(03-02-2018, 06:36 AM)The Real Marty Wrote: So now Trump is saying he will put a 25% tariff on imported steel,  and a 10% tariff on imported aluminum.   He's basically saying foreign steel makers are not charging enough for their product.  He wants everyone who uses imported steel to pay more for it, in order to protect the US steel industry.   This means consumers will all wind up paying more for everything that contains steel or aluminum.  

It also means that US based manufacturers that use steel or aluminum will be less competitive.   Cars made in the US will cost more.  So people will buy more imported cars. ( Unless he puts a tariff on imported cars.)   Car manufacturers who are faced with rising costs in the US will have more incentive to move their plants overseas.  So will everyone else who uses steel and aluminum in the US.  More jobs leave the US as a result of the tariff on steel.  

Then the steel making countries retaliate by restricting US made products.  Farmers in the US are huge exporters of soybeans to China.  The US is the largest soybean grower in the world.  South American countries also grow lots of soybeans.  China decides they want to get more soybeans from Brazil and Argentina and less from the United States.  

See where this is going?  You pay more for everything, and more jobs move overseas.  It all backfires.  

Any time you try to restrict free markets like this, there are massive unintended consequences.

The international market is not a free market, nor should access to the American market be free. All that happens is certain players get to play by rules that give them unfair advantages against domestic competition. I admittedly don't know the details of the metals market, but my stance is the same as England's stance on American cotton in 1860, we shouldn't purchase products from an immoral or unethical source, nor permit them to set the market.

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