Tariffs. What is the right answer?

[MisterVeritis]

I would like to know the options we have to combat the tariffs other nations place on the US. President Trump is placing large tariffs on countries with trade imbalances resulting from their tariffs on our goods and services. I listened to Mark Levin discussing tariffs. I was doing other things so I did not follow his arguments. I believe he proposed slashing all of our tariffs on everything we import. I like the idea.

You smart guys who know more about this please add your thoughts.

I am making this tpf to reduce the unnecessary noise.

[Lummy]

Well, you disqualified me but I'll answer anyway.

Tit for tat. Pull up your big boy pants and dig in. All I got.

[MisterVeritis]

Well, you disqualified me but I'll answer anyway.

Tit for tat. Pull up your big boy pants and dig in. All I got.

So, nothing useful?

[Peter1469]

Yes Mark Levin is against tariffs. I have always been for tariffs to combat Dumping (an illegal act of subsidizing your export industry with the aim of destroy sectors of another nation's industry. It happened with steal (Russia and China) and it happened with solar panels (China). The the products imported were inferior to our, especially the solar panels- people were having to replace them within 3 years.

In the past I have been against tariffs in other situations, in large part because past presidents would not go all out in a trade war- they would fold and we would likely end up worse off. But look at Trump and the EU. The parties are discussing an end to all tariffs. That is a win for everyone in the US and Europe- something which would never have happened without Trump and his sanctions.

[roadmaster]

If I sell you something and say, "now you can only charge me 2%. Then when you sell me something I charge you 25% on each product. How long would you be willing to do business with me? Most would look for another person to do business with. The only problem Trump did see was everyone was doing America like this, it wasn't just one of two. Ross Perot said the same thing and I think he said it better than Trump at that time. I don't understand all of it but Perot did a great speech on this.

[Peter1469]

If I sell you something and say, "now you can only charge me 2%. Then when you sell me something I charge you 25% on each product. How long would you be willing to do business with me? Most would look for another person to do business with. The only problem Trump did see was everyone was doing America like this, it wasn't just one of two. Ross Perot said the same thing and I think he said it better than Trump at that time. I don't understand all of it but Perot did a great speech on this.

The sucking sound of American jobs moving to Mexico.

[MisterVeritis]

The sucking sound of American jobs moving to Mexico.

We solve that by significantly lowering the corporate tax rate and by eliminating regulations.

We should always have the lowest corporate tax rate of any country in the first world.

[Peter1469]

I agree.

[MisterVeritis]

I agree.

Would the same approach work for fighting the tariff imbalance? What if we ended all tariffs on imports?

[Ethereal]

Tariffs are a tax on trade. Higher tariffs means less trade. Less trade means less prosperity.