The Wall Street Journal reports Trump Administration Weighs New Tariffs on Imported Vehicles.
The Trump administration is considering a plan that would impose new tariffs on imported vehicles on national-security grounds, according to industry officials briefed on broad outlines of the plan.
The plan remains in its early stages, and is likely to face significant opposition from a number of interest groups, from foreign trading partners to domestic dealers of imported cars.
Applying the tariffs under Section 232, meanwhile, would require a lengthy investigation and report from the U.S. Commerce Department. The administration is currently considering tariffs of up to 25%, according to those briefed on the plan.
Global Trade War
If Trump wants a global trade war, this is a sure-fire way to get one.
Every country would respond with similar actions. And it would wipe out imports but it would also kill foreign investment in the US and US importers.
It would raise prices for a while. Then a crash.
Rosenberg on Trumponomics
Trumponomics will cause the next recession – and soon. Here is why: https://t.co/kUNOSBdUE9
— David Rosenberg (@EconguyRosie) May 23, 2018
The feature image is one I remembered from a few years back as part of a Monkey selfie copyright dispute.
A monkey took a photographer’s camera and snapped a bunch of amazing pictures of itself. The courts ruled the images to be in public domain because monkeys cannot own copyrights.
Also see ‘Monkey Selfie’ Lawsuit Ends With Settlement Between PETA, Photographer.
The suit was settled, sort of.
However, the court of appeals declined to dismiss the case and vacate the lower court judgment.
This seems like nonsense to me. The owner of the camera should own the copyright. If that’s not the case, then logically, any image in which an animal trips a shutter thereby taking it’s own picture would be in public domain.
Perhaps the argument was presented to the court wrongly. Instead of arguing the monkey owned the copyright, the claim should have been made that the camera owner owned the copyright.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Around here? Yeah, you’d be wrong. Does this really strike you as a blue team cheering section?
Your comment makes you sound like a red team apologist. Am I wrong?
I don’t recall such vitriol as Obama pissed all over the Constitution. I may be wrong.A
m I wrong?
I might have to buy a new refrigerator before Trump tariffs them. I’ve given up on appliances made by US companies. The latest bad experience is my GE fridge. The door gaskets has gotten wavy for some unknown reason so cold air spills out. I’ve temporarily put some foam sticky strips to stop maybe 90% of the leaks. This started about a year ago. The fridge was bought in 2012 and replacement stripping costs over $100 for each of the fridge and freezer. I’m not spending $200+ on door gaskets. The unit runs constantly now. Goes along with my defective whirlpool washer that only lasted 2 years and my Maytag dryer that only lasted 4. I’m going to buy Samsung and LG from now on. Much better products.
Peter T has it right – this is negotiation. Strange that otherwise-smart people can’t see that.
It’s absolutely crazy – but I bet he does not actually want to do this. He is just waving the threat around to make the EU uncomfortable and become willing to consider concessions of some sort (keep in mind that I’m in the camp that says the best way to prosperity through trade is to simply scrap all trade restrictions, period – unilaterally, if need be). I’m merely commenting on Trump’s negotiation tactics in other words.
It will have an effect because most European manufacturers don’t produce all their models in the US. For instance Volvo’s new plant in Virginia will produce just one model. The other models will still be imported from Sweden and Belgium. I think it’s a scale issue, you need to sell a certain volume in the US in order for it to be profitable to build a plant in the US.
What exactly is an import since so many manufacturers now have factories in the USA?
Nice intro pic…. I had to study it for a couple of seconds to figure out which portrait was really Trump’s….
By the way copyright is designed to protect intellectual ownership. A photo taken (invented if you will) by a monkey is owned by the monkey. Since the monkey has no rights, no intellectual property rights can be ascribed to the image. If no-one “owns” it, it is by default public domain. However the image is stored within someone’s equipment and access must be granted. The photographer therefore can sell access to his camera but can’t demand royalties for the image.
Coming around to this way of thinking. I still wonder if the addition of a mental patient like Bolton to the mix will lead to fireworks, but who knows. The strategy seems to be to make as much noise as possible regardless of results.
It’s like a magician theatrically waving one hand to the crowd while the other is busy. How he hopes to distract everyone for 4-8 years is anyone’s guess. Seems some are already learning to tune him out.
Unlike Trump, the Monkees were “too busy singing to put anybody down”. But if Trump were to sing, here’s what it would sound like: link to youtu.be
There is no such thing as bad publicity. Ratings = Success. We should all really stop taking what he says as if he means it.
First of all, the question of assembly in the US doesn’t really present a problem as you can tax a car based on it’s import content, and cars assembled in the US would have less import content than cars assembled overseas from the exact same parts. Second, while this may be insane, it’s far less insane to tax manufacturing outputs (e.g. cars) than manufacturing inputs (e.g. steel). Third, it’s all just noise for now. Disruptive noise, but still just noise.
A 25% import tax on imported cars is a move to gain labor support since more cars would be built in the US. The intellectual aspect of a car can be created overseas and imported tax-free.
With avg pickup/suv approaching $100 grand,does it really matter?What next 10yr financing lol!
If carried out, even true believer 9D chess Trump proponents would scratch their heads. We don’t import cars from our supposed enemies, the ones Trump often rails against. This would be a one finger salute to Japan, Korea, Germany, Italy, and the UK.
Would exemptions be given for assembly in the US? Didn’t get past the WSJ paywall to read the full article.