Bush's Steel import tariffs: Another isolationinst move?

Scruff

Good old Georgy-Porgy Bush has gone ahead and inposed 30% import tariffs on steel. while it won't effect Europe's economy much it shows that the U.S.'s talk of "open markets" is applicable only if its in America's "best interests".

Good Article in todays irish times about it. read it here .

Now i'm not an antiglobilisation nut, antiamerican or anything like that but it shows a disturbing trend in American foreign policy.

These quotes just about sums it up i think:

Following Mr Bush's decision to tear up the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and to walk away from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, his flouting of WTO rules appears to confirm European fears that Mr Bush takes international agreements with a pinch of salt.

and

What makes the present dispute more sensitive is that it comes amid worsening relations on a number of fronts across the Atlantic. Mr Bush's identification of an "axis of evil" comprising Iran, Iraq and North Korea persuaded some European leaders that the US is preparing to go it alone in a reckless foreign policy. And many Europeans are expressing frustration at a division of international labour which sees the EU cleaning up and footing the bill after US-led military exploits.

views\opinions?

seamus

How long is the U.S. presidency? 4 years? I don't think he could do as much damage as I fear in 4 years, but I don't know. I do agree he seems to be of the opinion "America is the greatest. We don't need your support or approval to do things. Regardless of how much support we get, we do'll what I think is the right thing."

He's an idiot. I have always thought so. He's good at people skills, but couldn't create a stable community in a Buddhist camp. He'll do some serious damage to European-American relations, but hopefully he won't be oted in a second time to continue.....

bonkey

Didnt Bush begin his presidency by saying that in his administration, the US would be less "foreign-friendly" and more "looking out for no. 1"???

I seem to recall him getting a fair bit of flack for this stance when he took it initially, but mostly from the international press.

At the end of the day, if Bush's policy is seen by Americans to be good for the US, then he's doing a good job. Unless the US suffers some large retaliatory backlash (economic or otherwise) which can be directly attributable to his actions, then I cant see him or his policies changing.

jc

ReefBreak

20,000 steelworkers marched on Capitol Hill to try and save their jobs against the threat of cheap imports. Now, I've no doubt that the tarriff is a bad move in terms of world economic stability and I'm totally against it. But Bush WAS elected as president of the US and it's his perogative to protect the jobs of his own people, even if he DID break WTO rules to do it.

I imagine the anti-US, anti-globalistion crowd must be feeling a bit confused at the moment. However, it won't last long - I'll wager that those very people that protest against WTO and free-trade will still be protesting when George Bush does something that they've been promoting for years: ending globalisation and ignoring the WTO.

shotamoose

I imagine the anti-US, anti-globalistion crowd must be feeling a bit confused at the moment. However, it won't last long - I'll wager that those very people that protest against WTO and free-trade will still be protesting when George Bush does something that they've been promoting for years: ending globalisation and ignoring the WTO.

I think you're missing the point of the anti-WTO lobby, which is that as an organisation it is heavily under the sway of the US, which uses it to enforce the trade policies it could otherwise (but with more effort and less apparent international legitimacy) enact unilaterally. But when the US feels the need for a WTO-illegal policy such as this one, it's not afraid to implement it as it knows that WTO decisions only mean anything in practise when backed up with massive economic power.

This doesn't 'end globalisation', it reinforces the perception of a world trade system heavily weighted in behaviour of the already economically powerful, which is part of what the so-called 'anti-globalisation' movement is against.

Sharkey

Originally posted by Scruff
Good old Georgy-Porgy Bush has gone ahead and inposed 30% import tariffs on steel. ...

views\opinions?

I am a staunch conservative Republican American and supporter of Bush.

But he is dead wrong on this issue.

He is doing this to appease the Unions and draw their support. In the long run, this will not stand as the GATT agreement won't allow it. In the end, Bush will lose on the issue, but gain politically, which is his goal.

Bush is not the moron so many of his detractors make him to be. He has (before and after Sept. 11) run rings around his opposition.

JustHalf

I think it's funny that he's doing this to a member state of the biggest economic power in the world.

Boston

it is stupid, because it is short term and reckless, but its also smart because americans are stupid and they wount realize that a trade war will do them alot more damage then steal imports

Hobbes

Boycott McDonalds

Clintons Cat

From Hobbes linkThere is a lesson in political favours for Tony Blair, too: it emerges that one of the backers of the campaign for the American steel tariffs was Lakshmi Mittal, the Indian industrialist and Labour party donor whose company was helped to buy a steel works in Romania after Mr Blair’s warm recommendation to the Romanians

Small world.

Von

Originally posted by Sharkey
I am a staunch conservative Republican American and supporter of Bush.

Bush is not the moron so many of his detractors make him to be. He has (before and after Sept. 11) run rings around his opposition.

WASHINGTON, DC—In a keynote address at the National Economic Summit, President Bush issued a bold challenge to the nation's business leaders Monday, calling on them to create 500,000 sh1tty jobs by next year.

"So long as unemployment continues to rise, this recession will continue, as well," said Bush, speaking before nearly 400 of the nation's top CEOs. "That is why I am turning to you to create thousands of new sh1t jobs. Whether it is a night-shift toilet-cleaning position at an airport or a fry-cook post at a KFC, it's up to you to help provide every hard-working American with a demeaning, go-nowhere job."

What do good hardworking American patriots make of The Onion's relentless attacks on George W.Bush and the American way of life? Is The Onion a front for communists? Or possibly terrorists?

Gargoyle

Originally posted by Boston
americans are stupid <snip>

That statement probably says a lot more about your intelligence than that of the average American.

Originally posted by Von
What do good hardworking American patriots make of The Onion's relentless attacks on George W.Bush and the American way of life? Is The Onion a front for communists? Or possibly terrorists?

The Onion is what it is...extreme satire. Stop trying to read into it.

Nice But Dim

Imposing tariffs on steel imports will only benefit America if they believe that the jobs of a few thousands steel workers are particularly important. Its pretty clear to all concerned that the only reason they should be viewed as more important than Joe American is because they carry weight in key states when it comes to voting (and possibly because steel makers give large amounts to the relevant parties).

Tariffs = bad thing for almost everyone, Americans and the rest of the world alike.

Hobbes

It was on the other news the other day that they would be extending it to other products. One of them was semi-conductors.

JustHalf

Ha! I can see Intel getting pissed.