Tariffs, after all, are paid by American consumers who buy Chinese products, reporters have needled White House officials into confirming.
But one columnist, admitting he is “no fan of the president,” has had enough of the “partisan, inaccurate drivel.”
Marketwatch columnist Brett Arends writes: “Yes, tariffs are ‘costs. But they do not somehow destroy our money. They do not take our hard-earned dollars and burn them in a big pile. Tariffs are simply federal taxes. That’s it. The extra costs paid by importers, and consumers, goes to Uncle Sam, to distribute as he sees fit, including, for example, on Obamacare subsidies.”
He went on: “It wasn’t long ago the media [were] complaining because Trump was cutting taxes. Now it’s complaining he’s raising them. Confused? Me too. And the amounts involved are trivial. Chicken feed.”
But now there’s even more ammunition for those who support Trump’s insistence on a fair trade relationship between the U.S. and China.
A study by the Coalition for a Prosperous America found that a potential 25 percent across-the-board tariff on all imports from China would deliver “significant, sustained benefits for the U.S. economy.”
It would create 1.36 million additional jobs and an additional $232 billion to GDP over five years, the study concluded.
“China’s rise has come at the expense of U.S. jobs and manufacturing,” said CPA Chairman Dan DiMicco. “This new research demonstrates just how much the United States stands to gain from reclaiming our manufacturing base. Blind adherence to free trade clearly hasn’t worked, and boosting domestic production should now be our top priority.”
The organization’s chief economist, Jeff Ferry, and senior economist, Steven Byers, built a “detailed model of U.S. trade with China to examine the effects of the imposition of a permanent, across-the-board 25 percent tariff on U.S. imports from China,” CPA said.
“The model showed that a 25 percent tariff boosted annual growth in U.S. gross domestic product each year in the five-year projection, contributing 0.2 percent of additional GDP growth in 2023 and 2024. Overall, this ‘permanent across-the-board 25 percent tariff’ (PATB-25) would add $232 billion to total GDP by 2024, equivalent to a $700 bonus for every American.”
As a result of such a tariff, some production would be moved back from China to the United States or to lower-cost third countries.
“Overall, this would stimulate both U.S. consumption and production, adding 365,000 manufacturing jobs. By 2024, $69 billion worth of annual production would have migrated from China to the United States,” the organization said.
“Our model demonstrates that across-the-board U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports stimulate the U.S. economy, increase U.S. production and jobs, and lead to a reduction in U.S. import costs over time,” Ferry explained.
“The model provides additional evidence that decoupling the U.S. economy from China and its predatory trade and subsidy practices will make the U.S. economy stronger, with more production, investment, and...
