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Vigilance Home PageInternational Trade Public Policies
The content of this web page is arranged under the following
headings:
1. American Manufacturing Changes
2. China Trade
3. Tariffs
1. American Manufacturing Changes
Manufacturing output grew by 17.6 percent, or about 2.2 percent per year, from 2006 to 2013 - which was only slightly slower than the overall economy. But even as manufacturing output was growing, manufacturing jobs were shrinking. The decade from 2000 to 2010 saw the largest decline in manufacturing employment in U.S. history. What killed those jobs? For the most part, it wasn't trade, but productivity gains from automation. Over the 2000 to 2010 decade, productivity gains accounted for 87.8 percent of lost manufacturing jobs, while trade was responsible for just 13.4 percent. (Source: June 2015 Ball State University Report "The Myth and the Reality of Manufacturing in America" available online at http://conexus.cberdata.org/files/MfgReality.pdf.
2. China Trade
China might respond to imposing tariffs on Chinese imports by threatening to impose its own tariffs on U.S. imports and dump billions worth of U.S. Treasury bonds it holds - financial markets could crash and trigger a recession if the world's two largest economies engage in a crippling trade war. An alternative to imposing tariffs on Chinese imports is to accept the status quo and pursue longer-term talks aimed at finding more favorable trade terms for the USA. (Source: Article in the USA Today section of The Indianapolis Star on November 25, 2016.)
3. Tariffs
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, administers trade policy enforcement - and the agency can apply tariffs based on country and product-specific categories. (Source: Article in the USA Today section of The Indianapolis Star on December 7, 2016.)
Company-specific penalties are imposed only when the Commerce Department concludes that a foreign exporter is undercutting prices in the U.S. or being unfairly subsidized, thus violating U.S. anti-dumping and countervailing duty laws. (Source: Article in the USA Today section of The Indianapolis Star on December 7, 2016.)
A U.S. president can impose import restrictions after a finding that national security is at risk - legal challenges by companies will surely follow, and the U.S. can expect legal battles in the World Trade Organization. (Source: Article in the USA Today section of The Indianapolis Star on December 7, 2016.)
This page was last updated on 03/01/17.