BUSINESS/ECONOMY/TARIFFS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump is building a wall of tariffs around the domestic economy, attempting to protect American jobs by limiting imports. But a tire factory that opened last year in Richburg, S.C., offers a reminder that globalization is hard to stop. In 2009, American tire makers persuaded the Obama administration to impose tariffs on Chinese tires, and imports of tires from China fell sharply. But Chinese companies did not stop making tires in response to the tariffs — they simply moved production to other places, including to the United States. Giti, one of the largest tire makers in China, built the South Carolina factory to make low-cost tires for Walmart. Two other Chinese tire companies are building plants in the neighboring states of Georgia and North Carolina, and a fourth Chinese company acquired a tire factory in Georgia this year. Mr. Trump on Monday [9-17-18] said the United States would begin imposing tariffs on another $200 billion worth of Chinese goods on Sept. 24, on top of the $50 billion worth of products he previously taxed. The new tariffs hit many of the consumer products that Americans use every day, like food, clothing and electronics, and the president threatened to go even further, saying he is prepared to tax all Chinese imports if Beijing retaliates.”
–Binyamin Appelbaum, “Trump Says Tariffs Will Save American Factories. History Shows Otherwise.,” The New York Times online, September 17, 2018