The president has decided to levy tariffs on steel and aluminum being imported into the US. Since there are ongoing trade negotiations with Canada and Mexico, they have been spared the import tax for now. During this discussion within the media, we have learned that Harley Davidson motorcycles were taxed at 80% when exported to India, and automobiles sent to Germany were taxed at 10% versus our 2.5% tax on German cars coming into the US. We have also learned that many American goods and services have been blocked by many countries, while we allow their products free access to our marketplace.
A few years ago, I was involved in trying to sell a drug product, to India. There was a great need for the product, but we were told that there would be a tariff of 80%–100% on the product. The tax would have made the product too expensive for the India market, and we dropped the idea. At the same time we tried to market the same product to Great Britain but were met with requirements and red tape that would bar the product from ever seeing the English shore. It never did. I had heard about the idea of free trade but, as many Americans, never paid much attention to the idea. I thought that free trade meant that we could sell in another country tariff free and that country could sell in the US tariff free. I just assumed that the trade was free in both directions. I was wrong.
Free trade is allowing our US-based manufacturers to make products in China and send them back to the US tax free. It was brought about by lobbyists in Washington, DC, working for the companies that wished to take advantage of cheap labor in foreign countries. This practice also sent many American jobs overseas and cost the US complete industries. An example of this is the textile and knitting industries. Check the tags in your clothes and see how many you find that say “Made in America.” Many of our automobiles and all of our cell phones went abroad while it was said that we in the US could not make a TV if we wanted to. Much of our advanced technology has been exported and then stolen by foreign countries. There are a couple of countries that are making generic versions of our patented medicines before the patent has expired and selling them back into the US by mail. The president’s attack on the previously made trade deals is needed and should be renegotiated with the American worker and consumer in mind instead of increasing profits for a US manufacturer with loss of jobs, industry and industrial secrets, without a reciprocal action. Free trade in the US is not free, and we have been the bank for the world without any benefit to American labor. Cheap cars cannot be bought by laid-off autoworkers.
One of the biggest offenses by our trading partners is in the pharmaceutical area. Most countries in the world have price controls on drug products. The world’s pharmaceutical manufacturers have been using the American public as its center for profit while American companies have to stay within the price controls for their products in the rest of the world. A British company can charge hundreds of dollars for their product in the US, but you can buy the same product for less than half in England or Canada. It is the same with German, Dutch, Swiss and French companies. Their products are dumped in the US, or they establish manufacturing facilities here to maximize their profits with our free market. The American consumer is paying two to ten times as much for a drug product as the country of manufacture or country of ownership is paying. We are being ripped off by the rest of the world while our medical expense keeps climbing to a point that many cannot afford the treatment they need. I recently purchased a drug for $5 per dose but can buy an illegal generic for $1 per dose in Canada by mail. I will not buy it since I cannot be sure that it is not counterfeit. Unfortunately, many people are buying these drugs and may not be getting the therapeutic value of the drug that they need.
The only fix to this problem, and one that could greatly reduce the cost of drugs, is to apply the same price controls that the originating country used on any product from that country or on any product made in this country but owned by a foreign manufacturer. An example would be a Swiss company builds a plant in the US, and all of its products sold in the US would be priced at the Swiss controlled price or lower. They could not be priced any higher than an American company selling the same product in the Swiss market. The price of pharmaceutical products would be reduced to about half or more than they are now, and the cost of medicine in the US might finally be lowered a little. A few more US citizens could actually afford their medicine.
-30-