Why Our Endless Tariff Wars?

Popular Economics Weekly

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POTUS and the Trump administration can’t end their trade wars, although House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just announced they had reached agreement with Republicans on a new NAFTA accord with Canada and Mexico—now called the USMCA, or U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement—because it gives more protections to U.S. workers. She said there’s nothing wrong with a win for President Trump “when it’s the right thing to do (sic).”

But there is no agreement with even a Phase I trade agreement with China, and Trump has basically neutered the World Trade Organization that settles trade disputes by blocking any new appointment to its arbitration panel, which will not only prolong trade disputes but create new ones, since there’s no longer a mechanism for resolving them.

The result has been declining labor productivity and manufacturing output, which puts future economic growth in jeopardy. Productivity declined in mid-2019 after several years of acceleration, in part because companies reduced investment in manufacturing and production in response to the U.S. trade fight with China and the EU. The dispute has also undermined exports and made it harder for businesses to plan ahead.

Labor Productivity, or output per hour worked, declined for the first time since 2015. It fell at a 0.2 percent annual rate from July to September, the government said Tuesday. This means that the hours worked increased faster than output, so that it is increasing just 1.5 percent annually, which means workers will have difficulty improving their standard of living within their working lifetime. They haven’t been able to increase their median income since the 1980s, and trickle-down economic theory prevailed.

This was the theory that lower taxes and less government services lifted all boats, when it fact it only lifted the most expensive yachts. The cutback in government investments in such as infrastructure, education, and R&D, which all serve to increase productivity and efficiency, was another reason for the productivity decline.

And, “Productivity is likely to continue to lag unless there’s a rebound in business investment,” said MarketWatch’s Jeffery Bartash, “but that probably won’t happen unless the trade dispute is largely resolved.”

Higher productivity is the key to a rising standard of living, resulting in higher pay, more profits and low inflation. Low productivity is a sign of an inefficient economy.Productivity in the U.S. has risen at an average rate of just 1.3 percent since 2007, compared with a 2.1 percent average since the end of World War II.

There are better ways to settle trade disputes, such as remaining in trade alliances like the Trans-Pacific Partnership that Trump withdrew from. The other 11 Asian trade partners then drew up their own agreement to better bargain with China, in particular; whereas the U.S. has been unable to reach any agreement by going it alone.

So we know another path to increased productivity is the ability to get along with our economic friends and find a way to work with our enemies.

Harlan Green © 2019

Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen