https://agmetalminer.com/2019/06/19/this-morning-in-metals-u...
"We are idling two blast furnaces in the United States and one blast furnace in Europe to better align our global production with our order book."
This is just CNN / anti-Trump journalists trying to blame Trump.So yes, it's related to global demand -- global demand that went on a primary rollercoaster ride triggered by tariffs. And the news media is rightfully blaming the 1 person (not even party, singular person) for the consequences of their actions. What a sordid state of affairs indeed.
“In response to current market conditions, we are taking actions aligned with our strategy by adjusting our global blast furnace footprint,” the steelmaker said in a release.
Hmmm, I wonder what those "current market conditions" could possibly be? Also from the link you posted:
As the U.S. and China move toward a resumption of trade talks this month, China has lowered its tariff rates for some other countries, CNBC reported citing an analysis by the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
...
Last month, the U.S. raised tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese products, to which China responded with tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. goods.
Not true at all. Agriculture, semiconductors, consumer electronics, and automotive are examples of other industries tariffs are designed to benefit. Steel is one of many.
They all benefit from tariffs. Further, by acting collectively it’s easier to get your own pork spending when you support others pork spending.
Get several groups who care a lot about their own issues and little for each other’s issues, and you can push polices that most people disagree with. Of course you need to be carful as alliances pool both support and opposition.
The tariffs were designed to hurt agriculture, or at least treat it as acceptable collateral damage. It was obvious the Chinese would retaliate by targeting US farmers, and then they did.
How is automotive supposed to benefit from tariffs against Mexico, which the industry heavily relies upon?
How do consumer electronics benefit from tariffs on Chinese electronics components when the tariffs simply force production to other non-US countries (where production plants are already ramped up)? Note that the tariffs on Chines components mean that US assembled consumer devices get taxed at 25%, but foreign (non Chinese) assemblers don’t.
Semiconductors are mostly made in the US, Japan, and South Korea. How do tariffs on Chinese goods help shore up US dominance there?
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/all-about-the-semiconduc...
Since Florida is a 'swing state', this will never change.
That’s currently less relevant at industrial scales where corn is a fine substitute even if it’s a slightly different chemical and not granular.
Same way that the decision of the "Party Central Committee" of The People's Republic of China to block Google helped Baidu.
China started this. 10 years later we're just now joining the fight.
If that's not tipping the scale, I don't know what is.
https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2008/04/golden-shield-proj...
Where did you get that timeframe from? I clearly remember the 2002 steel tariffs under the George W Bush administration [0]. The US' own research into that estimated the impact as:
"ranged between a gain of $65.6 million (0.0006% of GDP) to a loss of $110.0 million (0.0011% of GDP), "with a central estimate of a welfare loss of $41.6 million."
You're making it sound like the US has been this free-trade vanguard while the rest of the world ran rougshod over its principled nature.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_United_States_steel_tarif...
So. pretty trivial stuff.
You're making it sound like the US has been this free-trade vanguard
check : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tariff_ra...
U.S. is 161 out of 180 (180=lowest). So we are the leader of the free trade vanguard as far as large countries go.
I apologize "for making it sound like". That was not my intention. Perhaps you were eager to read that into it.
The reason every round of WTO trade talks takes years to complete is because of the dispute between rich world farmers and poor-world farmers. It's not just the US, but also the EU and their Common Agricultural Policy that leads to overproduction, waste and export of surpluses to poor countries at below market prices.
[0]https://outline.com/VB9gCX (link to a 2015 Economist article)