Fight's On! The Trade War -- The Political Page, T+40 -- March 2, 2018

Updates

March 3, 2018: Time estimates that with the new aluminum tariff, a $2,000 MacBook would cost an additional $4. Locales with sales tax add about $160 to said MacBook.

March 3, 2018: time to call it what it is -- a global trade war. US against the universe. Trump announces tariffs on steel and aluminum. At the original post, I suggest this is a warning shot for Canada and Mexico that Trump is serious about re-negotiating NAFTA. And here is is, over at CNBC: energy is the crown jewel of NAFTa; energy will bind them; even in a trade war:

The energy interests of the U.S., Mexico and Canada are so integrated, it would be in no one country's interests to undo them, industry experts say. The U.S. is both a buyer and seller of energy with both its southern and northern neighbors and has been for decades.

We'll see. I don't think anything's off the table.

Later, 2:07 p.m. Central Time: after posting the original post, a writer wrote to tell me his/her "beef" with tariffs --

• a year ago, this article, Japan raising tariffs on beef to protect its own beef industry, from Fortune.com; this was a year ago; and, then this reminder:
• back in 2016, China finally lifted a 13-year-old ban on importing beef from America, a CNN story

Later, 2:05 p.m. Central Time: a reader tells me that a 10% hike on aluminum tariffs will increase the cost of a can of soda by 0.6 cent, again, six-tenths of one cent will be the added cost to an aluminum can -- and liberals have no trouble taxing that same can of Coca-Cola by 5, 10, or 15 cents because of its sugar content.

Original Post

Right, wrong, or indifferent. And not ready for prime time. Regarding the steel and aluminum imports.

• does anybody know what the tariffs will be? in dollars/ton? in dollars per Whirlpool washing machine that one buys once or maybe twice in their entire lifetimes?
• does anybody know what kinds of steel will be affected?
• does anybody know what tariffs China, Denmark, Japan, Great Britain, the EU, Norway impose on US goods?
• so, is President Trump a friend of Wall Street or is he laser-focused on American jobs?
• politically: the unions are "beaming" -- that was the word used by one of the mainstream media (print) outlets yesterday
• 2018, 2020: if Trump is defeated, the unions know those tariffs will be the first thing to go under a new administration
• if this is so bad, will Congress overturn Trump's action with a veto-proof law?
• does anyone really know to the degree that "plastic" can replace steel/aluminum? the petrochemical companies are probably running the numbers now -- it may cost more to build the petrochemical plant (they use a lot of steel) but the amount of petrochemical production may increase as folks move to "plastic"
• cognitive dissonance: all those folks who hate Trump because they think he's in the palms of Wall Street; this was clearly a "Main Street" (jobs) decision; Wall Street is NOT happy 
• another warning shot to other countries: the rules have changed with regard to an "unfair" trading environment; Trump's warning shot to say things are different now
• this warning shot will get the attention of Canada and Mexico that he's serious about making NAFTA more fairer for American workers 
• most interesting, perhaps is the "national security" issue that Trump framed. One could argue -- and my hunch is he had the statistics -- that if the dumping of steel and aluminum continued, at some point, the steel/aluminum industry in the US would die completely. This country would be at the mercy of one country that could produce the amount of steel/aluminum that we would need -- China