Summary:
The Trump tariffs include: China, South Korea, Mexico, European Union, Canada and affect over $50 billion dollars in goods. President Donald Trump’s trade policies and tariffs reduced U.S. income at a rate of $1.4 billion per month by the end of last November, according to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Princeton University, and Columbia University. In addition to decreasing U.S. earnings, American consumers are also harmed during a trade war in terms of the variety of goods they can purchase. In the three years prior to the imposition of tariffs, all categories of goods experienced increases in the number of varieties offered in the U.S. However, after the Trump tariffs, studies found that businesses and consumers saw “substantial increases” in the price of goods throughout last year and Americans suffered by a lack of import variety and disruptions to supply chains..
Trump originally wanted to use these tariffs as leverage against other countries in order to renegotiate deals such as NAFTA, which he has indeed done. However, the overall results of the tariffs so far have proven to be detrimental and U.S. policy makers are surely looking for change. This connects to international relations in Asia, Europe, and the Americas in terms of trade deals, business and economy. In regards to history, tariffs used to be the greatest source of federal revenue until income tax, but now it is presently being used in a trade war against China.
Questions:
1.When Trump originally announced his idea of tariffs, did you expect it to turn out this way or differently?
2. Should Trump end this trade war with China or should he continue to try and salvage the situation?
3. What could Trump have done differently instead of tariffs in order to renegotiate deals with other countries?
Link: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/trump-s-tariffs-are-costing-americans-1-4-billion-each-n987336
I think that Trump's trade war seems like a good idea in theory. However, there are some problems with it in practice and the American economy is forced to suffer because of it. It's good that he wants to remind China and the American public that American industry has suffered in recent years and it's not a bad idea to try and move some manufacturing back to our soil and try and protect some of our foundational industries. He also wants to promote more investment from American businesses in America. However, it's hurting the economy and it wasn't very well planned out. I think that the trade war should have been more strategic and if Trump wanted to stay in it this long, we should have had a more comprehensive plan about how to compensate for the lack of trade during this trade war.
ReplyDeleteI can see that Trump's original intent was to promote jobs within America, but he failed to see how reliant America has become on trade alliances and other nations to maintain our current consumption. In a global economy, trade alliances and outsourcing is necessary to an extent. It could be argued that the US is possible too reliant but generally, the concept of minimizing trade and isolating America doesn´t seem like a way to advance and evolve the American market. Trump should have worked on reevaluating trade agreements and altering preexisting agreements rather than doing away with them all together.
ReplyDeleteTrump implemented the tariffs to increase the job rates in America. However, with the high consumer lifestyle that Americans have, it is hard to not rely on another big exporting country. Losing China as a trading partner and imposing extra tariffs will end up hurting the citizens. Even if they do increase the jobs that people can have, the majority of citizens will have to experience and see an increase in consumer goods
ReplyDeleteWhen Trump announced his idea of tariffs, i definitely expected it to turn out this way. Trump’s tariffs have a bigger impact on the American economy because it is a negative incentive. Therefore, Americans are less likely to buy imports due to the new tax on them which would lead to a big hit on the economy. With this, I think that Trump should try to end his trade war with China because this would lead to the restoration in the variety of imports which would help the American economy immediately. Therefore, ending the trade war would help reestablish the United States in the global economy. I think in order to renegotiate deals with other countries Trump should have simply boycotted trading with those countries for around 3 months. This would lead to the other countries seeing that they need the US as a source of trade and the only way to achieve this would be to adhere to the trade provisions that Trump is asking for.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Trump's intentions were to rejuvenate the manufacturing sector of this United States, his tariffs are preventing the American economy from evolving. The US is becoming a service based economy, and therefore should not be help back by policy that attempts to reverse this effect. Tariffs are not enough to change the face of the economy. All it does is cost Americans more and more money.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Andrew in that Trump's ideas for tarriffs initially seemed like a good idea in theory. Looking at the job industry trends in from the past few years, it looks like America's declining manufacturing industry is on the decline. Given this, Trump's idea to implement tarriffs was indeed a good attempt at trying to restore American manufacturing jobs. However, he failed to account for the heavy consumer nature of American lifestyle and how reliant America truly is on major export countries such as China. After all, it's not really helpful if there's an increasing price that follows increasing jobs, and this increase in price doesn't just affect those in the manufacturing industry but rather the entire nation. Given that this trade war hurts more than benefits both the US and other countries, I think it's best if Trump ended it and just acknowledged the benefits of having free trade.
ReplyDeleteI expected the tariffs to turn out this way because of the way the world is set up now. Many nations use and/or rely on trade for certain materials and products. If one nation causes a distrubance in this system, other nations will look elsewhere for better trading deals. Just because we are the US doesn't mean that everyone wants to trade with us, wheater we give a good deal or not. Everyone looks for the best, cheapest deal, which is why the US started to lose imports/income due to the tariffs.
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