Making things in America Again

[Supposn]

Stephen Brandon, regarding Trump's tariff on Chinese steel:

Syriusly, if Trump's tariffs are applicable to imported steel but not to imported products containing steel, they're of no benefit to any USA enterprise that purchases steel or steel products produced by steel producers.
In such a case, Trump's tariffs will likely increase prices of steel sold in the USA, increasing costs to any USA enterprises purchasing steel to be used in the USA, while not increasing the prices of other competing imported products containing steel.
Trump's steel tariff would thus be detrimental to any USA enterprise that's a potential customer for a USA steel producer.

What's the point of a tariff on imported steel, if it induces purchasers of USA produced steel, to cease using steel? Those USA enterprises must do something else or go out of business.

If the tariffs are applicable only to Chinese steel, we'll soon be purchasing our steel from some low-wage nation other than China. For the steel tariffs to work in our favor, the tariff should be applicable to all imported products to the extent that they contain steel.

Respectfully, Supposn

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[busybee01]

Because of all of the vitiole out there, I guess I have to state that I didn't vote for Trump and don't agree with most of his ideas. But i have always felt that hearing Trump out on trade isn't a bad idea. Because of his taxes on steel imports, US steel manufacturers are increasing production in our country as opposed to importing steel from Canada or China.

Most media will not report that because, of course, everything Donald Trump says and does is wrong, a terrible, stupid idea that will send us into a new dark age. And they have their paid talking heads lined up to say just that.

But I would like to give him some benefit of the doubt that this is what Make America Great Again was about all along - returning to a time when we actually made things here in this country. Of course the other side has been screaming for 2 years that it's about "Making America White Again."

I wish level heads were able to speak in these disfunctional times. For some reason, Trump's bombastic style made everyone think they had license to be just as outrageous. Yes we do have freedom of speech, but we also have the freedom to not be just as obnoxious as the president can be. Remember folks, he was an entertainer, paid to be a loudmouth - we're not.

The trouble is that there are more steel using jobs in this country than steel producers. Harley Davidson has already moved their production of motorcycles for the foreign market overseas. A number of companies are going to move their production out of this country to compete with overseas competitors. A nail company is going to Mexico later this year because they can't compete with their competitors. Steel prices are higher which means higher prices for Americans. Trump is playing politics and Russian Roulette with Americans.