The Tariff War Will Affect the Prices and Availability of THESE Items
By Daisy Luther and M.K. Matthews
TheOrganicPrepper.com
April 7, 2018
By now, unless you have been living in a Wifi-free deadzone, you’ve heard about the hundreds of billions in tariffs that the United States and China are flinging at one another like ninja throwing stars. When you’re hearing numbers like “100 billion dollars” it may seem like this is in an entirely different universe than the one in which you exist.
Unfortunately, that’s incorrect.
You can expect up to a 40% increase in the cost of all sorts of things. (We’ll get to those things in a moment.) First, let’s talk about tariffs so that everyone knows what’s going on.
Fortune explains:
Put simply, a tariff is a tax typically imposed on imported goods. The idea is that the tariff will make foreign-made products more expensive, driving consumers to turn to alternatives from domestic manufacturers who are not subject to the tax, and thus can charge less. In theory, this boosts the economy of the country imposing tariffs.
Trump imposed the first set of tariffs on Chinese goods to punish the country for intellectual property theft that he says has caused the U.S. economic damage…
…As of February, the U.S. also had a record-high $375.2 billion trade deficit with China, meaning it spends considerably more on Chinese imports than it makes on exports sent to China. Trump has been vocal in his desire to erase that deficit, calling it unsustainable. Tariffs are one strategy for leveling that playing field.
When Trump announced the first round of tariffs on China, it was seen as a declaration of a trade war — a progressive effort by the two nations to damage each other economically, mainly through taxes and trade restrictions. That’s why China answered Trump’s tariffs with a slew of its own taxes, and why Trump subsequently threatened to impose an additional $100 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods. (source)
So, to make a long story short, China is going to slap a tariff on things we export to them, making them up 15% or so higher in price for the consumer. This means that in all likelihood, the price increase can decrease China’s demand for the goods we export to them. (Find a list of items that the Chinese plan to charge tariffs on here.) This could hit farmers the hardest when demand for the goods they export decreases due to the higher prices.
A lobbying group for US farmers pleaded with the administration not to go forward with the tariffs, fearing retaliation by China, one of the largest buyers of US crops.
“We continue to urge the administration to listen to farmers across rural America who can’t afford new taxes on their exports,” Max Baucus, a former Democratic senator from Montana and co-chairman of Farmers for Free Trade, said in a statement. (source)
The Rest…HERE
