BF2S Forums U.S. to Impose Tariff on Tires From China

That's actually pretty big, 35% on all Chicom tires. All it means is that production will be ramped up in other countries where it doesn't apply, it's not gonna save the US Industry or help that much. All it does is create more diplomatic tension, a situation where people in the US think if they can complain loud enough the US will resort to protectionism and possible trade wars...

At the end of the day there's not much you can do about cheap imports... it's not their fault they can manufacture something, ship it halfway across the damn world and put it on sale in the US, and have it still be cheaper than the same thing made just across the road from the store...


Sounds like an unwise protectionist move...

Superior Mind wrote:

The rubber grown in China's south west is the product of the deforestation of lush rainforest.

wha?

As Mek mentioned, it doesn't make much sense to put tariffs on one producer of a good with the hopes of increasing jobs here when there are several other producers abroad that will simply take up the slack.

If Obama was really aiming for increasing jobs here, he'd have to put a tariff on all foreign producers of tires, not just China.

What makes more sense than completely free trade or protectionism, however, is reciprocal trade.  Put tariffs only on producers that put tariffs on your goods.

The idea is this: if you can honestly tell your trading partners that you will only open your trade as much as they do for your products, then trade becomes more balanced in the end, and comparative advantage is optimal.

Unfortunately, as things currently stand, America has one of the most open markets in the world, while most of our trading partners are considerably more protectionist.  This unfairly harms American production and is much of the reason why we have a massive trade deficit.

This is going to get very messy and unpleasant for everyone.

Either the developed world needs to come down to china's standard of living, which won't be nice, or china needs to come up to the same standard as everyone else - which will suck up the remaining natural resources and bring about planetary destruction much quicker.

i just saw that China is retaliating on American auto imports.
didn't see that coming.

Why the focus on tires?

Don't know in this case, but the Chinese do focus on specific industries, dump products in markets at prices below those which local manufacturers can produce, wait for them to go bust and then jack their prices up when the competition is dead.

In Aus there is a fuss at present over Chinese solar panels being dumped killing our few manufacturers.

That or its a feeble shot across their bows.