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Thread: Obama opened Pandora's box re Chinese tire tariffs ...

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    Banned Melonie's Avatar
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    Default Obama opened Pandora's box re Chinese tire tariffs ...

    ... so it should come as no surprise that other US industries / unions are now echoing the tire complaint !

    (snip)"On the eve of the G20 meeting, three paper companies and the United Steelworkers filed an antidumping complaint against Chinese and Indonesian paper makers.

    Coming less than two weeks after the U.S. slapped tariffs on Chinese tires and China responded with tariffs against U.S. auto parts and chickens, many are worried that protectionism is rearing its ugly head.

    The odds of a trade war remain low but are "starting to inch up," says Greg Ip, U.S. economics editor at The Economist.

    The paper complaint is a long way from becoming a formal sanction, Ip notes. But "the thing on tires Obama did was very troubling," he continues. "Essentially, he could have said ‘no' and he said ‘yes'. He's going to invite a lot more complaints of this nature."

    Ip's concern, shared by many economists, is that if the economy remains weak, Obama is going to come under pressure from various labor groups to impose sanctions on a variety of other goods.

    "If unemployment stays high and workers are still struggling a year or two from now, you're going to get more protectionist pressures," Ip says. "It's going to be hard for the administration to say ‘no' when it said ‘yes' this time."

    Obama's critics say the tire tariffs were expressly done to pander to unions, whose support the White House needs to push through health-care reform - and maintain Democratic majorities in the 2010 mid-term elections."(snip)

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    This should get extremely interesting as various other US industries also bring complaints based on alleged Chinese 'dumping'. It will get even more interesting to see which of these complaints Obama acts on or ignores.

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    God/dess Deogol's Avatar
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    Default Re: Obama opened Pandora's box re Chinese tire tariffs ...

    The trade war started a long time ago and ... we lost.

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    Banned Eric Stoner's Avatar
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    Default Re: Obama opened Pandora's box re Chinese tire tariffs ...

    How does Obama do it ? I thought Clinton was the master of the boldfaced political lie but Obama is just as good. On April 2, of this year he exhorted the G-20 ( now meeting in Pittsburgh ) to resist domestic pressures for protectionism. Yet, like the well trained Big Labor
    lap dog that he is, Obama dutifully slapped tariffs on tires that China makes for the LOW-PRICE end of the market. Those are NOT the tires that rich folk are putting on their Escalades and BMW's. This demonstrates BOTH Obama's willingness to disrupt international trade and his weakness under pressure from his political supporters.

    it is very important to note that China was NOT "dumping". The tires they sold were NOT below the cost of manufacuring. Yet Obama claimed that he was enforcing a trade agreement.Presumably the 2000 Congressional condition for China's admission to the World Trade Organization. In other words there was no bilateral trade agreement that China was in supposed violation of. The "market disruption" that the President was given discretionary aithority to respond to was caused by American consumers choosing to buy cheaper tires. Not a single one of the 10 domestic American tire manufacturers asked Obama to do anything.
    7 of them make tires outside the U.S. 4 of them make tires in China. The majority of them don't even make low end tires because higher end products ( made here in the U.S. btw ) are much more profitable. So why did Obama take action ? Because the Steelworkers asked him to.

    The USW represents rubber workers who make 47% of U.S. made tires. Obama's action will not create a single new job. It won't restore a single one of the 5,000 tire industry jobs lost between 2004 and 2008. What Obama has done is increase tire-making employment in Mexico and Indonesia. That is where American tire companies make low end tires except for the ones they have made in China. Did anybody in his Administration bother to look up a few facts and figures before doing the bidding of an economically illiterate union ???? Was this a slap at China just to take a slap at a major purchaser of U.S. government debt that enables Americans to receive more Government than they are willing to actually pay for ?

    It is true that tire imports from China increased some 200%. Those tires were bought by and large by lower income Americans who will now have to pay more for those tires. Or drive around longer on worn out tires. And there will probably be job losses at tire stores and among longshoremen.

    Obama already sat on his hands when Congress violated NAFTA by stopping Mexican trucks from delivering to the U.S. That was to appease the Teamsters. And he didn't protest "Buy American' provisions in the stimulus legislation. And he hasn't pushed for ratification of free trade agreements with Panama, South Korea and Colombia. The latter two were among the world's largest purchasers of Caterpillar machines for large scale earth moving and the like.
    Yet Obama says he favors "free trade". Uh huh. Anybody buying ?

    Here's another underreported economic tid - bit from Brazil's President Lula. Interviewed by the CNBC "Money Honey", Maria Bartiromo, Lula joined China and Russian leaders who have previously expressed that they are sick and tired of using a reserve currency that continues to decline in value. Namely the Dollar. Lula does not want to have to buy dollars to conduct trade. Rather he has proposed that either the BRIC countries use their own domestic currencies or use something else for international trade transactions. If THAT ever happens, look out ! The dollar will plummet below the Mexican peso.
    Last edited by Eric Stoner; 09-28-2009 at 10:39 AM.

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