Should we have Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum Imports?

AaronP

Diamond Member
Feb 27, 2000
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ok, my dad and I saw a sign yesterday that said something like "Support American Steel, tell your congressman to vote for The XXXYZ Act"

it was something along those lines, I told my dad, to hell with that, if they can't compete on a level playing field with Japan then they thats their problem. The best aluminum for graphics printing is made in Japan, and the US stuff can't touch it on the basis of quality OR cost. However, there are these stupid tariffs that give the us a fighting chance. I say screw that.

Then my dad (a union guy for 35 years says) well, the reason they can't compete is wages. Typical American union factory workers make anywhere from 12-20 bucks per hour on average, and in Japan they don't pay nearly as much. I hadn't thought of that, and it made me stop and think for a second, but I'm still of the mind that tariffs suck, and any country who wants to have free trade and no tarifs with the US should be able to.
 

cavingjan

Golden Member
Nov 15, 1999
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What's worse is the fact that Japan has to import the resources to even make aluminum and steel and then ship it to us. And they still come out as competitive with US steel. Personally I think we Americans are pricing ourselves out of a lot of markets. There was a point in time when US steel was the best in the world. Similar thing happened with Harley Davidson when we levied tariffs on every motorcycle imported into this country.
 

shifrbv

Senior member
Feb 21, 2000
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Tarrifs are a bad idea. Tariffs are walls that trading partners must overcome. If you picture all international trade as having to first be thrown over a tariff wall to make it to your customer, you can then see that at some point the tariff wall will be physically too tall to throw the products over and trade stops. When it stops it begins to pile up (excess inventory) and not as many workers are needed to produce goods that are too expensive to sell thanks to the tariffs.

The Smoot-Hawley Tariffs passed in 1929 were one of the reasons that the Depression was a bad as it was in the US. It imploded international trade and only exacerbated a bad economic situation. Tarrifs generate less revenue for the government and often in the end, the government looks to raise taxes to make up for the difference. They did this during the Depression which made it even worse.