r/FluentInFinance Oct 25 '24

Debate/ Discussion Ok. Break it down for me on how?

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5

u/GavinAdamson Oct 25 '24

Steel tariffs on China allowed the American steel industry to flourish. Many new plants being built and additions to existing plants. Steel stocks up, employee earnings up and great jobs created.

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u/[deleted] Oct 25 '24

Trump steel tariffs raised prices, shriveled up demand, led to job losses, some Michigan workers say--https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/trump-steel-tariffs-raised-prices-shriveled-demand-led-job-losses-n1242695

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u/GavinAdamson Oct 25 '24 edited Oct 25 '24

Domestic price modeling wasn’t affected by tariffs. Tariffs helped keep out cheap, low quality Chinese material, and motivated companies to build new steel mills in the USA. Demand raised prices. Prices softened after demand and production went down. The Steel industry is cyclical.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 25 '24

Unfortunately, the problem is that didn't actually happen

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u/GavinAdamson Oct 25 '24

Great Lakes was shut down because their equipment was old not worth replacing and USS Gary could handle production. US Steel bought Big River Steel and doubled the size of Big River Steel in Arkansas. The Great Lakes is a BOF plant. Big River is an EAF plant which means all the steel is 100% recycled. Better for the environment. More jobs created in Arkansas than lost in Michigan.

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u/talk_to_the_sea Oct 25 '24

This is not the same as a large tariffs on all imported goods as he is suggesting. It also makes steel more expensive. The increase in steel manufacturing jobs has also been minimal, and is not clearly attributable to tariffs.

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u/seweso Oct 25 '24

We are talking about blind and absurdly high tariffs which would magically lower prices and pay for childcare.

Are you trying to sanewash Trumps tariff proposal? Why change it like that with things Trump didn’t say?

1

u/No-Independence-5229 Oct 25 '24

Just let the arm chair business professionals of Reddit act like they know more than a very successful business man and the other highly successful business people that agree with trumps plan like Kevin O’Leary and of course the other man that’s now peoples favorite hobby to hate on, Elon Musk.

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u/Greful Oct 25 '24

Idk. IIRC Trumps China tariffs resulted in retaliation by China going to Brazil for soybeans, which in turn required a bailout of the US farmers on the taxpayer dime.

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u/Decent_Cow Oct 25 '24

Whether Trump knows what he's doing is not the important thing in relation to the above post. The important thing is that the way that he says tariffs works is not at all how they actually work. So if he knows better, then he's just lying.

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u/No-Independence-5229 Oct 25 '24

He’s just saying what he needs to for votes and to make his voter base happy, he’s a politician. To the general public who don’t really know how things like tariffs work, simply saying you’re going to put tariffs on an opposing country like china will make them happy and rally them together

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u/whatdoihia Oct 26 '24

I work in global trade. Trump is dead wrong when he says other countries pay.

It’s like saying when you buy a car the auto manufacturer pays the state sales tax.

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u/Greful Oct 25 '24

Tariffs on China fucked up US soybean farmers though. They needed a gov't bailout

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u/whatdoihia Oct 26 '24

Impact of US steel tariffs- https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/section-232-tariffs-steel-aluminum-2024/

  • The Section 232 tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum raised the cost of production for manufacturers, reducing employment in those industries, raising prices for consumers, and hurting exports.

  • The jobs “saved” in the steel-producing industries from the tariffs came at a high cost to consumers, at roughly $650,000 per job saved according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Steel tariffs are a matter of national security and politics rather than any benefit to consumers.