The Obama Administration continues its misguided focus on poorly negotiated trade deals, like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), while ignoring market distorting factors that are harming U.S. economic growth.
Magnetization, an iron ore producer in Minnesota, announced that it will layoff workers. Cliffs Natural Resources, another Minnesota iron ore producer, will shut down a plant. Alcoa is idling or closing two plants in Washington and New York states due to a recent thirty percent price drop for aluminum. The steel industry in the U.S. is operating at a fraction of its full capacity. However, Alcoa’s production in China and elsewhere will continue.
Foreign trade cheating and mercantilism are the biggest threats to good jobs and growth in the US. Chinese industries owned or controlled by the ruling communist party continue increasing output while selling at subsidized prices. The overcapacity and predatory pricing strategies are putting efficient and competitive US plants out of business.
If the free market caused these plant closings and layoffs, it would not be a policy issue. But subsidies, predatory state-owned companies, currency manipulation and other tactics by foreign governments are distorting U.S. markets and harming our economy and communities. If importers are found to violate current trade laws, they evade the remedy by falsely labeling future shipments or disguising the origin of the shipment by trans-shipping through another country.
The U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) office refused to resolve these modern trade issues despite repeated requests by American producers. Instead, the USTR focused upon building a massive global governance system and inconsequential tariff reduction in a 5,544 page TPP document.
Congress needs to reject the TPP and, instead, require the administration to deal with modern mercantilism and engage in a comprehensive strategy to build, grow and protect a wide array of diverse and productive supply chains in the US.
“The Obama Administration continues its misguided focus on poorly negotiated trade deals, like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), while ignoring market distorting factors that are harming U.S. economic growth.”
Au contraire. Far from misguided as that IS the intent of the tpp. Destabilize completely the sovereignty of the US and and put another nail in the coffin of America and crash it into a third world economy, forcing everyone into poverty and ultimately embracing communism as a means of survival.
Working EXACTLY as planned.
Nice to know a few people understand the intent of theTPP.
That is EXACTLY what I was going to say!
Martist, excellent take. The truth needs to be told about this un-American, Muslim POS!
Thanks, WADE. most will never know whats really going on, if any, so many questions and very few correct answers. Good luck making sense outta non-sense.
Well I guess people are just going to learn the hard way about why we have tariffs and trade restrictions.
Talking to them is like banging your head against the wall, so they’re going to have to compete with China’s slave labor force for a few more decades before they understand that “free trade” might sound nice in the headlines, but it’s the end of any hint of freedom for working Americans.
Trade wars are no fun to watch. Football’s on.