Tariffs News

The Canadian government, lining the pockets of its dairy producers, imposes high tariffs on American dairy imports. That forces Canadians to pay higher prices for dairy products. For example, Canadians pay $5.24 for a 10.5-ounce block of cheddar. In Washington, D.C., that same amount of cheddar sells for $3.64. Canadians pay $3.99 for a 1-pound…

Last week, the White House announced that instead of implementing unilateral restrictions on Chinese investment it would defer to Congress and its efforts to reform the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS). This is a good sign that the White House is planning to work with Congress to implement long-term solutions to credible…

Harley-Davidson’s motto is “All for freedom. Freedom for all.” Today, however, the freedom to trade in America is deteriorating—and because of that, the iconic motorcycle manufacturer will be moving some of its production overseas. The United States imposed tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum in March. On June 1, America’s…

A Washington state newsprint producer is single-handedly upending the U.S. newspaper industry, and not in a good way. The North Pacific Paper Co. pressured the Trump administration into levying a tariff on Canadian newsprint imports, claiming the Canadian producers possessed an unfair advantage that allows them to charge less than market price. President Donald Trump…

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will soon be imposing an additional 25 percent tax on $50 billion worth of goods Americans buy from China. The reason given by the White House is multifaceted, including factors from addressing China’s intellectual property theft and technology transfer requirements to unfair competition and an uneven balance of…

The Group of Seven was created during the Cold War by the United States so that the leading market-based Western democracies (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom) could join it to preserve economic freedom, increase global prosperity, and defeat communism. After the Soviet Union’s collapse, a hopeful G-7 at first welcomed its…

Late last year, the United States imposed steep new tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber imports to the United States. The new import taxes, a combination of what are called countervailing and anti-dumping duties, have contributed to a 66 percent increase in lumber prices in the past year, placing a heavy burden on U.S. home buyers,…

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced this week that the U.S. and China had agreed to cool down the brewing trade war, following a joint statement from U.S. and Chinese officials. That’s a positive first step. Mnuchin confirmed that the planned tariffs under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 on $150 billion of Chinese…

The Trump administration announced late Monday evening that, until June 1, it would continue to exempt Canada, Mexico, and the European Union from tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum. On June 1, the tariffs are set to go into full effect for any country without a special agreement with the U.S. Extending the exclusion…

Economists and industry leaders predicted price increases and potential jobs losses after the Trump administration imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum. What may have seemed like rhetoric is now reality. The sneaky brilliance of the tariffs is that benefits are concentrated to a small, politically connected, and very vocal few, while costs for American consumers…

Donald Trump achieved the presidency telling the American people he would “Make America Great Again.” Given that during eight years of Barack Obama’s presidency there was not a single year in which national satisfaction, as measured by Gallup, averaged above 30 percent, tapping into Americans’ general dissatisfaction with the state of the nation was good…

The federal government does not make America great, and never has. Americans make America great, and they can best do the job when meddlers, busybodies, and crony privilege seekers in Washington get out of the way. Getting out of the way means cutting high and uncompetitive tax rates, eliminating those regulations that are ineffective and…

The new tariffs announced by President Donald Trump have generated intense controversy. With the debate ongoing, it might be useful to examine how other countries have dealt with similar policy debates in the past. New Zealand now ranks third in The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom and is one of the champions of economic…

There are a couple of important economic lessons that the American people should learn. I’m going to title one “the seen and unseen” and the other “narrow, well-defined large benefits versus widely dispersed small costs.” These lessons are applicable to a wide range of government behavior, but let’s look at just two examples. Last week,…

If you work in manufacturing, your job was just put at risk. Last week, President Donald Trump signed an order imposing a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports and a 25 percent tariff on steel imports. The official rationale behind the tariffs is that a reduction of skilled smelters in the United States threatens national…

The Bureau of Labor Statistics delivered some good economic news this morning, announcing that the economy added 313,000 jobs in February. This came in the bureau’s Employment Situation Summary, and provides strong evidence to support the White House’s pro-growth policies and encourage more of the same. In addition to the job boost, the unemployment rate…