US vs EU/S. Korea/Japan - Steel Tradewar

[Excelsiore]

Now where is this gonna lead....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1856000/1856760.stm

[Kibbles-N-Bits]

US = stoopud :con:

[Zundfolge]

Frankly I'm just about done with Bush. :mad:


Where's Ron Paul when we need him :(

[The_Fur]

ooh smart move, ofcourse he conveniently "forgets" that increased import costs= higher production costs = worse trade balance = more job losses. Oh well he can always blame it on Al-Quaeda.

[Mad_Dog]

They believe in free trade, but not when it hurts them... They are pulling the same sh<i></i>it with softwood from Canada. Dumbfu<i></i>cks. Bush's US vs. The World attitude has to go... Americans wonder why their country has a bad rep with some people. Stuff like this is part of the reason.

[DLL]

Can someone please explain why this is so wrong? I'm not for or against tariffs but I don't understand why everyone is so ticked about it.

Doesn't a sovereign country have the right to allow or deny sale of any product?

Let me put it this way. Let's say I own a computer store and I mark Intel chips up higher then I mark up AMD. I have my reasons (I don't like Intel and I want to see AMD succeed) and it's a private store, so why shouldn't I be allowed to do so? Perhaps I'll stop selling Intel products altogether. As long as I'm able to provide a product to my customers at a reasonable price, who cares what rules I set forth?

If I'm seeing this wrong, please explain why. :hmm:

Edit: Is it because the USA is a monopoly? ie US = Microsoft? Hmm..

[MetalMickey]

The US has driven the "Free Market" down our throats for decades. Countries are not allowed to put tariffs on imports to protect their own industries. This is the agenda that the US have driven via the WTO, because 99% it is in their interests to stop other countries doing so.

All of a sudden, it doesnt suit the US, so they just about-face and break their own WTO rules.

[RogueLeader]

What a pathetic attempt to look pro-worker. Just wait until all the other business that needed low cost steel go under instead, and more workers get put out on the streets...

[Mad_Dog]

Originally posted by MetalMickey
The US has driven the "Free Market" down our throats for decades. Countries are not allowed to put tariffs on imports to protect their own industries. This is the agenda that the US have driven via the WTO, because 99% it is in their interests to stop other countries doing so.

All of a sudden, it doesnt suit the US, so they just about-face and break their own WTO rules.

That is exactly what I am saying. The US enters into NAFTA with Canada and Mexico, then they decide to slap something like a 30% tariff on softwood coming from Canada. WTF?:mad: We should never have entered into that.

In case you are wondering about my anger, I come from a area very dependent on the lumber industry. I don't like seeing people in my hometown get laid off.

[The_Fur]

Personally I don't care what they do, in any case this is simply a stupid and short sighted solution. By putting extra tarrifs on imported steel they are forcing their own industry to use more exmensive local materials with the result that:
a) the US trade balance will worsen as us products will become more expensive due to more expensive resources
b) inflation will increase as a result of the higher prices

and eventually more people will get laid of to compensate for both reasons above leading to less money to spend by consumers (unemployed are not big spenders) and voila you have a vicious circle.

[Excelsiore]

The US tariffs are threatening european(and a lot of other countires who produce steel) jobs so basically the only way to retaliate is to slap tariffs on something that the US wants to export. At the same time it can't be something we(europe, the rest of the world) really need because that would only lead to more of our workers being laid off.

Most analysts here think the american product of choice to slap tariffs on is the car, since there is a lot prestige involved for americans being able to export their cars and they aren't a product that we must have.

Without the tariffs some american steel workers would be out of work and some 500, 000 steel worker pensions might be threatened since the american steel companies are having a hard time competing on the international market and some are close to bankrupcy.

In my opinion this is the US governments problem. They are the ones who are ultimately responsible for their citizens pensions and if the companies can't pay, it should be up to them. But I guess the defense budget is eating up all the left over money.

With the tariffs some of those workers will STILL be out of a job and some pensions will STILL be threatened but now workers in the rest of the world may also risk being laid off as well as workers in the US Auto industry, since the US car comapnies won't be able to export.

So much for helping to improve the worldwide economy...

[Goat Fucker]

Is it just my eye's deciving me, or did Bush just manege to, in one continious and quite comic motion, stab himself in the back?

This has to be the worst idea i have heard to date, what in hell posessed him to do this? it wont solve anything whatsoever, on the contrarry, things will get worse, what is the idea in this?

Maybe theres some other motive behind it, could this boost something else i wonder...

[The_Pikeman]

Wow Tony Blair actualy stood up to the USA.......
-How

[rgreene]

...contrary to popular beleif, Britian is a soverign nation, which doesn't do whatever the US says.

[MetalMickey]

Tony Blair said he wrote personally to Mr. Bush, as well as contacting the Americans on just about every civil service level, asking them not to implement these tariffs.

And they slapped him in the face.

Now he looks like an idiot.

[The_Pikeman]

replace "looks like" with is.
-How.

[Destructo6]

Well, in an election year, you have the democrats bleating about job losses and this tariff being a pancea. Therefore, you get a political move that plays out pretty well domestically. You know, non-US citizens don't vote (unless in SoCal) in US elections.

Unions do this sort of political arm twisting all the time. Why aren't they getting the blame?

[RogueLeader]

Probably because the problem for the U.S. economy is the lack of unions, not too many, or those that exist being too powerful. As anyone with an inkling of economics knows when foreign labor can be exploited more cheaply, business will go there. In places where union are brutally suppressed by death squads, the wages are lower. The ideal situation, economically, would not be the current one, or one with no unions anywhere, but one with unions everywhere. Because consumers, contrary to the vulgar and uneducated thought of many, are the exact same thing as producers, it means that surplus value can multiply at a greater rate over time because of the circulation of capital.

[Freon]

Bushy already put the world against him refusing to sign the Kyoto protocol
everybody blamed him but now ...

[Uppity]

The day Bush gets my respect will be the day he strings a full sentence together.

Yeah, he seems to struggle with some of the simpler things in live. I don't have a lot of hope that he would understand the world economy.

The problem with the steel industry is that there are a lot of government subsidised steel industries in various countries. Also there is a lot of cheap 3rd world steel produced.

As a result of this - none-subsidised western companies just cannot compete. Simple. When a company can't compete it goes under. That is the nature of capitalism.

Near to where I live there were 30,000 steel workers in 1972 (btw I used to work for that steel company).

Now there are 3000.

And now Bush wants to threaten those.

What a ****.

edit: Aww, I can't say t.w.a.t.

[Dugstar]

I don't understand how after so many years of sending our troops to help with American conflicts that don't have anything to do with us, the United States refuses to exempt us from tariffs that are primarily directed at Europe.

If the USA continues to insults close friends like Australia, New Zealand and the UK, in the not do distant future it may find itself without allies.