit back and do nothing either, The world's largest corporations are making the lion's share either way may as well have them invest back into your country rather than in your competitions.

 

[OpposingDigit]

Hi! Twin_Moose

It is too late! Get used to it.

Trump and Obama are/were just "Managing" the decline of the U.S. Capitalist System.

 

[Curious Cdn]

Hi! Twin_Moose

It is too late! Get used to it.

Trump and Obama are/were just "Managing" the decline of the U.S. Capitalist System.

Nobody is offering an alternative to having the richest, rapacious 0.2% of the population controlling everything. Hyper capitalism is killing Capitalism. We will be left with Feudalism and decay.

 

[Twin_Moose]

Hi! Twin_Moose

It is too late! Get used to it.

Trump and Obama are/were just "Managing" the decline of the U.S. Capitalist System.

I don't have to get used to anything I can make a conscious decision on where and what to invest my money in and I would choose the local economy and local manufacturers almost every time. I'd rather support Canadian workers with rights over sweat shop workers, not saying that I haven't bought cheap crap, just saying I'd rather support Canadian first North America second when I have a choice when I purchase

 

[White_Unifier]

I agree with both of you but you can't sit back and do nothing either, The world's largest corporations are making the lion's share either way may as well have them invest back into your country rather than in your competitions.

Then raise personal accumulated-wealth taxes if you're so concerned about the rich getting too rich! The solution is not to prevent the rich from producing wealth. In fact, if we introduce a personal accumulated-wealth tax, then we'd have an incentive to remove obstacles to wealth creation since the more wealth a person produces, the more taxes he pays.

Nobody is offering an alternative to having the richest, rapacious 0.2% of the population controlling everything. Hyper capitalism is killing Capitalism. We will be left with Feudalism and decay.

I agree, but protectionism is not the answer. Introduce a personal accumulated-wealth tax of maybe 20%. Lower other taxes. And protect the mentally ill and the most vulnerable citizens. For example, make it more difficult for a problem gambler to enter a casino. Just some solutions. Let's not try to solve our problems by creating more problems.

 

[Twin_Moose]

Then raise personal accumulated-wealth taxes if you're so concerned about the rich getting too rich! The solution is not to prevent the rich from producing wealth. In fact, if we introduce a personal accumulated-wealth tax, then we'd have an incentive to remove obstacles to wealth creation since the more wealth a person produces, the more taxes he pays.

Nope I aint concerned about accumulated wealth at all, and this is a very slippery slope once opened like we seen in Canada over what is perceived as to who the have's and the have not's are.