Homeland Security and U.S. Customs face a daunting task in policing the millions of packages full of textile fabrics and apparel that come into the country duty free. They know it. What can be done about it, is the question.
The capacity for China to overproduce anything is legion. This is especially true for big ticket items sold around the world, from cars to steel to China’s top green tech product line – solar cells and modules.
The Biden administration must take swift action to close this loophole, it should issue nationwide withhold release order on all Chinese textiles, and Congress should pass legislation immediately.
The Wall Street Journal has started 2024 bemoaning tariffs. They are for losers, the WSJ Inside View columnist Andy Kessler wrote in December, ending 2023 with a taste of what is expected to come this year, an election year.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee said in its hearing on U.S. capital flows to China military companies on Wednesday that it would push the full House to take up legislation that would restrict outbound investment to entire sectors of the Chinese economy.
The success of the washing machine tariffs shows that “tariff-jumping investment,” i.e. inducing domestic industry growth via tariffs is a viable strategy for the U.S. in industries that have suffered decline.
Washing machine tariffs were a success, as measured by over 2,000 new jobs, more competition, no sustained effect on washing machine prices and economic stimulus with the construction of new factories.
The Biden administration’s signature clean energy law, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), got its clock cleaned last week at a Senate Energy Committee hearing.