Wall Street Journal (August 1)
“There is an irony in Detroit right now: The automaker most reliant on U.S. manufacturing is among the hardest hit by tariffs.” Of any automaker, Ford manufactures the most vehicles in the U.S. “Some 80% of the cars Ford sells in the U.S. are built there,” but Ford is being “put it at a disadvantage with foreign rivals. Those deals now set a 15% tariff rate.” Ford which paid $800 million for tariffs in Q2 has been particularly hard hit as it “faces steeper tariffs on many parts as well as higher costs for imported aluminum, which is subject to 50% duties.”
Tags: $800 million, 15%, 50, Aluminum, Automaker, Detroit, Disadvantage, Ford, Foreign rivals, Irony, Manufacturing, Parts, Q2, Reliant, Tariffs, U.S., Vehicles
Wall Street Journal (June 25)
Steel and aluminum :”are trump’s worst tariffs.” They “will hit consumers, jobs and national security.” On June 3, President Trump announced that U.S. tariff rates on steel and aluminum would double to 50%, effective the next day.“ This move constitutes “the most reckless trade action of the Trump presidency.” The tariffs on these crucial manufacturing materials “will drive up the cost of U.S. manufactured products dramatically.” They may “drag the economy into a recession” and “will increase the probability of retaliation against American exports and an all-out trade war.” On top of that, the tariffs “will harm national security by increasing the cost of two essential components of defense procurement.”
Tags: 50, Aluminum, Consumers, Defense procurement, Economy, Exports, Jobs, Manufacturing, National security, Recession, Reckless, Retaliation, Steel, Tariffs, Trade war, Trump, U.S.
New York Times (May 20)
The Chinese century “may already have dawned, and when historians look back they may very well pinpoint the early months of President Trump’s second term as the watershed moment when China pulled away and left the United States behind.” China “already leads global production in multiple industries — steel, aluminum, shipbuilding, batteries, solar power, electric vehicles, wind turbines, drones, 5G equipment, consumer electronics, active pharmaceutical ingredients and bullet trains.” China is “laser-focused on winning the future.” In contrast, “Mr. Trump is taking a wrecking ball to the pillars of American power and innovation. His tariffs are endangering U.S. companies’ access to global markets and supply chains. He is slashing public research funding and gutting our universities, pushing talented researchers to consider leaving for other countries. He wants to roll back programs for technologies like clean energy and semiconductor manufacturing and is wiping out American soft power in large swaths of the globe.”
Tags: 5G, Aluminum, Batteries, Bullet trains, Chinese century, Clean energy, Consumer electronics, Drones, Electric vehicles, Endangering, Global markets, Innovation, Laser-focused, Manufacturing, Pharmaceutical ingredients, Research, Semiconductor, Shipbuilding, Solar power, Steel, Supply chains, Tariffs, Trump, Wind turbines, Wrecking
New York Times (March 11)
“A new round of tariffs on aluminum and steel went into effect overnight. This time, no U.S. trading partner was spared.” The EU will respond with “$28 billion in retaliatory levies next month on American products, including bourbon, jeans and agricultural products.” While EU officials “hope they can still strike a deal…. President Trump seems determined to stick with his protectionist policies.” Immediate market reaction was muted, though “the sell-off has wiped roughly $4 trillion off the benchmark index in less than a month — as concerns grow that the levies will push up prices and slow growth.”
Tags: $4 trillion, Agricultural products, Aluminum, Bourbon, EU, Growth, Jeans, Market reaction, Prices, Protectionist policies, Retaliatory levies, Sell-off, Steel, Tariffs, Trading partner, Trump, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (February 10)
Trump’s first-term “levies hurt consumers and U.S. manufacturers.” The “truth” about his past steel tariffs is that they “made U.S. manufacturers less globally competitive and prompted retaliation that hurt American businesses.” The tariffs ultimately “created uncertainty for U.S. manufacturers and boomeranged on steel and aluminum companies.” Second-term Trump just “gave the economy another jolt of uncertainty… when he signed executive orders imposing 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports.” Is his “strategy to harm U.S. manufacturers and workers?” His tariffs are “political rent-seeking at its most brazen” and benefit “the few at the expense of the many.”
Tags: Aluminum, Boomeranged, Brazen, Businesses, Competitive, Consumers, Harm, Levies, Manufacturers, Rent-seeking, Retaliation, Steel tariffs, Trump, Truth, U.S., Uncertainty
Wall Street Journal (September 11)
“For every American employed making steel or aluminum in 2018, 36 were employed by firms that used steel or aluminum as inputs. By raising the prices of these metals, Mr. Trump’s tariffs destroyed far more manufacturing jobs than they created. Overall manufacturing employment fell in each of the four quarters of 2019…. Under Mr. Trump’s protectionist policy, total manufacturing output was 2% lower by the start of the pandemic than it was when he raised tariffs.”
Tags: 2018, Aluminum, Destroyed, Employment, Fell, Inputs, Jobs, Manufacturing, Metals, Output, Pandemic, Prices, Protectionist policy, Steel, Tariffs, Trump
Bloomberg (July 20)
“What’s next for commodities after a recent price collapse? It looks like more bad news, if the chart watchers are right. The Bloomberg Commodity Index has tumbled about 10 percent from a high in May amid mounting concerns that a trade war could derail global growth, curbing demand for everything from aluminum to soybeans.”
Tags: Aluminum, Chart watchers, Commodities, Demand, Growth, Price collapse, Soybeans, Trade war, Tumbled
Washington Examiner (June 1)
“With President Trump’s incredibly foolhardy decision Thursday to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada, Mexico, and the European Union, the probability grows of an economic crash this fall.”
Wall Street Journal (March 1)
“Donald Trump made the biggest policy blunder of his Presidency Thursday by announcing that next week he’ll impose tariffs of 25% on imported steel and 10% on aluminum. This tax increase will punish American workers, invite retaliation that will harm U.S. exports, divide his political coalition at home, anger allies abroad, and undermine his tax and regulatory reforms. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.7% on the news, as investors absorbed the self-inflicted folly.”
Bloomberg (October 10)
“Kobe Steel Ltd. unleashed an industrial scandal that reverberated across Asia’s second-largest economy after saying it falsified data related to strength and durability of some aluminum and copper products used in aircraft, cars and maybe even a space rocket.” Following on the heels of the Takata scandal and Nissan Motor’s unauthorized vehicle inspections, “Kobe Steel’s admission raises fresh concern about the integrity of Japanese manufacturers.”
Tags: Aircraft, Aluminum, Cars, Copper, Falsified data, Integrity, Japan, Kobe Steel. Scandal, Manufacturers, Nissan, Takata
