US goods set to double in price as Europe plans huge trade war

[UpInArms]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=462607

American jeans, Florida orange juice and dozens of other US products could double in price from next month because of a growing transatlantic trade war.

The World Trade Organisation gave the European Union permission yesterday to impose huge import tariffs, which will allow price increases of between 8 and 100 per cent on a range of goods.

The row, which began when America imposed special duties of up to 30 per cent on European steel last year, reached a climax yesterday when the trade watchdog gave a final decision in favour of the EU. It said that the US action was "inconsistent" with free trade commitments. Europe can now impose duties on products ranging from T-shirts and lavatory paper, to bras, pantyhose, suspenders, ballpoint pens, ski suits and bowling alley equipment. Harley Davidson motorcycles were included in an early draft of the sanctions list, but were not included yesterday.

The EU says its sanctions, amounting to €2.2bn (£1.5bn) a year, will come into force on 15 December unless Washington drops its steel duties. The sanctions would be the biggest in the history of the WTO.

...more...

oh yeah, this is really going to be fun - weaker US dollar - higher priced exports - our economy is so strong (NOT!)

[PapaClay]

1. Guess we'll just have to

invade them, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity.

[DeathvadeR]

16. Rinse...Lather...Repeat

Clean them all untill they are as white as snow.

[Mountainman]

2. Well good, at least they can still get a good deal on a Harley

What's the difference between a Harley and a vacuum cleaner?


Answer:

You can only fit one dirt bag on a vacuum cleaner!

[Lorien]

3. This will hit a lot of blue collar workers hard

let's hope they notice who brought this upon us, and help Shrub* to find himself equally unemployed come this time next year!

[joeunderdog]

40. This is Europe casting its vote against Bush.

Or maybe just payback for American politicians being such assholes. For all of the threats and bribes Bush has doled out over his arrogant, malicious crusade for WorldPiece, the Europeans must feel like we need to be taken down a notch. Maybe they're right.

The good news is that the Europeans are doing every thing they can to make the Chimp's foreign policy look like the disaster it is. Another campaign issue he won't be able to twist the numbers on for the exporters who will suffer from his ineptitude and selfishness.

Europe hates Bush and will punish America until Americans wake up to what the Chimp is all about.

[proud patriot]

4. Thanks to bush's steel tarriffs last year

ummm bush my 300 dollars you gave me has done run out
to pay for your policy Blunders

[sam sarrha]

42. China was trying to destroy our steel industry with subsidize slave labor

products... GET OUT OF THE WTO NOW, make our own products, recycle reduce remake. 'China and the art of war', they attack us with inferior steel subsidized with government money and slave labor then attack us again thru the WTO as the bad guys. about 30% of the smog in Los Angeles, CA is pollution form China, the major cause of death in China is environmental Pollution. The major cause of death in Tibet is GENOCIDE by the government of CHINA. we need to wake up!

[Don_G]

5. Just More Off-Shore Tax Havens

For American companies that want to continue to do business in Europe.

[yella_dawg]

6. Chimpy needs to go tell them Yurapeans

how unpatriotic they're bein'.

[Emillereid]

7. Hope this doesn't affect the price of my favorite French wine, pate

and cheese, etc. Every since the war, I buy French as much as I can (In fact, the 2000 vintage Bordeauxs are extraordinary -- something I might not have known if Bushit hadn't pissed me off going to war with Iraq and the French -- so I guess in a real roundabout way, I guess I should thank him.

Do people in America use European 'lavatory paper?'

[Coventina]

10. You too?

I've been noticing the price of Champagne and other fine goods at my local grocer have been coming down lately.

I feel like I'm living the high life!

Vive la France!

:9

[Paschall]

21. This won't affect the price of European goods in the US

These tarifs are going to be applied to US goods exported to Europe, to hurt US manufacturers, just as European steel manufacturers have been hurt by Shrub's tarifs on steel imported into the US.

[JailBush]

8. This is actually good news.

There's nothing like hitting voters in the pocketbook to drive them into the other candidate's arms. After outlawing abortion, Bush has presumably fired up America's women. He'll soon be helping to publicize Britons' scorn for our commander-in-thief. Now he's going to make the unemployed pay more for orange juice.

Americans who are too stupid to wake up and smell the coffee deserve Bush. The rest of us deserve a break.

[aquart]

17. Orange juice will be the same price in the USA.

It will cost a ton to buy in Europe.

We will be getting their goods at convenient prices, except for steel, but our goods will be unavailably expensive for them to buy.

[Paschall]

20. About orange juice

When Pascal Lamy, EU trade commissioner, started talking about these trade sanctions, he implied that at least some of the products selected for these tarifs were produced in GOP stronghold states. Hence Florida orange juice.

Maybe somebody would like to go through the product list and verify this. In any case, if it's true, I think it's particularly astute on the EU's part: since the steel tarifs were adopted by Shrub as a domestic political ploy, the EU is striking back hardest with new EU tarifs will most hurt Shrub's domestic political base.

(We can do without Tropicana in Europe, since we can get orange juice from other sources: Spain, North Africa, the Middle East.)

[54anickel]

28. might explain the turn around on Harley Davidson

WI finally has a Dem governor again. Reminds me, gotta thank Georgie for giving Tommy Thompson that new job...

[stewert]

39. Bingo Paschall.............

They are going to target states that went to Bush. Every state that exports to Europe that went
to Bush will be targeted.

The European Union plans to target its tariffs at goods that are produced in important swing
states in the 2004 presidential election.

In addition to the European Union, complaints were filed by Japan, South Korea, Norway,
Switzerland, China, New Zealand and Brazil. All of those countries also could now seek to impose
sanctions on U.S. imports if the duties are not removed, and Tokyo already has warned it may
retaliate.

[Timefortruth]

31. American orange juice will be very costly in Europe.

But Mexican OJ will be affordable in Europe, they won't do without.

American OJ should be very affordable in the USA due to the glut.

[Hieronymus]

18. Absolutely

good news, of course many Bush voters are too damn stupid to figure this out. The EU is doing this to help bring down Bush. They hate his guts.:grouphug:

[Wednesdays]

9. Time to party like it's 1932...

Warehouses full of unsold merchandise...millions laid off...

Thanks a million, Chimp.

[TexasPatriot]

11. this is honestly going to be an interesting one

the combination of the weak dollar policy and the tariffs should make for a really mixed bag. If the EU were smart - they'd have lobbed MSoft into the bag. That would have kicked up a stink.

[leesa]

12. Now he will blame his failed economy on Europe

[tlb]

13. Europe is on thin ice here.

With their GDP growth rate under 1 % and unemployment in the 10 % range, it's not a good time to commence a game of chicken with Bush. The US has much more of a cushion then they do right now.

[Don_G]

14. Not Really

China, Japan and Singapore holds a few Trillions in our securities, OPEC is considering switching from the dollar to the euro and Dimbo is making Baptist Jihad noises to the other world leaders and expecting them to bail him out.

Dimbo's position is much more fragile than he realizes.

[Art_from_Ark]

15. On the other hand

the Japanese have essentially given a vote of confidence to the conservative government which is Bu$h's Number One fan in East Asia, so they are not going to do anything to rock the boat. Neither will China, as long as they can keep selling crap to America. As for Singapore, how much in securities can a country of just 2 million people own?

[Mackay]

25. just when I think you can't be any more ignorant

you go and prove me wrong

[tlb]

26. What an odd attack on me.

Bush didn't back down on the ICC, Missile Defense, Iraq, or any of the other significant differences with Europe. Why expect him to readily back down on this?

The comparative economic figures for the US and Europe are a matter of record, not opinion. The Europeans at this time have very little margin for error before slipping back in recession. A prolonged trade war can have the same effect on the US, but not as soon. This leaves Bush in a position of relative strength.

How does recognizing economic realities become a case to call me "ignorant"?

[Malva Zebrina]

38. it's an election year

.

[muriel_volestrangler]

41. So the EU should just bend over and take it?

Since Bush has less than a year till the election, he may not look very good if he gets involved in a trade war that damages the US in some way - even if the EU and other economies are hurt too. And the EU commission is unelected, so they can withstand any pressure from voters for longer (it would have to go via the 15 governments, which would blunt it; I knew there had to be some advantage to the lack of democratic control of the EU).

[Don_G]

19. UPDATE: Japan and South Korea Has Joined The EU

Japan and South Korea has joined the EU calling for an end to the steel tarriffs.

Link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/11/10/international0139EST0408.DTL

[whirlygigspin]

22. Cap't W& his faithful ship the Exxon Valdez

should be just about the same kind of mess after a trade war.

Thank you freepers & religious wacko's for destroying our
economy by voting in a fool.

"what's wrong with torture?"--Tucker Carlson

Republicans are assholes. Every last fucking one of them.

[Don_G]

44. China Is Joining In Too

I don't think the movement against the US tarriffs will end anytime soon. Dimbo will cave and lose all those electoral votes he needs so badly or risk another Great Depression.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

23. Woo hoo! European market, here we go!

Thank you Whistle-ass!

[salin]

24. Watch - this is the excuse for NEW corporate tax cuts.

The argument goes - that certain subsidies (or tariffs) on targeted goods are going to cause problems through the WTO... SO - we have to get rid of them - and then give tax cuts across the board (to avoid the appearance of 'favoring one industry or another' - which could cause WTO problems {according to their logic}) to ALL corporations.

[HereSince1628]

27. But, But, does America make jeans anymore?

II know jeans are an icon of American clothing but I thought that they weren't going to be made here anymore. At least that's what was printed last month as jean production was another part of the clothing industry lost to off-shore labor...

[Gin]

29. The report says...since you used tarrifs for political purposes,,,we will

return the favor and they will target states that helped him get selected. Thanks bush...more uniting...we can't take much more.

[Art_from_Ark]

33. Well, there were Levi's plants in Fayetteville and Harrison, Arkansas,

but they shut down a few years ago.

http://businessjournal.net/stories/120397/levi.html

[Wednesdays]

35. It doesn't matter where the jeans are made...

it matters where the corporate headquarters is located...where the profits are pocketed. And I wager it's here in the USA.

[Timefortruth]

30. You would think that after three years

the administration would have learned that we can’t do it alone. These freaks leave us without a single ally, destroyed economically, gravely imperiled militarily and still forge forward as if we are the only power in the world. It is a mental illness, they just can’t learn from even their own mistakes! I’m going insane.

[Okole]

32. The man is a fraud

This action of his was my first hint at Bush not being a true free market conservative. He is an isolationist or a Buchannan Conservative.
This retaliation with deficits is going to hurt us, big time.
Fuck, I should have purchased that condo in Paris three years ago.

[gulliver]

34. Bush will have no choice but to blink.

Buh-bye steel tariffs. Bush made another major mistake on that one.

[Just Me]

36. I anticipate,...

,...that kind of retaliation against our current administration's aggressive methods. Too bad the administration failed to have the foresight or humility to anticipate such repercussions for their "it's my way or the highway" approach to every da_nmed thing. Also too bad that it is the unwitting citizens who pay the piper for every stupid thing done by this "leadership". Oh well,...if the economy hurts as a result,...greater chance of getting rid of this horrifying group of plutocrats.

[starroute]

37. Bush may not dare back down because of domestic pressure

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/business/s_164268.html

Top steel industry officials said Friday that President Bush would face "significant" hurdles in next year's re-election bid if the administration lifts controversial tariffs on foreign steel.

"People (in steel-making states) feel as if he really stepped forward and did something for them," U.S. Steel Corp. CEO Thomas J. Usher said. "It would sort of be like, 'Here it is, and now we're taking it out from underneath you.' I think there would be a tremendous backlash."

Usher's comments came in a conference call with reporters and on a day which the United Steelworkers of America held rallies at 20 plants, including U.S. Steel's Irvin Works in West Mifflin and plants in Ohio, Alabama, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota and Maryland.


Too many of the steel-producing states are going to be key to the 2004 election for Bush to back down on the tariffs. He's gotten himself into a screwed-if-you-do-and-screwed-if-you-don't situation, and unless he can sweet-talk the Europeans into holding off on their retaliation, he doesn't have any wiggle room at all.

There's some further analysis of the situation at http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/03315/238334.stm

Will he exercise his sovereign right as president to protect the jobs and survival of the entire American steel industry, or will he knuckle under to the threat of economic blackmail being leveled by the European Union?" said United Steelworkers union President Leo W. Gerard.

On the other side, a coalition of steel users representing a range of industries from automakers in Michigan to appliance and heavy equipment makers throughout the Midwest said the WTO decision could subject American business to "billions of dollars of retaliatory tariffs."

In Michigan, eight of nine House Republicans told the president that the tariffs were undermining his economic recovery package by forcing steel-using industries to raise prices, leave the country or shut down. Michigan is home to a large segment of the auto industry, which purchases steel and likes the fact that foreign competition drives down steel prices.

[PurityOfEssence]

43. Remember folks: Gettysburg is in Pennsylvania

Hell-bent to curry favor in the pivotal Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, "Free-trader" Junior has shown the same ethics as the "States-rights" kangaroos on the Supreme Court did by injecting themselves into the 2000 election. Good.

Bribery, favoritism and cronyism are the essence of these people; their lives are about nothing--that's NOTHING--but money in huge amounts beyond what they could every conceivably use. What a bunch of tough-guy simpletons: their facile answers repeatedly screw up a very complex world.

I hope this causes major disruption and he has to pay for it.

[salin]

45. Didn't they threaten to take action before the 2002 elections?

So that it would hurt key states? Then for some reason (back door wheeling dealing???) they (EU) blinked. I expect the same thing this time around. UNLESS bushco doesn't want a blink, but wants to use this as an excuse for the next round of corporate tax cuts (and claim - we can no longer have policies that help one industry or another - so we need to give HUGE breaks to all big mega businesses at the expense of the US Treasury).