The editors of the New York Times consider a point I touched on the other day—what exactly is an import?
Foreign-badged cars aren’t the only ones that have foreign parts. The Chevrolet Bolt EV — an important vehicle for General Motors — is composed of 26 percent American/Canadian parts. The sales sheet isn’t more specific because the parts don’t care whether they’re made in Ontario or Michigan. The motor and transmission — more than half the total parts — are from South Korea, which has already been frosted by President Trump’s refrigerator tariff. The Bolt is then bolted together at G.M.’s Lake Orion, Mich., plant. In terms of origin, the Chevy Bolt is as American as a karaoke bar — a venue that has become increasingly popular in the United States. Maybe Mr. Trump should slap a tariff on bad singing.
They continue in that vein. We don’t manufacture small automobile engines here in the United States. Consequently, every small car sold in the United States is materially an imported car.
However, I can’t go along with the editors’ claim—that importing engines from here, tires from there, etc. is “how things work in a rational world”. There’s no way for us to know that. Are the present sources the most efficient sources? Or are they the most subsidized sources? It might be that under conditions of truly free trade all small automobile engines would be made in the United States rather than none. There’s really no way to tell with all of the ferocious subsidies granted to their own industries by our trading partners.
The issue you identify is valid, Dave. But enforcement is likely to be as crude and arbitrary as the definition of a foreign product.
That’s what you get into when you open these issues up. And a Bureau of Trade Definitions is likely to be as effective as the Bureau of Silly Walks, and prone to endless political influence.
Alas, I have no solutions except big, obvious categories. Chinese rebar, for example.