Steel Tariffs Are Driving US Economic Growth

On October 25^th, America’s largest steelmaker Nucor opened a new steel mill in Hickman, Arkansas. The mill will employ about 100 workers at an average salary of $80,000 a year. A jubilant Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson attended the opening and told the crowd: “I am thrilled that Nucor chose Hickman as the site for its new specialty cold mill complex…Nucor’s investment in Mississippi County over the past 30 years or so has made a substantial economic impact to the region.”

CPA Economic Study on China Decoupling Wins National Economics Award

Analysis Shows Permanent China Tariff Could Benefit US Economy

Apple Staying in Texas Due to US Tariff and Industrial Strategy

On Sept. 23^rd, Apple announced that its Mac Pro computer will continue to be manufactured in Texas, rather than China, Taiwan, or southeast Asia, as the company was previously planning. The Mac Pro is currently the only Apple product assembled in the United States.

This is good news for Austin, Texas, good news for Apple, and good news for the US technology industry. But most of all, it marks an important evolution in our tariff and industrial policy toward what I hope will be a new, higher level of sophistication. 

Tide of Multinationals Leaving China Turns Into a Flood

It took 20 years for China to disrupt global supply chains and build up the world’s largest manufacturing base. In the process they decimated US manufacturing sectors like computers, telecommunications, and furniture.

It seems to be taking just two years for China’s manufacturing dominance to crumble before our eyes.

Permanent Tariffs on China Could Create Up To 1 Million US Jobs in Five Years

Stanley Black & Decker CEO Jim Loree announced in May that Stanley would move production of Craftsman wrenches from China to Texas next year, investing $90M to build a plant employing 500, manufacturing 60 million parts a year at similar costs to China with advanced forging machinery. "We're pushing very hard to manufacture where we sell," Loree told the WSJ.

New CPA Study Shows Permanent, Across-The-Board Tariff on China Would Lead to Economic Growth & Up To 1 Million Additional Jobs

Two months ago we published a study describing the results of our economic modeling of the effects of a permanent, across-the-board 25 percent tariff on all US imports from China. We found that after five years, the tariff would lead to an increase in US GDP of $125 billion and the creation of an additional 721,000 US jobs. The tariff would stimulate the US economy through two channels: first, the relocation of US-bound production from China to other nations would lead to a reduction in the average cost of imports because many alternative production locations, such as those in Southeast Asia, today have lower costs of production than China; and secondly, because a portion of the production in China relocated to the US, would directly stimulate the US economy. 

We Need An American Alternative to Huawei

President Trump’s decision over the weekend to allow US component and chip companies to sell to Chinese network builder Huawei was a questionable decision. We need independence from Huawei, not reliance on them as either a customer or network provider.  Yet the president’s decision was an inevitable result of the structure of the global Internet infrastructure industry. The world does not have enough network providers today. More urgency is needed to fix this situation.

Republican Marco Rubio Says the US Needs To Look Beyond Shareholder Value For Economic Success. He’s Right.

Last month, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) published one of the most enlightening and surprising reports from a member of Congress in a long while. Entitled American Investment in the 21^st Century, Rubio’s report took a fresh look at the problems ailing the US economy and concluded that there’s a shortage of investment in US industry caused by the dominance of “shareholder value” philosophy.