What Is Trump And His Idiotic Trade War Doing To Wisconsin Workers?

A few days ago I read something about Wisconsin cranberry farmers facing a very bad year because of Trump's trade war. Retaliation is a bitch. Maine is the top cranberry producer in the U.S.There are 20 counties across the state that grow cranberries. Wood, Jackson, Monroe and Juneau are the top producers. All of them are losing jobs now. They all voted for Señor Job Producer in 2016:

• Wood- 57.0% to 37.7%
• Jackson- 53.3% to 41.5%
• Juneau- 61.2% to 39.1%
• Monroe- 58.5% to 36.0%

Trump won the state's 10 electoral votes 1,409,467 (47.9%) to 1,382,210 (46.9%). So close. I bet Hillary wouldn't have started any trade wars. Cranberries are bad enough but that's not the only sector in Wisconsin suffering under Trump's brilliant trade strategy. Harley Davidson is the one everyone is talking about. Milwaukee is where Harley has it's corporate headquarters and the bikes are made in Ryan's district. Aluminum boats are another important business in Wisconsin in trouble.

Boat manufacturers say the escalating trade dispute with China took another bad turn this week that could scuttle sales of aluminum boats popular in Wisconsin.

In the billions of dollars of tariffs that Trump’s administration has proposed on Chinese goods, a new tariff of 167 percent on the type of aluminum used for recreational boats would bring the total tariff on that product to at least 210 percent.

“This is terrible news for marine manufacturers as aluminum boats represent 44 percent of new boat sales each year and account for $3 billion in retail sales,” Thom Dammrich, president of the Chicago-based National Marine Manufacturers, said Wednesday.

“These tariffs are disrupting the global aluminum market and increasing the cost of raw materials for U.S. manufacturers,” Dammrich said.

In addition, roughly 300 component parts commonly used in recreational boats are now subject to a 25 percent tariff following a recent announcement of Section 301 tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese products.

Canada, the European Union and Mexico-- which account for 69 percent of annual U.S. boat exports-- have announced retaliatory tariffs on boats of 10 percent, 25 percent and 15 percent respectively.

“In an attempt to punish China, the administration is wreaking havoc on the global economy. These harmful policies will have costly effects across American industries, but few to none are being singled out quite like the U.S. recreational boating industry,” Dammrich said.

The U.S. recreational marine industry supports 650,000 jobs and last year had $37 billion in sales.

Year after year, Wisconsin ranks in the top 10 states in sales of new powerboats, engines and accessories. Wisconsin also is home to Mercury Marine and Evinrude, two of the largest manufacturers of outboard engines.

Many U.S. boat makers use domestic aluminum, but the tariffs on Chinese material will push up the prices globally, according to Dammrich.

If rising aluminum and steel prices harm powerboat sales, by pricing some consumers out of the market, it’s going to send a wave across the boating industry, he said.

“If you don’t sell as many boats, then you don’t sell as many engines, electronics and everything else."

Yesterday, CNN reported that "Harley-Davidson's move is some of the most direct evidence yet that tit-for-tat trade fights between the United States and other countries have consequences for American companies. Harley-Davidson said it stood to lose as much as $100 million a year. 'Increasing international production to alleviate the EU tariff burden is not the company's preference, but represents the only sustainable option,' Harley-Davidson said in a regulatory filing on Monday... Europe is its second-largest market behind the United States. In 2017, nearly 40,000 European customers bought new Harleys, compared with about 148,000 in the United States."

After the idiot's tweet this morning, the Washington Post reported that he threatened Harley-Davidson "with severe taxes and predicted a public revolt that he said would eventually put the 115-year-old firm out of business, blasting the Wisconsin company for a plan to move some operations outside the United States as a way to avoid getting caught in the middle of an escalating trade war."

Harley Davidson's new SEC filing warns of the "tremendous cost increase" from EU tariffs that will set the company back $100 million a year-- and is causing the company to move production overseas from the U.S. Señor Job Producer strikes again! Paul Ryan may be IS a rubber stamp for Trump no matter what it does to his constituents... but Randy Bryce is the polar opposite. Today he warned people in the district to "Take cover, Donald Trump is descending on Wisconsin's First Congressional District this Friday. But while working people all across the state have been working harder than ever with less and less to show for it, Trump isn't coming to provide any relief from the damage his agenda has caused. Donald Trump is coming to 'celebrate' the groundbreaking for the Foxconn Technology Group manufacturing plant in Mount Pleasant and attend a fundraiser in his honor, where the least expensive ticket is more than most folks make in a 2-week pay period. We may have repealed Paul Ryan, but Wisconsin Republicans are still holding on strong... Foxconn, a multinational corporation, is notorious for human rights abuses. In their short time in Wisconsin, they're already responsible for taking people's houses through eminent domain to build their new factory while seeking, and receiving, exemptions to the environmental regulations that protect our state. One thing is clear from this visit: Donald Trump doesn't give a crap about working people. WI-01 deserves better."

You can be sure that Bryce will fight for working people because he is a working person-- and that won't stop when he gets to Congress. "Trump promised to keep U.S. jobs in America," Randy told us this morning. "Not only is he failing horribly (ask Carrier) but he is being successful at turning our allies against us. If China dumping steel onto our shores is the problem, let's fix that instead of sending jobs overseas. It's the direct opposite of where we need to go. We need to protect our friends, not turn them into adversaries. I'm looking forward to getting elected so that we can once again have a House of Representatives that will be part of the checks and balances that has been a part of our nation's safeguard since its inception. Our Founders foresaw someone like Trump as a possibility. Unfortunately they didn't predict a Congress that would put party over people while sitting on their hands. American workers deserve legislation demanding that products we use are made here."

Trump Saving Chinese Jobs While Harley Davidson Ships Kansas City Jobs To Thailand

Several congressional Republicans bitch and moan when Señor Trumpanzee does something outrageous or dangerous-- but never work it up enough to actually vote against him. Rand Paul R-KY), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Ben Sasse (R-NE), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Mike Lee (R-UT) and Little Marco (R-FL) are the first to come to mind. The question is often related to national security-- as is Rubio's tweet above. What a woos! Does anyone think he'll actually stand up to Trump? Over the weekend it was all over the news that Trump had ordered the Commerce Department to help create jobs (between 70 and 80,000)-- at ZTE, a Chinese telecom company which has been sanctioned for several reasons... including espionage. Trumpanzee, who persuaded millions of simple-minded voters (and racists) that he is the world's greatest negotiator, has ordered Wilbur Ross to get ZTE "back into business."

Since Rubio identified Trump's reversal on ZTE as a national security threat and followed the above tweet with a question: kvetch: "I hope this isn't the beginning of backing down to China." Can Rubio back down after that? Of course he can-- and will; he has no spine.

At issue is that department's move last month to block the ZTE Corp., a major supplier of telecoms networks and smartphones based in southern China, from importing American components for seven years. The U.S. accused ZTE of misleading American regulators after it settled charges of violating sanctions against North Korea and Iran.

ZTE, which has more than 70,000 employees and has supplied networks or equipment to some of the world's biggest telecoms companies, said in early May that it had halted its main operations as a result of the department's "denial order."

Trump, who has taken a hard line on trade and technology issues with Beijing, tweeted on Sunday that he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping "are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast. Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!"

ZTE has asked the department to suspend the seven-year ban on doing business with U.S. technology exporters. By cutting off access to U.S. suppliers of essential components such as microchips, the ban threatens ZTE's existence, the company has said.

During recent trade meetings in Beijing, Chinese officials said they raised their objections to ZTE's punishment with the American delegation, which they said agreed to report them to Trump.

The U.S. imposed the penalty after discovering that Shenzhen-based ZTE, which had paid a $1.2 billion fine in the case, had failed to discipline employees involved and paid them bonuses instead.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, criticized Trump's decision in a reply to his tweet late Sunday.

"Our intelligence agencies have warned that ZTE technology and phones pose a major cyber security threat," Schiff said in the tweet. "You should care more about our national security than Chinese jobs."

Trump later tweeted that while the two countries were working together, past trade negotiations "have been so one sided in favor of China."

"China and the United States are working well together on trade, but past negotiations have been so one sided in favor of China, for so many years, that it is hard for them to make a deal that benefits both countries," he said in the tweet. "But be cool, it will all work out!"

The BBC headline wouldn't go over well at Trump voters in the Midwest: Trump seeks to save Chinese jobs at ZTE ahead of trade talks. Trump is backing down from having banned American companies from selling ZTE components after ZTE admitted to making illegal shipments to Iran and North Korea. I bet Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Missouri works would like those 70-80,000 jobs. It was just announced the Harley Davidson is shutting down an American factory and moving the operation-- and jobs-- to Thailand. That's on top of the Harley factory already opened in India.

[T]hat case is tough to accept in Kansas City, where the company has assembled some of its most popular motorcycles since 1997.

“I am being directly affected by a corporate decision that I had no say in,” said Pence, who has worked at the plant for 21 years and has the highest seniority ranking in the facility.

Pence, who works in machine maintenance, said engineers from the plant are going to Thailand to help set up that operation, with trial production runs expected this summer.

He believes that some of the Kansas City plant’s equipment, too, will be shipped to Thailand.

“They are going over everything now, getting ready to crate it up,” he said.

About 35% of the bikes assembled in Kansas City are destined for sale outside of the U.S., according to Pence, although Harley would not confirm that.

Asia has been one of the company’s fastest-growing markets, but over the years it’s also been a market with steep tariffs on U.S.-made motorcycles.

“We have been fighting tariffs for the 21 years I have been employed with the company. But tariffs are just a fact of life,” Pence said.

The union is critical of Harley for investing in Thailand while also receiving tax cuts under President Donald Trump’s new corporate tax plan.

“These companies are taking tax breaks with one hand and handing out pink slips with the other,” said International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers President Bob Martinez Jr. “I’m going to call it like I see it ... this is a corporate ambush on working people."

“They should be reinvesting in America,” Pence, the Kansas City employee, said.

I suspect-- strongly-- that Paul Scott, the president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, would agree with the displaced Harley Davidson workers. His comments, though, were about Trump's cock-up over ZTE. "Trump’s weekend comments regarding ZTE," he said, "the Chinese telecom firm barred from doing business in our nation for breaking U.S. law, are alarming. In the middle of a trade dispute, the president is publicly offering a major concession to China that could potentially harm national security. This is a company that has broken trade embargoes with Iran and North Korea, and generated legitimate security concerns. As recently as February the entire national security establishment has advised American consumers to avoid products made by this company because it considers them beholden to the Chinese government. Meanwhile, Beijing has yet to agree to end any unfair trade practice or make any meaningful reform. And Trump’s very capable trade team hasn’t made any discernible progress on the myriad trade irritants that are costing America jobs. Trump’s tweet on ZTE is indefensible."

Ready for another-- even bigger and uglier-- ZTE shock? This one is horrifying even for Trump and it came from Public Citizen, which referred to it-- correctly-- as "breathtaking venality."

It’s hard to capture in words how shocking and outrageous is the confluence of events around President Donald Trump’s ZTE tweet and the Chinese government's expected loan to an Indonesian resort with Trump-branded hotels and a golf course.

Trump’s Twitter pledge to intervene to rescue a Chinese company from law enforcement measures was startling enough. The tweet saying that he will aid Chinese telecom company ZTE contradicts his tough-on-China posture and is especially surprising given the national security issues raised about the firm.

But the most disturbing element is Trump’s readiness to interject himself into a corporate law enforcement measure as part of a deal with a foreign government – a move that threatens the integrity of all corporate law enforcement against foreign-based companies, and really against all companies, period.

It is no longer easy to be surprised by this administration. But the revelation that the ZTE tweet comes just days after the Chinese government reportedly committed to funnel $500 million in loans to an Indonesian resort development that includes Trump-branded hotels and a Trump-branded golf course is absolutely jaw-dropping.

Here are some questions the president and his administration must answer:

• How is this possibly not a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s emoluments clause?
• When did Trump become aware of the anticipated Chinese loan to the Indonesian resort project?
• What are the terms of the expected loan?
• Have Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed the loan to the Indonesian resort project? Has it been discussed at any other governmental level?

There is no doubt that geopolitical considerations are informing Trump’s ZTE intervention. But is there anyone in America who believes that benefiting indirectly from a Chinese loan would NOT influence Trump’s decision to intercede?

Brent Welder is the progressive Democrat running for Congress in the Kansas City district. "For far too long," he told us, "our economy has been rigged against those who work for a living in favor of those that ship jobs overseas. It’s outrageous that we are giving huge tax breaks to companies that are closing down American factories, while we cut assistance to workers who are getting hurt most. Unfortunately, nothing will change until we change the people we send to Washington. It’s time to kick out the corporate bootlickers and replace them with leaders who represent working people."

My neighbor keeps asking me if Trump is building a resort in North Korea. Maybe that question should be added to the above four. Has Little Marco commented yet?