GERMANY CAVES ON CAR TARIFF

Well, that didn’t take long now, did it? The German Chancellor is suggesting the European Union scrap the 10% American car import tax. Finally, there is something good to say about Angela Merkel. The U.S. ambassador to Germany is supposed to return to the Swamp with this sign of peace today.

And why, pray tell, would they make a motion to do this? It just could be they want the president’s threat of a 25% border tax on European cars to go away – and soon. The key quote from a multitude of media outlets, led by the Wall Street Journal, is “Germany’s leading automakers have thrown their support behind the abolition of all import tariffs for cars.” In return, the U.S. would halt a 2.5% tax it puts on car imports from the EU. Not a bad deal, as the negotiator-in-chief would say.  In other words – Trump wins.

Naysayers Lose

There have been plenty of naysayers when it comes to imposing tariffs, including those on Liberty Nation. (We are, after all, LIBERTY Nation. We let a thousand flowers bloom.) But some of us have believed all along that Mr. Trump was playing the long-game and was likely to come out victorious once the leaders of other nations could see that he was dead serious about following through with his threats.

There are situations that call for strident words and actions, and the massive trade imbalance is one of them. American workers – and make no mistake, this is about our job force – have been taking it on the chin for too long. From Detroit to the Monongahela Valley in Pennsylvania, our laborers have been hammered. Oh yes, we’ve heard all the arguments about why the U.S. lags in steel and cars and just about everything else due to technology, cheaper labor, etc. But the truth of the matter is that we have been squeezed out by a trade war in which the good old U.S. of A. always seemed to be getting the short end of the stick.

As a businessman, President Trump intuitively could see this, and he was determined to do something about it. From a political perspective, this is a brilliant move because labor has long been under the spell of the Democratic Party. How do you think those automakers in Detroit are going to vote now? What about the folks in Ohio and Pennsylvania (two key swing states) where the steel mills are starting to stoke?

Of course, all is not said and done. There are plenty of trade war mines to step around and over – especially with China. But the days of America being seen as the “chump” regarding unfair trade practices is over.

Germany gets this, and its likely other nations will too. Patience, they say, is a virtue. Let’s just give this trade war some more time to pan out. If this move by Germany is any indication, we should see nothing but good times ahead.