After Slapping ‘Abuser’ Vietnam With 400% Tariffs, Trump Tells ‘Manipulators’ China, Europe He’s No Dollar Dummy
Late Tuesday, Wilbur Ross's Commerce Department hit Vietnamese steel imports with tariffs in excess of 400%, in the process serving notice that the Trump administration isn't going to tolerate any kind of end-arounds in the trade war.
On June 26, during a wild interview with Fox's Maria Bartiromo, Trump called Vietnam "the single-worst abuser of everybody", which, when translated into adult English, means the White House isn't particularly enamored with the fact that imports from Vietnam surged
next tweet” damn slanteyes
…and SPX just continues to levitate higher, day after day. Reminds me of Alfred E. Newman’s famous line “What, me worry?”
Another new tax on American consumers
Nothing will bring large amounts of high volume manufacturing jobs back to the US.
US labor costs for such jobs are about 400% higher than Chinese labor costs.
If tariffs go to 400% on imports from China, production will move to another low cost country.
If tariffs go to 400% on imports from all low cost countries, prices will go up – close to 400%, as there isn’t enough excess profit in the supply chain to absorb much of the cost increase. Demand will plummet. Some production may move back to the US, but it won’t be high volume any more. The current demand level for the sort of products made in low cost countries is predicated on them being cheap.
The only way high volume manufacturing will move back to the US is if it comes sans the jobs. I.e. automated production.
That is, by the way, an interesting possible direction for the global economy. Suppose automation is at the point where you don’t need large numbers of people to make products: an automated factory in the US can make things as cheaply as an automated factory in China and both are cheaper than a human labor factory in Vietnam. The inputs are raw materials, energy and capital – no labor. Things look very different then, don’t they? That situation may only be about 20-40 years away.
“Nothing will bring large amounts of high volume manufacturing jobs back to the US.”
exactly. and that’s really the key point, because it transcends partisanship. it wouldn’t matter if Trump was Jesus Christ. he’s not going to resurrect American manufacturing like he envisions it. it’s impossible. the sooner he and his base realize that, the sooner they can start making proposals to help those workers that might actually have a chance of doing some good for people – as opposed to filling their heads with false hope