The press howls about trade wars, but fails to look at Chinese tariffs on us By Jack Hellner
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/03/the_press_howls_about_trade_wars_but_fails_to_look_at_chinese_tariffs_on_us.html
Boy, I hope President Trump doesn’t charge tariffs on Chinese products to the U.S. That may cause China to retaliate. They may start charging tariffs on U.S. goods. That seems to be the story line we are getting, not everywhere, but in most of the press overall. It’s as if China isn’t already charging tariffs on a wide range of products.
The way the media reports Trump’s trade policy is to suggest that he is stupid and is going to destroy the economy if he imposes mirror tariffs on Chinese goods. Yet at the same time, many suggest that existing polices are great.
It would be helpful if news organizations listed some existing tariffs on U.S products being exported to China.
I looked up cars, car parts, computers and grains, and they all have significant tariffs or taxes already. (Nothing I looked up did not have a tariff or tax.)
Here is what I found.
Manufactured in Toledo, Ohio, the Wrangler is a descendant of the jeeps that were used by American forces in World War II. Equipped with a 3.6-liter engine and a five-speed automatic transmission, the Rubicon edition of the Wrangler has a suggested retail price of $40,530 in the United States.
But in China, the same vehicle would set a buyer back by a hefty $71,000, mostly because of taxes that Beijing charges on every car, minivan and sport utility vehicle that is made in another country and brought to China’s shores.
Chinese rules on taxes for the import of auto parts impose 15% charge (on top of the 10% customs duty) on imported car parts when they are destined to amodel that fulfils the “characteristics of a whole vehicle.”
The Customs or import duty for computer accessories to China is here.
The United States in 2016 launched a challenge to China’s use of tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) for rice, wheat and corn.
Does it really make sense to complain about tariffs without looking closely at what the origins of the tariffs are? To most of the press, yes, but to the rest of us in the real world, the answer is no.
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