Bill Ackman@BillAckman
How’s this for a simple approach?
We keep 10% across the board tariffs for the special privilege of doing business with the U.S. to compensate us for the investments we have made in global defense, health and otherwise, and to compensate our country for historically unfair trade practices that have contributed to our massive deficits and national debt.
We keep the pressure on China to resolve materially unfair trading practices, IP theft, currency manipulation, and other practices that have disadvantaged our nation.
We pause reciprocal tariff implementation for 90 days so we have time to engage in private negotiations with other countries, focusing first on those whose tariffs and practices have materially interfered with the competitiveness of U.S. manufactured goods in their markets.
Lastly, we consider that:
(1) it does not make sense to have balanced trade with countries that are smaller than us and that have fewer resources to spend on US goods, i.e., we will forever be buying more from Madagascar than they will buy from us,
(2) attempting to bring back jobs in low-wage manufacturing is not good for America, acknowledging, for example, that Bangladesh and Vietnam are better places to produce textiles and athletic shoes than here,
(3) U.S. ‘exports’ of software, IP, finance, and other services are high value and important sources of trade that are not reflected in traditional measures of exports and imports, and if included in the calculations would make the balance of trade statistics look much more balanced,
(4) our multinationals’ subsidiaries that sell services in foreign countries that are not counted in the balance of trade calculation, but generate profits, value and future dividends are good for America,
(5) a goal of generating a dollar of exports for every dollar of imports is not a useful one, particularly on a country-by-country basis in light of our massively higher standard of living, and having the largest economy in the world.
Lastly, the current trading system, while far from perfect or fair to the U.S., has served us extremely well so we need to be prudent in how we change it so as not to upset the world order in such a manner that it disadvantages our country over the long term.
