This could have all gone very differently. If the government’s attempt to use trade policy to promote domestic manufacturing in the 1980s had been balanced with high-quality investments to make steelmaking cleaner and more efficient, U.S. Steel may have been purchasing Nippon Steel today. The cautionary lesson for today’s policymakers is that any efforts to … Read More
China has become a dominant force in the electric vehicle market, with an estimated 60% share of global sales of new passenger electric vehicles, around 14.1 million units in 2023, according to BloombergNEF. This substantial influence has caused tensions internationally, especially in Europe. In September, the European Union launched an investigation into alleged state subsidies … Read More
The fact that unrestricted trade creates domestic unemployment is quite obvious, and should be especially obvious to Third World people who have had the historical experience of deindustrialisation during colonial rule. Yet, there is a general impression around that free trade is a good thing, and an utterly spurious argument is advanced to create this … Read More
The US Commerce Department will begin gathering information on Chinese production of legacy semiconductors — chips that aren’t cutting-edge but are still vital to the global economy — as it looks to track how deeply reliant US companies have become on the technology from China. Some Chinese chipmakers have used low prices to undercut competitors, … Read More
U.S. Trade Rep Katherine Tai defended tariffs against China at Semafor’s Made in America Event on Wednesday, saying that “tariffs are a part of the U.S.-China bilateral relationship” because of an “unfair” global economy. “There’s no such thing as pure free trade,” Tai said, adding that China’s own tariffs and economic policy have allowed Beijing … Read More
Lawmakers in both parties endorsed the proposal, a reflection of the growing willingness in Congress to build on the tariffs enacted during Donald Trump’s presidency, even if it risks retaliatory actions from China that would harm many farmers, ranchers and U.S. exporters. “It’s a strategy that of course involves tradeoffs, but I think a strategy … Read More
South Korea unveiled a 38 trillion won ($29 billion) financial package over the next five years aimed at helping local electric-vehicle battery makers diversify their supply chains as the US calls for a reduced reliance on China. President Biden is pushing carmakers to reduce their reliance on Chinese components and shape new supply chains with … Read More
Bipartisan lawmakers on Tuesday called for severing more of America’s economic and financial ties with China, including revoking the low tariff rates that the United States granted Beijing after it joined the World Trade Organization more than two decades ago. The most prevalent argument a decade ago was that economic interdependence between the United States … Read More
“The decisions you make on international economic policy impacts your domestic economy. We sit at that intersection between domestic economic policy and international and it is an uncomfortable intersection because these two forces are often pushing you in different directions, if not opposite directions. What we do internationally has to be connected to what objectives … Read More
This article suggests that Trump’s trade plan conjures up the ghosts of depressions past, even after the writer of the article admits that “The idea that Smoot Hawley caused the Great Depression has long since been debunked.” Does the writer not know or remember how the 25% tariffs on Chinese products were supposed to repeat … Read More
