Toro
Diamond Member
- Thread starter
- #21
There will be more of these stories coming.
Donald Trump has upended global trade relationships, promising that temporary disruption will end in better terms for American businesses. Tell that to the Maine lobster industry that his policies are putting at a major disadvantage in Europe and China.
These should be halcyon days in lobstertown. Maine harvests more lobster than any other U.S. state or Canadian province. Last year it landed nearly 111 million pounds—its fourth-largest annual haul—which it sold for $450 million. The lobster industry accounts for 2% of Maine’s economy. ...
In 2017 the U.S. exported more than $137 million in lobsters to China, up from $52 million in 2015.
Yet Mr. Trump’s unilateral tariffs are about to erode the price advantage of American lobsters. After the U.S. announced on June 15 plans to impose a 25% tariff on $50 billion in Chinese goods, Beijing retaliated with a new 25% tariff on American seafood, farm products and autos, effective July 6. That’s on top of the 10% to 15% tariffs China already imposes on U.S. and Canadian lobster. ...
“What happens if we lose 30%, 40%, even 50% of our market share?” he says. “We have to keep paying the bank for that borrowed money. If we do have an impact in sales, it’s going to have a direct impact on jobs. That’s the only way we reduce our expenses. I hope that doesn’t happen. And to date we haven’t laid anyone off.” Mr. Adams adds that if the trade tensions don’t abate, he would consider moving some of his operations to Canada.
Trump Boils Maine Lobstermen
Trade wars hurt more people than they help. That's why economists almost unilaterally believe in free trade and oppose trade wars and tariffs, i.e. trade taxes.
Every action by our trade "partners" to protect their trade surpluses,
validates Trump's policy.
- Canada runs a trade deficit with the US
- The US runs a capital surplus with almost every nation on earth because we run trade deficits with most countries. That means foreigners invest more and thus create more jobs here than we do abroad because of the trade deficits.
- It doesn’t matter much anyways, as economists know.
If it does not matter, than why are our trade partners pushing back so much?
If it does not matter, than why did you post this story as an attack on Trump?
The trade deficits don’t matter. But raising costs and making business less efficient do matter.
As I’ve said before, I’ve followed this debate for 30 years. And now Trump worshippers are making the same leftist arguments that anti-capitalist, government-loving leftists who are ignorant about economics have made all that time.