Tariffs

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Resigns

January 7, 2025 People's Dispatch. Educate! Canada, Donald Trump, Justin Trudeau, Resignation, Tariffs

On January 6, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation. “I care deeply about this country and I will always be motivated by what is in the best interests of Canadians. And the fact is, despite best efforts to work through it, parliament has been paralyzed for months after what has been the longest session of a minority parliament in Canadian history,” Trudeau said as he resigned after nine years as prime minister and 11 years as the leader of the Liberal Party. Trudeau was facing a mounting cost of living crisis, dire opinion polls, and a tariff threat by the United States.

Goals Behind Trump’s Tariffs

January 4, 2025 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. Educate! China, Donald Trump, New Cold War, Tariffs, Tax Cuts

Donald Trump cited billionaire egghead venture capitalist Marc Andreessen to advocate for high tariffs. Trump argued that tariffs will magically replace the income tax and pay off US public debt (which is more than 120% of GDP). This is utterly false, and mathematically absurd. For Trump, tariffs are just another convenient excuse to cut taxes on the rich — which will in fact increase the US deficit, and therefore public debt. Thanks to Trump’s tax cuts during his first term, the richest billionaire families in the US paid a lower effective tax rate than the bottom half of households in the country.

China And Mexico Stand Firm In The Face Of Trump’s Tariff Threats

November 29, 2024 Pablo Meriguet, People's Dispatch. Educate! Canada, China, Claudia Sheinbaum, Drug Trafficking, Drugs, Fentanyl, Immigration, Mexico, Migrant Caravan, Tariffs, United States

Several days ago, the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, announced his intention to impose a 25% tariff on Mexican and Canadian products until the arrival of migrants and drugs, especially fentanyl, allegedly from Mexico and Canada is reduced. In a post on his social network Truth Social, the incoming far-right president reaffirmed his xenophobic positions on immigration and blamed Mexico, China, and Canada for the appearance of fentanyl in the country. “As everyone is aware, thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing Crime and Drugs at levels never seen before.

Mexico’s Leftist President Rips Trump Tariff Threat

November 27, 2024 Jake Johnson, Common Dreams. Educate! Donald Trump, Mexico, Pentagon Budget, Tariffs, US Foreign Policy

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday sharply criticized U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's threat to impose a 25% tariff on all imported goods from Canada and Mexico, calling the proposal a potentially disastrous distraction from meaningful solutions to drug trafficking and mass migration. "Migration and drug consumption in the United States cannot be addressed through threats or tariffs," Sheinbaum, a member of Mexico's leftist Morena party, wrote in a letter to Trump. "What is needed is cooperation and mutual understanding to tackle these significant challenges."

How Trump’s Return Will Impact The World

November 11, 2024 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. Resistance Report China, dollar, Donald Trump, Iran, Israel, Russia, Tariffs, Ukraine, US Imperialism

As he prepares to return to the White House, US President-elect Donald Trump has appointed neoconservative Iran hawk Brian Hook to lead his State Department transition team. This has excited pro-Israel groups. At a September event at the Israeli-American Council, Trump proudly declared, “I was the best friend Israel ever had”. All of the likely candidates for Trump’s secretary of state and national security advisor are China hawks. These include neocons Marco Rubio, Robert O’Brien, and Mike Waltz. Three other possible choices, Ric Grenell, Bill Hagerty, and Vivek Ramaswamy are so-called “MAGA” Republicans who have distanced themselves from neoconservatism, but still share the neocons’ vehement hatred of China and would escalate tensions with Beijing.

Trump Threatens To Punish De-Dollarization

September 14, 2024 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. Resistance Report Brazil, BRICS, China, De-dollarization, Dilma Rousseff, dollar, Donald Trump, Iran, Lula da Silva, New Development Bank (NDB), Russia, Tariffs

Countries across the planet are seeking alternatives to the US-dominated financial system. However, former President Donald Trump has pledged that, if he returns to the White House, he will punish nations that de-dollarize. “We will keep the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency”, Trump promised at a campaign rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin on September 7, 2024. “It is currently under major siege. Many countries are leaving the dollar”, the Republican presidential candidate lamented. “They’re not going to leave the dollar with me”, Trump insisted. “I’ll say, ‘You leave the dollar, you’re not doing business with the United States, because we’re going to put 100% tariff on your goods'”.

China To Give LDCs, Including 33 African Countries, Zero-Tariff Treatment

September 6, 2024 Friends of Socialist China. Educate! Africa, China, Infrastructure, Least Developed Countries, Tariffs

China has decided to give all least developed countries having diplomatic relations with China, including 33 countries in Africa, zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent tariff lines, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced on Thursday in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing, the Xinhua News Agency reported. This has made China the first major developing country and the first major economy to take such a step. It will help turn China’s big market into Africa’s big opportunity, Xi said, Xinhua reported. China will expand market access for African agricultural products, deepen cooperation with Africa in e-commerce and other areas, and launch a “China-Africa quality enhancement program,” Xi said.

The Price Of Biden’s New China Tariffs

May 24, 2024 Patrick Lawrence, Scheer Post. Educate! China, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, New Cold War, Tariffs, Trade

I love the photograph The New York Times ran atop Jim Tankersley’s May 18 story analyzing the inadvisable raft of tariffs on Chinese imports President Biden authorized four days earlier. There is the old coot signing the paperwork at a desk in the Rose Garden as a crowd of seven looks on admiringly. Polo shirts, sneakers, a baseball cap. Six of these seven are people of color; four are women. Perfect, just perfect. Study the picture. These dutiful onlookers are not officeholders or administration officials. They are union leaders from what were once powerful labor organizations: steelworkers, autoworkers, machinists, communications workers, the AFL–CIO.

Corruption Of Sanctions & Tariffs Ignored By The Media

February 24, 2020 Ralph Nader, Nader.org Educate! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Sanctions, Tariffs

The news is filled with stories about President Trump and his predecessors imposing sanctions on other countries, their officials, and other prominent persons. But the media rarely spells out exactly what these sanctions are, the intermediaries who enforce them, the impacts they have on innocent civilians – women, men and children – how they are countered or evaded, and whether they fulfill or undermine their diplomatic, military, or economic purposes.

Steelmaker That Praised Trump Tariffs Now Suing U.S. For Relief

August 5, 2019 Joe Deaux, Bloomberg.com Educate! Tariffs, Trump Administration

Less than a year after JSW Steel (USA) Inc. lauded U.S. metal tariffs for aiding the steel industry, the company is suing because it’s not exempted from the levies. The producer says the Commerce Department wrongfully denied waivers for steel-slab raw materials, forcing the steelmaker to pay tens of millions of dollars in tariffs. It relies on imports of these materials from India and Mexico because the U.S. doesn’t produce steel slab of sufficient quality or quantity, JSW said in its complaint.

A US-China Trade War ‘Armistice’?

December 5, 2018 By Jack Rasmus, Zcomm.org Educate! China, Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Tariffs, Trade War, United States

The first reports emerging from the G20 meeting in Buenos Aires today, December 2, 2018, are that Trump and Xi have agreed to put their trade war on hold, a kind of ‘trade war armistice’, at least for the next 90 days. Trump entered into his meeting this past weekend with China’s president, Xi, having imposed $50 billion in tariffs at 25% on China goods imports last July, to which another $200 billion was added thereafter. Tariffs on the $200 billion were set at 10%, but were scheduled to rise to 25% on January 1, 2019. Before the US November elections, Trump further threatened to add a further $267 billion if China continued to refuse to meet with the US.

How Much Damage are Trump’s Solar Tariffs Doing to the U.S. Industry?

August 21, 2018 Dan Gearino, Insideclimatenews.org Educate! New Economy, Solar Energy, Tariffs, Trump Administration

The tariffs on imported solar panels imposed by the Trump administration six months ago have done little to dampen the booming solar market in the United States. Company executives and industry analysts say that the effects of the tariffs—increased prices for installations that could depress demand for solar projects and lead to thousands of job losses—have largely been cancelled out by other factors. Many developers had stockpiled cheap panels in anticipation of the import fees. China slowed the pace of domestic installations, creating a surplus of cheap panels that could spill into global markets. And U.S. consumers have a big incentive to install solar panels in the next 18 months, before U.S. tax incentives begin to phase out. So far, there's not enough data to tell how much the import fees are altering project costs, although it is clear that there has not been a dramatic shift.

President Trump’s Tariffs Are Not Really The Point

August 8, 2018 Stan Sorscher, Thestand.org Educate! New Economy, Tariffs, Trump Administration

Ronald Reagan told us that markets are good, government is bad, and we should let free markets solve all our problems. Winners will prosper, and gains will trickle down to workers and communities. At the global level, this meant free trade policy that blurs national boundaries, and merges or integrates our economy into the global economy. This approach shifts power in favor of global corporations, while reducing policy space for governments, workers, communities, and the environment. China has never accepted our free-trade free-market model. Zhang Xiangchen, China’s ambassador to the WTO, made this clear a few days ago. “China has been vigorously exploring a road of market economy, which suits China’s own national situation and circumstances, and we have made remarkable progress in this endeavor.

UE General Executive Board: “Workers Need An Industrial Policy Not Tariffs”

March 22, 2018 Staff, Ueunion.org Create! Class Struggle, New Economy, Tariffs, Workers

President Trump’s recent announcement that he intends to impose a 25% tariff on steel and a 10% tariff on aluminum is not a new or effective strategy for reviving American manufacturing. George W. Bush imposed tariffs on steel in 2002 and quietly removed them after only 18 months. Protectionist measures in a capitalist economy of global “free” trade are not adequate tools for building a sustainable US infrastructure and improving the lives of workers. What American workers need is not partial half-measures, but a trade and industrial policy that is based on international cooperation, respect for workers’ rights, and environmental sustainability — one that raises living standards for workers across industries and across borders through investment in infrastructure, jobs and social programs.

The TPP Has Been Signed, We Need to Build Power

March 11, 2018 Daniel Cooper, Trade for People and Planet Educate! NAFTA, Tariffs, TPP

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was signed this Thursday, March 8th by the eleven countries that remained in negotiations after the United States abandoned the deal. The agreement, re-marketed as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), will set standards in more than 13 percent of the global economy, a total of $10 trillion in gross domestic product. The TPP’s signing shows that the trade model the Obama administration had sought will remain in the global panorama and that the signing governments of Asia and the Pacific still have hope that the United States could potentially join. The lobbying effort for the United States to reconsider joining the TPP has continued amongst legislators and industry leaders alike.

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