STEEL DUTIES
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James Joyner | Monday, November 10, 2003 |
I missed this one this morning: WTO has ruled our steel tariffs illegal. Good.
Megan McArdle wonders whether we’ll obey the ruling or allow this to escalate. My strong guess is the former.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.
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This is good. I would suspect it also provides cover for Bush. He can be pro US steel without having to promote economy slowing tariffs.
Uh, you're talking election year politics and some important swing states. No matter what Bush and his advisors believe, 69% of voters of Penn believe steel tariffs should be in place (according to this morning's WSJ).
The bet is that keeping them in place won't piss off free traders (like me) enough to go vote for whatever wack-job gets the democratic nomination (good bet in my case) and will get votes from steel workers in Penn and other steel producing swing states. (in comparison, voters in Mich - home of car manufacturers using steel - don't really care about the tariffs).
With a 7.2% GDP growth number last quarter and 4%+ predicted for the next few quarters, I think they will be willing to listen to the voters instead of economic principles in this case. There simply is no benefit to letting the tariffs expire except a few fractions of a percent of economic growth, and we can keep the Europeans in check - their economies are MUCH worse than ours and a trade war will hurt them far more than us.
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