Don is a retired (40 years in the trade) newspaperman living in West Virginia. His blog is a dialy read for me. He brought these two news items to my attention this morning.
Another 1,000 jobs added thanks to Trump's tariffs
First, U.S. Steel announced it would re-open a a steel mill in Illinois thanks to Donald John Trump's decision to slap a 25% tariff on Chinese steel.
Republic Steel said move over, buddy. We are re-opening our plant in Lorain, Ohio.
And this doesn't begin to count the ancillary jobs that will be created - finishing the raw product (machine shops, welding, fabrication, etc...) as well as the jobs to support the workers (grocery stores, house building, school teachers, etc...)
We already have 12,000 tariffs
To hear Never Trumpers (and a few Trumpkins) tell the story, Donald Trump is the first president since Hoover to impose a tariff on imported products.
But Gus Lubin of Business Insider in 2010 reported, "The International Trade Commission lists over 12,000 specific tariffs on imports to America. Hundreds of agricultural, textile, and manufacturing items are highly protected. So are obscure items like live foxes."
From a 4.8% tariff on live foxes to a 350% tariff on tobacco, America protected its industries in 2010.
Tobacco is very important to the states and federal government. Smokers cough up more than $15 billion a year in cigarette taxes. Government must save Big Tobacco, even as it demonizes it.
Tariffs are a shell game. Literally. We slap a 131.8% tariff on unshelled peanuts. With shells, the tariff is 163.8%.
Imported French jam, chocolate, ham, European meats, truffles, and Roquefort cheese are among those products that come with a 100% tariff.
This is a matter of perspective - President Trump is re-negotaiting NAFTA. We got screwed the first time around. Time to get a more favorable treaty this time.
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