New York Times (March 15)
“There’s no way to bring back all those steel plants and steel jobs, even if we stopped all imports. Partly that’s because a modern economy doesn’t use that much steel, partly because we can produce steel using many fewer workers, partly because old-fashioned open-hearth plants have been replaced by mini-mills that use scrap metal and aren’t in the same places. So this is all a fantasy.”
Tags: Economy, Imports, Jobs, Mini-mills, Plants, Scrap metal, Steel
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.”
Forbes (February 6)
“The dollar-euro exchange rate is the most important price in the world…. How so? These are two surpassingly large economic areas, and they trade and invest more than enough with each other—such that each imports the other’s entire relative price structure…. Change that exchange rate in a big way—a fifth is plenty big—and all sorts of new decisions will come in terms of where one plans to invest, produce, and sell.”
Tags: Dollar, euro, Exchange rate, Imports, Invest, Price structure, Produce, Sell, Trade
Wall Street Journal (December 4)
As “Trump and Wilbur Ross tee up tariff brawls for the New Year,” the odds of a “coming aluminum war” increase. “Dumping investigations usually start when a company petitions the government,” but for the first time in 25 years “the Commerce Department last week announced a “dumping” investigation into Chinese aluminum imports.” The government initiated case is just “one more sign that the Trump Administration is heading toward a major escalation in trade conflict that would hurt Americans.”
Tags: Aluminum war, China, Commerce Department, Dumping, Imports, Ross, Tariff, Trade conflict, Trump
The Week (April 9)
“Corporate America almost uniformly craves tax reform. But businesses are deeply split over whether to support the…20 percent tax on imports coming into the U.S….. Major U.S. manufacturers like Boeing and Caterpillar are behind the idea. But retailers like Target and Ikea, as well as other companies that import most of their goods, are lobbying furiously against it.”
Tags: Boeing, Caterpillar, Corporate America, Ikea, Imports, Manufacturers, Reform, Retailers, Target, Tax, U.S.
WARC (March 3)
“US brands face a mixed reaction in China, as consumers react to the presidency of Donald Trump and his threat to impose tariffs on imports from that country.” Following his first month in office, “41.2% of Chinese consumers had a more negative view of the US.” while just “8.1% viewed the US more positively.” It remains to be seen whether American brands will face the intensely negative blowback that caused Japanese auto sales to contract by more than a third following the negative press surrounding a 2012 territorial dispute with Japan.
Tags: Auto sales, Blowback, Brands, China, Consumers, Imports, Japan, Tariffs, Territorial dispute, Threat, Trump, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (September 26)
“As the oil bust shows little sign of reversing, independent refiners in China have emerged as perhaps the most important, and little-known, force in oil markets today.” Known as “teapots,” these refiners accounted for the vast majority of the 13.5% surge in imports this year by China, which now rivals the U.S. as world’s largest crude importer.”
Bloomberg (January 26)
“Why are economists so willing to declare to the world that free trade is good?” Their consensus flies in the face of popular opinion and “powerful evidence that industries and regions that have been more exposed to Chinese import competition since 2000—the year China joined the World Trade Organization—have been hit hard and have not recovered.”
Tags: China, Competition, Consensus, Economists, Evidence, Free trade, Imports, Industries, Popular opinion, Regions, WTO
Bloomberg (December 10)
“Investors betting that China’s near-insatiable appetite for industrial raw materials will drive global economic growth may want to skip the shipping news. For the first time in at least a decade, combined seaborne imports of iron ore and coal — commodities that helped fuel a manufacturing boom in the world’s second-largest economy — are down from a year earlier.”
Tags: China, Coal, Commodities, Global economic growth, Imports, Investors, Iron, Manufacturing, Ore, Raw materials, Shipping
Washington Post (March 6)
Russia’s energy stranglehold around Europe, which imports about a third of its fuel from Russia, must be loosened. “In the long term, Europe and Ukraine should continue to make their energy markets more flexible. Ukraine should consider building an LNG import terminal on the Black Sea, and the country must clean up its notoriously corrupt energy production sector.” Abundant supply in the U.S., Norway, Qatar and Eastern Europe can also play a role in freeing Europe “from Gazprom’s grip.”
Tags: Black Sea, Eastern Europe, Energy, Europe, Gazprom, Imports, LNG terminal, Norway, Qatar, Russia, U.S., Ukraine
