Can you give me an example of "fair trade"? How would that work? Better yet, why aren't we doing it now (or ever before)?
Fair trade is the trade we used to have before free trade pacts started happening. It allows us to tariff goods based on the other countries' employment treatment, environmental dumping. You create tiers of trade standards. Like a class A Class B, Class C and so forth. If you meet some of the standards we have you move up in the trading tiers and you get lower tariffs on your goods. If you make it to class A, you get no tariffs. This way they are raising their standards in their country rather than us lowering our standards to act like a third world country in order to compete.
Sounds pretty complicated. Every product would need to be evaluated. I see a huge bureaucracy to implement this.
Some products we buy can't be made here due to environmental restrictions. If we force our standards on the supplier, how will that benefit us?
Morally speaking, it's very appealing. Practically speaking, I see endless court battles, trade wars and higher prices overall.
Thanks for explaining. I saw "fair trade" coffee the other day and wondered WTF it meant.
Or at least Obama said so. In 2008.
I suspect that China knows it, too.
Well it can't be that complicated. We used to tariff in the past. Also, all products have country of origin stamped on them already.
Well it can't be that complicated. We used to tariff in the past. Also, all products have country of origin stamped on them already.
Trade wars are wars that governments wage on their own people. The dumbest response to China would be to cut off the nose of the American economy.
Yes, we did and we stopped doing it. Like most things, it got really complex. I've been in the import/export business from 1969-1985 and I remember the battles over item descriptions etc.
I don't object to it, but I see complexities that make it unlikely to happen For one thing, we have so many products we don't make anyomre and aren't likely to take up again, I can only imagine the lobbying and exceptions that will make this resemble our tax codes.
Just musing really.
They've been doing it to us... sure as hell boosted their economy something fierce.
Well tbh, no good change seemingly will ever come with our bribery... er... lobbying rules as they are.
1. Chinese Economic Growth is.... not what you think it is. There's a lot of backstory there, but it basically comes down to Chinese growth has been inflated, in some areas wildly so.
2. If you are referring to them artificially pegging the renminbi to the dollar, then think about that for a second - you just argued that the Chinese were unfairly giving us stuff. You just complained that the Chinese were willing to deliberately impoverish themselves in order to increase the standard of living for our poor.
Hey, as long as they are dumb enough to do that, I say let 'em.
We manipulate our currency, so should we be tarriffed?Manipulating their currency is another reason to tariff them.
The lobbying and bribery that I had hoped might change with Obama, post-Bush, has been one of my biggest disappointments. If anything, it's gotten worse.
We manipulate our currency, so should we be tarriffed?
We do not tie our currency value to that of another nation's currency so that we will maintain cheaper products. Also, China is tariffing the **** out of us.
When we inflate our currency we devalue the Chinese creditors.
Chinese companies are starting to build some plants in the US. I am not sure what to make of it when it seems more economical to pay someone here $25K a year instead of someone there $2500 a year.
Probably foreseeing the transport expense coming as fuel demand drastically increases in their nation and therefore world-wide, while here in the US, we have crude demand dropping for quite some time now.
I considered that. I also considered that they are hedging against tariffs by producing domestically. My true suspicion is that they are laying the groundwork so it won't be so shocking and political if and when they build a car plant here because that seems to be an area of manufacturing they are about to jump head first into.
That's one thing that Reagan did that I can fully agree with when he said if you want to sell cars in the US you have to build cars in the US. All the free-trader folks of today would crucify him for that.
Manipulating their currency is another reason to tariff them.
Well it doesn't benefit our poor when the poor lose even their low paying jobs to the Chinese because they pay so little and dump their toxins in the Yangtze river. Then our poor can't much afford even Chinese goods.
Chinese companies are starting to build some plants in the US. I am not sure what to make of it when it seems more economical to pay someone here $25K a year instead of someone there $2500 a year.
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