24 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • APRIL 2018
PRESS BUSINESS
TRUMP TARIFFS
Leaving the conference, I passed the
construction site where steel girders
glinted in the noon light. Those
beams, if imported, now faced
the 25 percent tariff ordered by
President Trump in retaliation for
what, in language evoking military
threat, he called “an assault on our
public in our collective noses. We
country.” In recent remarks Trump
lose our freedom to choose cheaper
has described America as a nation
or better-quality imports. As for
“ravaged by aggressive foreign trade
the price differential, Washington
practices” and positioned himself as
pockets the change.
protecting workers who had been
While prior presidents have indeed
“betrayed.”
applied economic sanctions,
The bellicose talk visibly spooked
they’ve been aimed at countries
with whom relations have been
some of his most conservative
chilly. At my trade conference,
supporters, who, for whatever their
Jim Black, a partner with the
positions on domestic issues, had
SilvermanAcampora law firm in
consistently opposed protectionism
Jericho, recalled earlier years when
throughout their careers, and
a mention of the “Nasty Nine”
reflexively defended keeping markets
nations referred to hostile states like
– foreign and domestic – open.
Russia, Iran and Cuba.
To provide visuals for a televised
“That number is way down now,”
tariff-increase signing, the White
Black said shortly before lunch. One
House collected a bevy of hulking
reason adversaries become friends
steelworkers with whom POTUS
is that trade brings nations together;
could shake hands and beam
sanctions drive them apart.
with their presumed post-signing
appreciation. The steelworkers
– and surely the owners of the
companies they work for – indeed
looked pleased that the president
of the United States was raising the
prices customers would have to pay
to assure their livelihood.
News analysts, reporters, and
policy commentators, whose own
jobs are decidedly far less secure,
immediately raised questions
about the prospects of a trade war.
Trump, never one to shy away from
an argument, asserted the war was
“winnable.” He looked like the kid
in the schoolyard readying for a
fight as friends stood behind him
holding rocks.
Politicians who call for using tariffs
as trade-war ammunition remind
me of the old Woody Allen bit
where he describes a fight where
he hurt the other’s guy fist with
his nose. This is what Trump is
doing to us. By raising the price
of imported steel by 25 percent,
Trump effectively punches the
Another speaker, trade expert Bill
Laraque, dismissed the America
First rhetoric.
“Trade sanctions aren’t going to
make America great,” he said.
“They are going to make America
mediocre.”
Merely raising the cost of imports,
he said, was no answer.
“What about improving the
infrastructure? Charging ourselves
more for steel is missing the point.”
As his swerve towards protectionism
took shape last month, the president
replaced his chief economic advisor,
Gary Cohn, with TV talking head
Larry Kudlow. The ousted Cohn is
a free-market advocate. Kudlow, of
course, is the well-dressed talking head
who plays an economist on TV. He is
an unrepentant supply-sider but by no
means is he a trade hawk. It seems the
president didn’t get that memo.
On March 6, one week before
getting Cohn’s old job, Kudlow
blogged on kudlow.com under the
headline “Tariffs are Taxes,” tariffs
and import quotas are what we do
to ourselves in times of peace and
what foreign nations do to us with
blockades… in times of war. But
now we are imposing sanctions on
our own country by punishing with
tariffs in order to make Americans
more prosperous.”
In other words, we’re punching
their noses with our faces.
“If ever there were a crisis of logic,”
declared Kudlow, “this is it.”
Warren Strugatch is a partner
with Inflection Point Associates
(InflectionPointAssoc.com), a
consulting firm in Stony Brook.
Contact him at Warren@
InflectionPointAssoc.com
continued from page 23 “Trade sanctions aren’t going to make
America great,” said trade expert Bill
Laraque. “They are going to make America
mediocre.”
A container ship in port for loading and discharging imports and exports.