Should retailers hit by tariffs move back to the US?
President Trump is threatening to institute a 25 percent tariff on $300 billion worth of Chinese products if President Xi does not meet with him to discuss a trade deal. Curtis Ellis, America First policy director, believes that companies taking a stand against the President's tariffs should instead support his trade tactics.
"I would make the case to them that they should move their supply chains back to the United States, back to the Western Hemisphere." Ellis said on FOX Business' Bulls & Bears on Monday. "If you outsource these jobs, which they did, beginning 20 to 30 years ago, they're also outsourcing their consumers. People are earning less, they can't afford to buy the products they're trying to sell. "
However, Jonathan Hoenig, Capitalist Pig hedge fund manager, pushed back on the idea that tariffs are the only way to get China to make a deal.
"One answer would be is to treat the theft of intellectual property, the same way that the theft of say, intellectual property when it comes to Gucci handbags is treated. When a shipment of illegal, counterfeit Gucci handbags come into the country, it is confiscated and those who peddle it are arrested," he said. "These tariffs are taxes."
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Economists remain split on the use of tariffs as a negotiating tool and whether the impact on American businesses' bottom line is greater than the impact on the country the President is trying to broker a deal with.