The US has been running a Goods trade deficit for quite some time. They do run a services surplus though. It makes sense a goal would be to balance that. I'm pretty sure the Americans don't have an appetite for an increase of 20% on most of their consumer items. Which is what will happen if Trump declares import tax on the countries who are taking advantage of American consumerism (China, Japan, Mexico, Germany).
edit; probably put this in the wrong thread.
Last edited by Leeman4Gilmour; 01-27-2017 at 11:49 AM.
You don't see why increasing the cost of importing goods by 20% from other countries won't happen?
Who do you think is paying for that increase?
Some of the import tax would be offset by reducing corporate tax rates and some of it would be offset through an adjustment of FX rates. Its not as crazy as it sounds thats all I'm saying.
I dont know man, if they brand it as a Carbon Tax then people will be climbing over each other to implement it and acquire that sweet, sweet Social License.
What will they use that Social License for this time? Purge?
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They might only implement the tax on countries that have lax safety regulations and super low wages. That is afterall where they are losing jobs too.
They're losing jobs principally to automation. Throwing up trade barriers doesn't help you make jobs. All those jobs you're "saving" is just another job in an export industry being taken away and the rest of the public has to suffer the inflation.
The automation argument is lame. The same robots on the GM assembly line in Detroit are being put on the assembly line in Mexico. The only reason the factory is in Mexico is because people down there make $2.50/h, while people in Detroit make $25/h.
Again, I don't have much sympathy for a country that is part of a free trade agreement with two of the most progressive and regulated economies in the world, but thinks they can get away with lax regulations and terrible wages.
Has Mexico even made an attempt to pay their workers better? How about a $5/h minimum wage law?
That's not entirely true. I was in a GE Health factory in Beijing two years ago where they were building MRIs and other fancy doctor stuff, and there was virtually no automation. When we asked why we were told that it didn't make sense to install automation when they were paying their resources so little.
The automation argument is lame. The same robots on the GM assembly line in Detroit are being put on the assembly line in Mexico. The only reason the factory is in Mexico is because people down there make $2.50/h, while people in Detroit make $25/h.
The U.S. has lost 5 million factory jobs since 2000. And trade has indeed claimed production jobs - in particular when China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. Nevertheless, there was no downturn in U.S. manufacturing output. As a matter of fact, U.S. production has been growing over the last decades. From 2006 to 2013, “manufacturing grew by 17.6%, or at roughly 2.2% per year,” according to a report from Ball State University. The study reports as well that trade accounted for 13% of the lost U.S. factory jobs
That's not entirely true. I was in a GE Health factory in Beijing two years ago where they were building MRIs and other fancy doctor stuff, and there was virtually no automation. When we asked why we were told that it didn't make sense to install automation when they were paying their resources so little.
China is rapidly moving towards automation. Two years ago to now is a long time.
My point is that GM won't spend hundreds of millions to move a job to Mexico if they didn't know for sure that wages would be a lot lower. The automation aspect is already setup and running at the factory in Detroit.
If you want to be part of NAFTA, there needs to be a level playing field on all aspects, otherwise get out.
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If only we could sell them our natural gas,,, no shortage here.
SoCal's problem is that they lost Aliso Canyon, which used to store more than 80 billion cubic feet of natural gas and was a buffer for winter usage. Without it, they're limited by pipeline capacity.
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SoCal's problem is that they lost Aliso Canyon, which used to store more than 80 billion cubic feet of natural gas and was a buffer for winter usage. Without it, they're limited by pipeline capacity.
Yeah and they're losing Oroville just in time for spring run off and summer heat waves.
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