“DISASTROUS”: DOW SINKS AS MARKETS REALIZE TRUMP REALLY IS THIS STUPID
The president is dragging the U.S. into a second unwinnable trade war, this time with Mexico.
BY BESS LEVIN
MAY 31, 2019 11:02 AM
t present the U.S. is involved in a protracted trade war with China that has yielded nothing in concessions from Beijing, cost U.S. companies and consumers billions, obliterated $5 trillion from the stock market, and is threatening to tip the economy into a recession. At the White House, Donald Trump has learned the lessons of this failed strategy and decided to…drag the U.S. into another unwinnable trade war, this time with one of our neighbors and largest trading partner.
Yes, Tariff Man announced Thursday night that starting June 10, he will impose a 5 percent tariff on all Mexican imports, a levy that will “gradually increase” all the way to 25 percent until undocumented immigrants stop crossing the border. Tariffs, of course, are usually used to counter trade violations as opposed to being a blunt instrument to deal with border security, but reason and logic have no place in this administration. If they did, someone would have likely been able to get it through Trump’s head that this move will badly damage the U.S. interests, a point that has thus far eluded him.
Unsurprisingly, almost no one aside from Trump’s craziest advisers are happy about the latest move. Republican Senator Charles E. Grassley called the new tax “a misuse of presidential tariff authority and counter to congressional intent.” It’s also deeply counterproductive. As the Washington Post notes, “if the tariffs damaged the Mexican economy, more of its citizens would try to cross the border to find work” in the U.S. “Mexico is our friend and neighbor, a partner in trade and security,” Glenn Hamer, chief executive of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said in a statement. “The president’s announcement is baffling and, if carried out, will be terribly damaging.” Deborah Elms, executive director of the Asian Trade Centre, told Bloomberg “This action will be subject to global condemnation,” saying that Trump has “gone rogue.”
more:
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/05/trump-mexico-tariffs-immigration
| 