Best move he’s made so far. Usually, I’m not for tariffs since ultimately it’s the consumer who suffers and since they generally don’t work (we are too much of a global market — other low wage countries will fill the void) but in the case of the Chinese, I would prefer a better quality product be available for my car. I don’t want to depend on the Chinese manufactures to have avoided using subpar materials. Tires are a pretty important part of the car!
In one of his first major decisions on trade policy, President Obama opted Friday to impose a tariff on tires from China, a move that fulfills his campaign promise to “crack down” on imports that unfairly undermine American workers but risks angering the nation’s second-largest trading partner.
The decision is intended to bolster the ailing U.S. tire industry, in which more than 5,000 jobs have been lost over the past five years as the volume of Chinese tires in the market has tripled.
[...]
The tire tariff will amount to 35 percent the first year, 30 percent the second and 25 percent the third.
China’s bound to respond probably with their own tariffs or they can do what the Canadians did. They worked harder to drop their cost so they could still undercut the Americans. China could subsidize the industry by 35 percent so they can cut the cost of their product to negate the tariff.
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posted September 12, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Or China doesn’t have to do anything right now. Chinese leaders have a long memory and work on long time frames.
posted September 14, 2009 at 1:23 am
all of the lead based paint and poisons in products imported from china and sold at every wal*mart didn’t move the american people to buy american-made products.
quality products, my ass.
buy american-made products, people.