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from the so-now-our-cars-and-buildings-will-all-cost-more dept.
US steel and aluminium imports face big tariffs, Trump says
President Donald Trump has said he will sign off on steep tariffs on steel and aluminium imports next week, hitting producers like Canada and China.
Flanked by US metals executives at the White House, he said a 25% tariff would be slapped on steel products, and a 10% tariff would be imposed on aluminium.
Mr Trump tweeted that the US was suffering from "unfair trade".
The US imports four times more steel than it exports, and is reliant on steel from more than 100 nations.
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by RamiK on Saturday March 03 2018, @04:55AM (1 child)
Canada (and China) do subsidize their heavy industries compared to the US since they offer social programs. If all the low-income workers don't need to over-pay for medical insurance, utilities and housing since the money is coming off taxes from other industries and - Cthulhu forbids - the rich, then that's a significant subsidy for an entire (lower) class of industries and people. That is, not just steel, but every low-paying production job aiming at exports outside the States is handicapped by the lack of a national health insurance, affordable housing programs, regulated / nationalized utilities and so on...
As for the tariffs, then as it is now: Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act [wikipedia.org].
compiling...
(Score: 2) by dry on Sunday March 04 2018, @04:43AM
On the other hand, the US subsidizes its industries and workers with low taxes and a dollar kept high through various means such as pegging the world price of oil to the US$. Then there's things like the subsidized gasoline, a CDN$1.40 a litre (close to $4US a US gallon) locally here. Not to mention housing, groceries and most other stuff that America subsides through borrowing a trillion+ a year. When our government borrows US$100,000,000,000 a year instead of CDN$18,000,000,000 (multiply by 70% to convert) to subsidize our people and industries we can talk about unfair subsidies.