by Andrea Widburg
Unfortunately, it won’t do a gosh darn thing to benefit our own American economy.
One of the great things Trump did for America was to impose tariffs on Chinese goods that the Chinese government was subsidizing as part of its goal to continue destroying America’s manufacturing sector. Last week, Biden lifted 64% of those tariffs on a broad range of productes.
When globalism first become a thing, probably around the Bronze Age (approximately 3300 B.C. to 1190 B.C.), trade meant getting from another country something that couldn’t possibly come from your own country. That’s what globalism meant right up until the post-WWII period.
In the post-war years, Asian countries started competing with America for manufacturing. American companies, both large and small, learned that everything they made in America could be made more cheaply in Asia. Regulations were few or non-existent, and labor costs were de minimis, while costly labor unions were non-existent.
For those Americans who weren’t laid off when factories closed, Asian manufacturing meant an endless cornucopia of cheap goods. Eventually, Japan and Taiwan stopped making garbage and started making goods of superior quality. Once again, American manufacturing was locked out and consumer prices rose—but if you bought a Japanese jigsaw or a Taiwanese computer monitor, you were getting value for the money.
China was different, though. China has never made quality goods. Nor has it ever truly competed in a free market, unlike other Asian countries. Instead, the government subsidizes Chinese products to ensure that American companies abandon their home country for China.
If you’ve tried to stop buying Chinese goods, you’ve discovered how few American-made products there are. Everything (including most of our prescription medicines, except those from India) comes from China.
Thus, we no longer look to globalism to bring to America exotic goods we can’t get elsewhere. Instead, we’ve made ourselves utterly dependent on China to provide the basic materials that underlie American life—and China means to keep it this way, thanks to that government underwriting, along with corrupt trade practices, and the use of prison and Uyghur slave labor.
President Trump recognized this dangerous dependency on China. If we cannot make any of the basic staples of modern life, China can extort us at any time. Therefore, he offended libertarians and other free traders by imposing significant tariffs on China, in part to punish its trade cheating, and in part to encourage manufacturers to return to America.
Image: Made in China label by Bill Bradford. CC BY 2.0.
Then, Biden got himself into the White House—the same Biden who dragged his debauched, untalented, drug-addicted son with him on official government trips to China. Once there, that same son magically acquired $1.5 billion in business contracts from entities that are basically fronts for the Chinese Communist Party.
While Biden was out of the White House, the Chinese might have wondered whether that $1.5 billion investment was worth it. Now, though, the Chinese know their ship’s about to come in. Sure, Biden’s made nasty remarks about China but the Chinese understand that he’s got to maintain the façade of a president “tough on China.” What’s important is what Biden does for China.
Last week, Biden did something very big for China:
President Joe Biden’s administration has eliminated United States tariffs on more than 350 products made in China, nearly all of which could be made in the U.S. or other countries.
The Section 301 tariffs on billions of dollars worth of China-made products were first imposed by former President Trump after a decades-long free trade consensus in Washington, D.C., that has eliminated 3.7 million American jobs from the U.S. economy from 2001 to 2018.
Late last week, Biden’s U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai announced that after an extensive review process on nearly 550 China-made products subject to U.S. tariffs, the administration would eliminate tariffs on 352 of those products.
The China-made products that will escape U.S. tariffs thanks to Biden include breast pumps, solar water heaters, garage door openers, X-ray tables, and thermostats, as well as food products from China such as crab meat, Dungeness crab, and Alaskan sole.
And where were the Democrats as these deals were being cut? Well, quite a few of them were in the background, cheering Biden on. Per Breitbart reporting, numerous Republicans were part of a bipartisan consortium urging Biden to stop protecting American manufacturing. The Republicans include Representatives Darin LaHood (R-IL), Jackie Walorski (R-IN), Ron Kind (D-WI), Suzan DelBene (D-WA), Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Burgess Owens (R-UT), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Ken Buck (R-CO), Young Kim (R-CA), and Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH).
Democrats
are actively hostile to middle- and working-class Americans.
Republicans whose fealty belongs to the Chamber of Commerce (open
borders and no tariffs) are passively hostile to middle- and
working-class Americans. Until Americans start electing politicians who
put America first, our political class will continue to destroy us. One
day, it’ll be we Americans who are making cheap gimcracks for China,
with our salaries clocking in at the $1 a day that was once the going
rate for slave labor in China.
Andrea Widburg
Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/03/joe_biden_takes_a_major_step_to_prop_up_the_chinese_economy.html
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