The real impact of President Trump's tariffs

 

Jeff Childers points out that the tariffs on imports that President Trump imposed yesterday not only level the economic playing field, they overturn a decades-old system of trade that's become wildly warped and twisted in favor of others while being detrimental to the United States.

It would be easy to dismiss yesterday’s announcement as dry, economic arcana — tariffs, trade deficits, bilateral agreements, country-by-country charts, and economic reports. But don’t be fooled by all the paperwork. What Trump did wasn’t just a historic across-the-board trade action.

It was a once-in-a-century power shift.

To understand how truly historic it was, look back to Bretton Woods, 1944 — the postwar deal where America agreed to carry the world’s economic burdens in exchange for geopolitical dominance.

After the devastation of WWII, the United States promised to help rebuild Europe and Japan, by opening our previously protected markets to foreign goods, keeping our tariffs low to nonexistent, providing the world’s reserve currency, and underwriting global security with American military power.

In return, other countries were supposed to gradually liberalize their economies, buy American goods, and play by the rules. But they never did.

Instead, they took our postwar deal —designed to help them— and ran with it. They piled up tariffs, non-tariff barriers, VAT taxes, and trade cheats while the U.S. kept its markets wide open.

For decades, the American working class footed the bill while foreign economies fattened themselves, and American elites made billions facilitating and perpetuating the grift. That was globalism. It’s not an ideology— it is a business model. And Trump just crushed the model.

He didn’t just slap tariffs on a few industries, as has always been done before. Instead, he:

• Imposed the first across-the-board tariff on all imports in modern U.S. history (with certain exceptions).
• Reversed the postwar deal by demanding reciprocity rather than charity.
• Linked trade to national security, manufacturing independence, and economic sovereignty.
• Gave himself a live, adjustable tariff dashboard to pressure every foreign government, one-on-one.

In short, Trump didn’t “adjust policy” — he dismantled Bretton Woods.

For the first time since 1945, the United States is no longer offering up its consumer market as a global welfare program. Trump’s not playing the age-old game of whack-a-mole, with its endless unproductive diplomacy, swanky secret summits in Alpine resorts, and backroom G7 handshakes.

No, he’s negotiating right out in the open. Holding a sledgehammer of tariffs, leverage, and a crystal clear message: Open your markets to us, or pay dearly for access to ours.

That is why foreign governments, corporate media, and the parasite class are howling. The postwar free ride is over. The host finally vomited up the parasite. And the Bretton Woods era is finally finished.

There's more at the link.

Childers also points out that America's tariffs on our trading partners are not yet anywhere near their tariffs on our products.  If their corporations want to avoid the impact of these new tariffs, the solution is simple.

Trump made two main points. First, taking his critics head on, he insisted tariffs will ultimately lower prices for Americans: “We will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers, and ultimately more production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers.”

In other words, he’s shaking off the ticks.

Next, Trump means to revitalize our infected body politic. He repeatedly explained how our once world-class manufacturing sector has been hollowed out, and our once vital industrial cities have been reduced to smoking ruins. It’s a valid point his critics mostly ignore, because they cannot argue the inarguable.

Trump intends to reverse America’s long, slow slide into industrial oblivion.

And he offered a simple solution to any foreign companies hurt by the tariffs: a generous invitation. “To any company that objects to our common sense reciprocal tariffs… my answer is very simple: If you want your tariff rate to be zero, then you build your product right here in America,” the President said.

“Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country… this will indeed be the golden age of America,” Trump said.

It’s already working. Late last night, for example, Israeli officials indignantly tweeted that it had immediatly deleted all its tariffs on American goods, and demanded why Trump’s new Israel tariffs weren’t canceled yet ... Expect a lot more of this.

Judging by the anguished screaming coming from many of our trading partners, they really thought they could blackmail President Trump into abandoning (or at least drastically scaling back) his tariff initiative.  Now that he's gone through with it (and isn't finished yet, because he has the power to adjust tariffs up or down in future against any trading partner that tries to play fast and loose with the new system of trade), they have a simple choice.

Effectively, it's an economic application of the time-honored Golden Rule:  "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".  If they want the USA to charge lower tariffs on their exports, then they must charge lower tariffs on what the USA exports to them.  Quid pro quo.  Treat us the way you want to be treated.  If you insist on imposing an economic burden on us, we'll do the same to you.

I'm still waiting for someone to explain how that's unfair . . .

Peter