Free versus Fair Trade

I am not an economist. I am sure that I do not understand trade. I know what I see however. We do not make anything in this country anymore.

In Maine our mills are going or gone. When I was a boy there were shoe making shops, chicken processing plants and many other things. These are not great jobs. Few people want to grow up to do these jobs and most who did wanted better things for their own children.

However not everyone can be a computer programmer. Paul LePage, who I do not support as Governor had a good idea in supporting vocational and technical education for that segment of the students who could gain by it. But we do not make anything.

So this morning I hear that China puts a 30 percent tariff on machinery that Caterpillar imports. As China is a huge growth market it is essential to Caterpillar to compete. With that tariff however they have to choose to build there.

Free trade is a joke. The United States is the biggest market in the world. China would collapse if they could not sell to us. If we stopped buying from them the whole China growth story would collapse as well. Oil prices would go down as they would not need as much. What would happen. I do not know what would happen but I know this if to be sold in America without a 25 percent tariff it had to be made in America it would be made in America.

No company or seller of consumer goods can do without this marketplace. They would have to stop moving jobs out of the country.

Many say this would bring about a trade war and collapse the world economy. How is that so. We sell less than one half of one percent of our overall trade to China and they sell a gigantic percentage to us. How do we lose that battle.

We are in a trade war now, just one we are losing badly and being good sports.

Everyday I wait for someone to say it is a National Security issue that we have to make things here and tariff things that are not. No one ever does.

I will wait