August 30, 2018
REGULATOR-IN-CHIEF:
Trump's tariffs spawn exemptions, then his own Big Government (The Editorial Board, 8/29/18, USA TODAY)
If it weren't enough that the Trump administration has slapped tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on imported aluminum, it has instituted a process by which companies that consume these products can apply for exclusions from these taxes.In other words, the administration has imposed a new tax on imported metals and then put itself in a position to decide who has to pay it and who does not.This is Big Government at its worst -- arbitrary and capricious, if not outright political, as it picks winners and losers in business. And all this is being done without any new law being passed and while a Republican Congress, which used to stand for free enterprise and limited government, remains supine.
How Special Interests Hide the True Costs of Tariffs (Veronique de Rugy, Aug. 29, 2018, NY Times)
If there is a silver lining to the recent trade insanity, it's the bright light that it shines on the victims of President Trump's tariffs. These victims include construction companies, equipment manufacturers and the many American producers whose costs are increasing. Workers in these industries as well as ordinary American consumers pay higher prices for automobiles, washers and dryers, and the other goods whose prices are artificially hiked by the tariffs.Because of the president's hyperactive use of his trade authority, the scale of this pain is unusually high. But the reality is that this disregard for the consequences inflicted on buyers in the industries downstream from tariffs is nothing new. In fact, thanks to the handiwork of interest groups who benefit from the tariffs and the politicians who serve them, it's embedded in our trade system, sometimes even in the legislation itself.
Posted by Orrin Judd at August 30, 2018 1:10 PM