Trump Expands Aluminum, Steel Tariffs to Some Imported Products
The Trump administration expanded its trademark steel and aluminum tariffs to cover certain imported nails, staples, electrical wires and some downstream parts that go into automobiles and tractors, among other…
China trade deal will not restore 3.7 million U.S. jobs lost since China entered the WTO in 2001
As shown in a forthcoming EPI report to be released later this month, growing U.S. trade deficits with China eliminated 3.7 million U.S. jobs between 2001 and 2018 alone, including…
Tariffs Are Working, to the Consternation of the Economics Profession
Here’s what we know about the US economy in the early days of 2020: there was a manufacturing boom in 2017 and 2018. This boom lifted manufacturing employment by 190,000…
Initial U.S.-China trade deal has major hole: Beijing’s massive business subsidies
After China labeled shipbuilding a strategic industry in 2006, the government funded several new shipyards with subsidies that saved the industry up to $4.5 billion over a six-year period. China…
Phase One China Deal: Steep Tariffs Are the New Normal
Even with the phase one deal in effect, Trump will have increased the average US tariff on imports from China to 19.3 percent from 3.0 percent in January 2018. The…
U.S. Factory Output Rebounds Even Without Post-GM Strike Bump
Production of motor vehicles and parts jumped 12.4%, the most in a decade; excluding that category, factory output rose 0.3%, the first gain in three months. Total industrial production, which…
GM Can’t Keep Up in China, Once Seen as the Promised Land
The claim: GM has struggled in China as a result of President Trump’s trade policies with China. The reality: GM’s eight-year reign as the top foreign automaker in China ended…
Why American steel stocks plummeted in the past year, despite tariffs
The tariffs encouraged American steel companies to increase investment beyond simply increasing capacity. The steelmakers argue they needed to make the investment to be competitive for the future. “We’re among…
Protectionist tariffs hamper U.S. growth: former U.S. trade representative
Former USTR Charlene Barshefsky says, “The United States imposed protectionist tariffs that…failed to invest in domestic infrastructure…” The reality: Nucor will spend more than $2 billion to add over 2.6…
The abiding, forever-relevant truth that Trump’s trade war exposed
According to the ideological prejudices of the present, built up over nearly four decades of globalization, free trade and deregulation represent the natural order of things. History, however, tells us…