The figure above summarizes a report from CNBC (https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/23/trumps-tariffs-trade-war-will-be-bad-for-us-and-china-cnbc-survey.html).
It looks like the steel and aluminum tariff fiasco has been subdued.* I don't understand why we did to South Korea what we did because we import most of our steel pipe and tubing from them. We just don't have the capacity to make it in the U.S. at this time. At any rate, the tariff costs will be handed off to consumers. Whether this extra cost is sufficient to stop some pipeline and tubing projects is not clear.
Though we do import a lot of steel and aluminum from Canada, overall we have a trade surplus with them because they buy a lot of services from us. Our president doesn't know such things. Our president is a loose cannon** who doesn't bother to check the facts.
We take the Canadian raw steel and aluminum and make it into value-added products. And in spite of all the imports, the U.S. still made 83 million tons of steel last year. That certainly sounds like we have a steel industry to me. And China now supplies only about 2.5% of our imported steel. It is true that a few years ago they were dumping a lot of steel on us, but Obama negotiated a deal where China closed a lot of its steel plants that were making excess steel. Again, our president didn't know what is going on.
President Tump has imposed a 20% tariff on imported soft-wood lumber from Canada which is estimated to add about $3,000 to the cost of an average house.***
President Trump is certainly not consumer friendly, His new tariffs on China should have two effects:
One is that U.S. consumers will be hurt. The typical consumer has about $260 in extra purchasing power as a result of trade with China. Those benefits, which disproportionately go toward working-class Americans, will fall due to the U.S. tariffs, as American importers will pass some of their increased costs along to consumers.
Secondly, American companies that export to China will be exposed to retaliation in the form of tariffs on U.S.-made goods. Shortly after Trump’s announcement, China released its own policy statement targeting $3 billion worth of U.S. exports.
Particularly vulnerable to Chinese retaliation are the pork and soybean industries, which are concentrated in the Trump-friendly Midwest. This list could grow if a trade war with China escalates.****
It looks like our president is functionally illiterate. I think he knows how to read, but apparently only with considerable difficulty so he avoids reading. I don't say this as a ciriticism because it is how he is and we must deal with it. [Note added March 30, 2018: Trump must have had adequate reading ability in college so something has happened to him since. One possibility is that he has had a small stroke affecting the part of the brain doing reading comprehension. Another possibility is that he has lost reading ability through lack of use, i.e. he never learned to read for pleasure..]
* https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2018/03/us-department-commerce-announces-steel-and-aluminum-tariff-exclusion
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/eu-brazil-south-korea-and-others-get-temporary-exemptions-from-trumps-steel-tariffs/2018/03/22/9d0fac5a-2de4-11e8-8dc9-3b51e028b845_story.html?utm_term=.ffd96e943f42
** President Trump has taken it upon himself to go after Amazon claiming they don't pay enough state and local tax on their sales. Actually, Amazon does collect the tax for state and local communities for their own products and has started taking the tax on 3rd party sales for states that demand they do so. Currently, this is the state of Washington but will add Pennsylvania on April 1.
Because the Federal government does have controls over interstate commerce, if Congress wants to pass a law that 3rd party sales taxes are collected for all states that have sales taxes on 3rd party sales, I'm sure that Amazon would comply. It is no big deal. Currently, Amazon pays about $200 million to state and local governments so adding 3rd party sales would maybe double the sum.
*** https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2017/11/02/u-s-moves-forward-with-canadian-lumber-tariffs-after-settlement-talks-fail/?utm_term=.33324975f820
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/american-homebuilders-buyers-would-feel-pain-of-canadian-lumber-tariff-2017-04-24
**** https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2017/11/02/u-s-moves-forward-with-canadian-lumber-tariffs-after-settlement-talks-fail/?utm_term=.33324975f820
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