Nailed by Steel Tariffs: Trump protectionism is driving a Missouri company to the brink.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/nailed-by-steel-tariffs-1536531985

When President Trump promised to make America great again, the employees at Mid Continent Nail in Missouri probably didn’t expect he would put them out of work. But the steel tariffs imposed in June have the company hanging by a thread.

Mid Continent is the largest nail manufacturer in the U.S. and has been in Missouri for more than 25 years. It had 500 employees at its Popular Bluff plant and was the second largest employer in the small town before the Trump tariffs hit.

The trouble for Mid Continent is that foreign producers making nails abroad use low-price steel and export their production to the U.S. They can offer better prices than their U.S. rival because, as Chris Pratt, operations general manager for the plant, explained in a Journal op-ed last month, the tariffs pushed costs up “overnight” and made the company uncompetitive. “Orders dropped 70% in two weeks, and our workforce shrank from 500 employees to 370,” he wrote.

Mid Continent is seeking a tariff exemption from the Commerce Department on grounds that it can’t find enough of the steel wire it needs in the U.S. Nucor Corporation, a U.S. steelmaker that is reaping profits from the tariffs, objected to Mid Continent’s request and said it could supply the steel wire. Mid-South Wire Company said the same. But last week CNN Money reported that Mr. “Pratt said that neither company on its own could supply enough raw material.”

...

[Hoodat]

Gee, if only someone could have predicted this would happen.  If only we had some kind of historical record to fall back on that demonstrates the economic failures of tariffs over the last 250 years.

But hey, why introduce facts into a discussion where emotion rules the day.  The important thing here is that we sure taught China a lesson by placing steel tariffs on the non-Chinese countries that represent 99% of our steel imports - tariffs which will be paid by American consumers.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Gee, if only someone could have predicted this would happen.  If only we had some kind of historical record to fall back on that demonstrates the economic failures of tariffs over the last 250 years.

But hey, why introduce facts into a discussion where emotion rules the day.  The important thing here is that we sure taught China a lesson by placing steel tariffs on the non-Chinese countries that represent 99% of our steel imports - tariffs which will be paid by American consumers.

 

[INVAR]

Gee, if only someone could have predicted this would happen.  If only we had some kind of historical record to fall back on that demonstrates the economic failures of tariffs over the last 250 years.

But hey, why introduce facts into a discussion where emotion rules the day.  The important thing here is that we sure taught China a lesson by placing steel tariffs on the non-Chinese countries that represent 99% of our steel imports - tariffs which will be paid by American consumers.

 

Wonder if Trump will have us bail out these kinds of companies the way he is making us bail out the farmers because of his gross stupidity and pandering to the Protectionists?

[Formerly Once-Ler]

Gee, if only someone could have predicted this would happen.  If only we had some kind of historical record to fall back on that demonstrates the economic failures of tariffs over the last 250 years.

But hey, why introduce facts into a discussion where emotion rules the day.  The important thing here is that we sure taught China a lesson by placing steel tariffs on the non-Chinese countries that represent 99% of our steel imports - tariffs which will be paid by American consumers.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1038786434306650113

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump

“Ford has abruptly killed a plan to sell a Chinese-made small vehicle in the U.S. because of the prospect of higher U.S. Tariffs.” CNBC.  This is just the beginning. This car can now be BUILT IN THE U.S.A. and Ford will pay no tariffs!

Fewer choices mean more American brainpower for important thinking, like "What is on the Gorilla Channel?"

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1038453273286664193

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump

Apple prices may increase because of the massive Tariffs we may be imposing on China - but there is an easy solution where there would be ZERO tax, and indeed a tax incentive. Make your products in the United States instead of China. Start building new plants now. Exciting! #MAGA

No more face time for the poor, but think of all that new tax money when the next iPhone gets released. 

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1025833273191264256

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump

....Tariffs will make our country much richer than it is today. Only fools would disagree. We are using them to negotiate fair trade deals and, if countries are still unwilling to negotiate, they will pay us vast sums of money in the form of Tariffs. We win either way......

This guy doesn't understand that it's not the other counties who pay the tariff but American citizens.  The US treasury wins either way.

[INVAR]

...if countries are still unwilling to negotiate, they will pay us vast sums of money in the form of Tariffs.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1025833273191264256

This guy doesn't understand that it's not the other counties who pay the tariff but American citizens.  The US treasury wins either way.

I'm convinced Trump is probably one of the biggest imbeciles and morons to ever to occupy the office.

[Formerly Once-Ler]

I'm convinced Trump is probably one of the biggest imbeciles and morons to ever to occupy the office.

#1 in my lifetime.

[Emjay]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/nailed-by-steel-tariffs-1536531985

When President Trump promised to make America great again, the employees at Mid Continent Nail in Missouri probably didn’t expect he would put them out of work. But the steel tariffs imposed in June have the company hanging by a thread.

Mid Continent is the largest nail manufacturer in the U.S. and has been in Missouri for more than 25 years. It had 500 employees at its Popular Bluff plant and was the second largest employer in the small town before the Trump tariffs hit.

The trouble for Mid Continent is that foreign producers making nails abroad use low-price steel and export their production to the U.S. They can offer better prices than their U.S. rival because, as Chris Pratt, operations general manager for the plant, explained in a Journal op-ed last month, the tariffs pushed costs up “overnight” and made the company uncompetitive. “Orders dropped 70% in two weeks, and our workforce shrank from 500 employees to 370,” he wrote.

Mid Continent is seeking a tariff exemption from the Commerce Department on grounds that it can’t find enough of the steel wire it needs in the U.S. Nucor Corporation, a U.S. steelmaker that is reaping profits from the tariffs, objected to Mid Continent’s request and said it could supply the steel wire. Mid-South Wire Company said the same. But last week CNN Money reported that Mr. “Pratt said that neither company on its own could supply enough raw material.”

...

Congrats for finding and settling on one company that is hurt by the tariffs.  We still don't know how the tariff thing will play out or work for the U.S. but ...

I mean, honest people don't know but, hey. NTers know.  It's all bad, gloom, despair, end of the world.

[roamer_1]

Congrats for finding and settling on one company that is hurt by the tariffs.  We still don't know how the tariff thing will play out or work for the U.S. but ...

I mean, honest people don't know but, hey. NTers know.  It's all bad, gloom, despair, end of the world.

Yes we DO know. It's this thing called history. Tariffs are a tax on the people. And so are the billions now set aside in subsidy to help industries hurt by the tariffs.

Them that do not know history are doomed to repeat it.
Never truer words.

[Frank Cannon]

Looks like the hard core Trump Haters are forced to keep recycling the same story to make their lame points. I happen to remember when this story was poste here in JUNE of this year.

Southeast Missouri nail company gets hammered by Trump’s tariffs

June 22, 2018 By Alisa Nelson

https://www.missourinet.com/2018/06/22/southeast-missouri-nail-company-gets-hammered-by-trumps-tariffs/

I believe during that thread the Poster Formally Known as Wingnut pointed out this was another company that has been circling the drain for years and was using the tariff as cover for their own malfeasance.

[txradioguy]

trade wars are good, and easy to win.

 

[Frank Cannon]

Them that do not know history are doomed to repeat it.
Never truer words.

Especially for folks like you who have scant knowledge of history. Ever hear of Fordney-McCumber? Coolidge was also a huge tariff guy along with most Republicans prior to the 1990's.

[Hoodat]

Looks like the hard core Trump Haters are forced to keep recycling the same story to make their lame points.

Listen up, Frank.  Listen carefully.

THIS AIN'T ABOUT TRUMP !!!

Get it?  It is about failed liberal policy.  I'm sorry that your boy Trump chose to adopt the same trade policy that Bernie Sanders embraced.  I'm sorry that he enacted the same type tariffs that failed utterly when Obama enacted them.  But it is the policies that are at fault here.  And there is nothing that is going to change that no matter who proposes them.

[INVAR]

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump

...if countries are still unwilling to negotiate, they will pay us vast sums of money in the form of Tariffs. We win either way......

I guess no Trump fans on board have any problem with that statement.

[Hoodat]

Congrats for finding and settling on one company that is hurt by the tariffs.  We still don't know how the tariff thing will play out or work for the U.S.

Well gee, in the past, it has hurt us every single time it has been implemented.  Do you see a pattern here?  But hey, if you want to ignore two centuries of history from Adam Smith's assault on mercantilism all the way through Obama's tire tariffs and instead play dumb about cause and effects, that's your prerogative.  But you could at least be honest about it and declare openly that you support liberalism and leftist policies as long as Trump is the one doing it.

[roamer_1]

Especially for folks like you who have scant knowledge of history. Ever hear of Fordney-McCumber? Coolidge was also a huge tariff guy along with most Republicans prior to the 1990's.

There were also Congressional controls over tariffs that are no longer obeyed. Has it been 120 days? And has Congress affirmed his tariffs? Presidential authority in this matter is very limited. It is the job of Congress.

And while it doesn't matter now vs then (the math is still the same), the impact is far more grievous now, and 10x more noticeable. Coolidge was around when we were barely getting out of steam. International trade had nowhere near the impact and affordability it has today. So in that day, we were our own market, by and large, which is not as true today.

If you want steel mills, the better way is to get rid of burdensome regulations that are causing American companies to be noncompetitive in their own market, and of course, Gary Indiana will have to have a sit down and figure out whether their union wages and pensions are worth the layoff.

Do it better and cheaper. I am not afraid of that.

[Hoodat]

Fordney-McCumber Tariff

The impact of the Fordney-McCumber Act was considerable. Rising tariff barriers in the U.S. made it more difficult for European nations to conduct trade and, resultantly, to pay off their war debts.

Further, the protective shield against foreign competition enabled the growth of monopolies in many American industries. Predictably, other nations resented the American policy, protested without result, and eventually resorted to raising their own tariff rates against American-made goods, thus creating a significant decline in international trade.

The Fordney-McCumber Tariff called for a commission to consider reductions in tariffs. Seven years later, Senator William E. Borah of Idaho pronounced the commission a failure:

   

To my mind the record is one which condemns the Tariff Commission if we are to regard its operations as having anything whatever to do with the question of reducing tariff rates. In that respect it has been as inflexible as one could well conceive any law to be. I take the position that not a single reduction of any moment whatever has been brought about or been recommended by the Tariff Commission; that not 1 cent of the tremendous burden laid upon the consumers of this country by reason of conditions under which the tariff was enacted has been lifted by the action of the Tariff Commission during these seven years ...

[Frank Cannon]

International trade had nowhere near the impact and affordability it has today. So in that day, we were our own market, by and large, which is not as true today.

We are in the middle of correcting that bullshit after decades of Progressive leadership in this country allowing everything but the kitchen sink to go overseas.

We have all sorts of people here routinely seal clap what a God Reagan was while bashing what Trump is doing here to correct decades of abuses. Got people bitching that their already overpriced Iphone is going to cost a couple dollars more now. Anyone remember what a DISASTER 1981-83 was economically? Houses were being bought with almost 19% money and cars were being purchased with 12-13% money. Lay offs were a daily occurrence. Things sucked because Ronny was doing some tough stuff to correct long term abuses. Same thing is happening today except without all the pain.

The Europeans are already folding to the US. We cut a better deal with the Mexicans than we had with NAFTA and we are leaving the stupid Canadians twisting over a barrel. China is in terrible economic shape and getting worse by the minute because of these tariffs. So far so good in my book.

[Frank Cannon]

Fordney-McCumber Tariff

Borah was one of the founders of the Progressive movement in the country.

[roamer_1]

We are in the middle of correcting that bullshit after decades of Progressive leadership in this country allowing everything but the kitchen sink to go overseas.

I don't think it will fix a single dang thing. The problem is the cost of doing business in the USA. The Unions, the regulatory burden, the insane EPA crap, Inventory taxes pushing JIT, Parts systems turning over year for year instead of over a decade or two... There are HUGE systemic problems making us noncompetitive. Tariffs only preserve the status quo locally, rather than the painful process of making the USA truly pro-business again.

[Hoodat]

Borah was one of the founders of the Progressive movement in the country.

Not sure what that has to do with the fact that Fordney-McCumber

• made it more difficult for European nations to pay off their war debts
• enabled the growth of monopolies in many American industries
• created a significant decline in international trade

[Hoodat]

We are in the middle of correcting that bullshit after decades of Progressive leadership in this country allowing everything but the kitchen sink to go overseas.

By making Americans pay 25% more for the same steel the rest of the world buys?

[kevindavis007]

Well gee, in the past, it has hurt us every single time it has been implemented.  Do you see a pattern here?  But hey, if you want to ignore two centuries of history from Adam Smith's assault on mercantilism all the way through Obama's tire tariffs and instead play dumb about cause and effects, that's your prerogative.  But you could at least be honest about it and declare openly that you support liberalism and leftist policies as long as Trump is the one doing it.

Maybe somebody should ask Herbert Hoover on how wonderful his Tariffs worked out.

[jmyrlefuller]

The trouble for Mid Continent is that foreign producers making nails abroad use low-price steel and export their production to the U.S. They can offer better prices than their U.S. rival because, as Chris Pratt, operations general manager for the plant, explained in a Journal op-ed last month, the tariffs pushed costs up “overnight” and made the company uncompetitive.

So put even higher tariffs on nails. Problem solved.

Good grief. Is it that difficult?

[Applewood]

Congrats for finding and settling on one company that is hurt by the tariffs.  We still don't know how the tariff thing will play out or work for the U.S. but ...

I mean, honest people don't know but, hey. NTers know.  It's all bad, gloom, despair, end of the world.

It's not one company.  Look upthread. 

And it's going to hurt all of us when we have to pay higher prices for things.  I was reading something today about Walmart prices going up, but it won't be just Walmart.  Maybe Trump fans have money to burn and can afford the higher prices.  The rest of us don't and can't. 

By the way, where are all those jobs that were supposed to come back to America thanks to this trade war?  I haven't seen them.  And I won't -- because those jobs are gone forever and are not coming back. 

Trump has lied to you -- or else, he has no understanding of economics and how disastrous these tariffs are going to be.  If the latter is true, then he's not the brilliant businessman his PR says he is.