It's not going to work. For two reasons:
a) There are no subsidies accompanying the tariffs and/or government policy generating demand for them.
b) China has a shit load of people. They can just throw people to solve its problems and outdo the US by sheer force of numbers.
The US should focus on protecting the current industries it has a leading advantage on. You cannot outdo China by being China, you have to play smarter.
Maybe this has to do with under Trump the US-China trade deficit hit an all time high in 2017.
It's weird he chooses to go after solar, but I guess anything to piss off liberals I guess. If you're a company that uses imported Chinese steel or aluminum you have to breathing a short term sigh of relief he hasn't increased your input costs by 30% just yet. So that's a win?
With the US dollar losing over 10% of it's value under Trump's first year and now Trump wanting to put tariffs on imports doesn't that scream massive inflation? I dunno, it's been so long since I've taken an economics course, but paying more and getting less seems like a bad way to run a countries economy.
Let's not kid ourselves this has nothing to do with confronting China but everything to do with giving the appearance of bring back coal and fossil fuels. This is not going to hurt China we've done a pretty darn good job screwing our standing on green energy by getting out of the Paris accord.
Trump does so much good stuff, why isn't America cheering for they never had a better life than under President Trump?
In what, the coal industry?
Maybe we should provide subsidies to alchemists, and blacksmiths, and telegraph operators, I'm sure those industries are due for major research upheavals any day now. Why invest in cutting-edge technology that's experiencing a massive global uptake of users every year.
The implication is that anybody that thinks there is such a thing as a free market in the world is pretty much an idiot out of touch with reality. This is just about increasing the prices in America. The biggest country in the world. its kinda like when Beoing whine about other airplane builders getting government money across the globe, while the american government injects billions into it lol.
Then the issue is your point makes no sense. Imposing tariffs won't drive R&D, because it doesn't provide any revenue to fund that R&D.
That's why I assumed you had to be talking about the subsidization of the coal industry, since that's the only one relevant to this discussion that IS getting such funding.
- Christopher HitchensPopulists (and "national socialists") look at the supposedly secret deals that run the world "behind the scenes". Child's play. Except that childishness is sinister in adults.
That is what the industry was doing and growing buying parts from China cheap and focus on innovation and expertise here which is why solar jobs have kept growing. This tariff will hurt the solar industry and cost thousands of jobs it's not really about helping solar but about helping fossil fuels.
As far as I'm aware Euros only managed to find one case where Boeing and US coperation that broke WTO rules and that is being currently challenged. And while it is technically true that there is no "true free market", most developed nations follow certain principles which seek to make trade between nations more fair and free. China doesn't, which is why its labeled a non-market economy.
Americans will start purchasing from domestic companies. Those domestic companies in turn will invest in R&D to make better/cheaper photovoltaic cells over the long term.
As it stands now, China has the upper hand because of their inexpensive manufacturing techniques. I provided a list on the 1st page of the top companies.