President Trump wants to slap a 25% tariff in imported steel and 10% on imported aluminum. He claims that foreign competition is so fierce that we need good stiff tariffs to preserve the American industry. That American steel and aluminum companies will be driven out of business by the foreign competition.
I'd like to know, just why the American industries cannot compete with the foreigners. Is it the worker's wages? cost of raw materials, obsolete plant and equipment, outrageous pollution regulations, high taxes, stock buybacks, overly plump dividend payments, outrageous CEO pay, or what? How plump were the last union contracts? Used to be, American industry was far more efficient than anywhere else on the globe. What happened? Why do the US metals companies "need" tariff protection. Protection that costs us consumers dearly.
Another good question. What gives the president the authority to raise tariffs on just his say-so. I thought US tariffs were acts of Congress, not executive orders.
The Journal and Fox News are running pieces against the tariff, but none of the MSM have investigated the national security ploy being used to justify a really stiff tax hike on everyone except the steel and aluminum industries.
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This Bloomberg piece accuses the US industry of sticking with the old open hearth process while the European adopted the far more productive basic oxygen process.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-03-05/steel-history-shows-how-america-lost-ground-to-europe
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