J
JAZZGASM
Guest
The same thing happened with the rise of Japan's auto industry as a competitor, which was heavily subsidized. I'm sure their quick rise in steel production was subsidized as well. Also, one of the main reasons of the US decline that nobody mentions is the slack in demand that post-industrial nations exhibit. Higher income economies use less steel. They also have largely built out their infrastructure. Our industry and the European companies were basically in a boxing match with each other seeing who could outlast the competition in a declining demand environment.
Dumping didn't help. The notion that US should keep taking it on the chin in unfair trade is silly, but it's not something that can really be discussed on a forum with many never trump members who want any excuse to claim this is the end of the world. The expected immediate increase in auto production is $175/vehicle. Oh my! Who's not going to buy that $50,000 Chevy pickup truck because now it costs $50,175? Or, maybe in a few years it lowers the cost as more steel is made at home and doesn't incur the heavy transportation costs. As Dutch would say, the overreaction to this is a nothing burger.
I agree there is a lot of reaction. If we really wanted to shake things up, a tariff on electronics or textiles would be the way to go (not that I advocate for that). A steel tariff is more bark than bite.