Posedthis question to our LinkedIn Group membership – nearly 100 strong now,by the way – and received some interesting responses:

Question:The ITC has issued its ruling and recommendation to add tariffs toimported China-made passenger tires. The ball now rests in the ObamaAdministration’s hands. What do you think the president should do…andwhy?

Here is what some of our members had to say:

Response:“It’s complicated, but then again it’s not. Rather than add importtariffs let’s just reduce or eliminate corporate taxes. This is reallythe key area that prevents U.S. domestic business from beingcompetitive. Reduce corporate taxes and you will see businesses improvequality, improve price point, and grow competitively in the globalmarket. As for unions, they had a place in history working hard to getlabor a fair wage and benefits; today however, unions have become ahinderance (just my opinion). I have worked in companies with bothunionized and non-unionized labor. I have seen union attempts tounionize labor, not for me thank you.

“The problem is that thecurrent administration in Washington does not follow that economicphilosophy. As we all know, our economy and the market for all productsand services have changed dramatically in the just last 12 months, andwill not likely return to their previous forms or levels for a longtime. Both business and consumers have made adjustments to adapt to thenew economy. The need now is for Washington to adjust as well. Thecurrent administration is spending our country into a level debt wecannot get out of even if we were taxed at 100% of income. Believe me,our previous administration is not without blame her and there, butreality is we are on an unsustainable build-up in national debt.

“Gettingback to the point of the discussion: as for additional tariffs onspecific imports, no; reduce or eliminate domestic corporate tax, yes.This measure would not alienate foreign markets, particularly onealready a heavy investor in the U.S. With reduced or eliminatedcorporate taxes, businesses in the U.S. will have all the financialresources to compete on both price and quality.”

Response:“I say bring ‘em on. We should be able to compete with the Chinese.Some of the augments against the tariffs are sounding way too similarto the health care debate. Comments that Americans will die on theroads running smooth tires is somewhat of a scare tactic. Makes theperson making the argument sound a little desperate and off point.

“Hey…I’mnot against the unions. I have great respect for our hard workers inthe USW. But, I did grow up in Pittsburgh during the great steelcollapse due to Japanese imports. The unions dug in…..they lost!

“Alienatingthe Chinese at this point, after depending on them for so much, wouldbe like picketing the bank that you borrow money from to please raiseyour interest rate on savings. It all comes around in the end.
Removingthe Chinese tires from the USA will cause them to flood other markets.Thus, were will we export tires to in the future. Our own USA tiremakers depend on Chinese manufacturing. If it’s good for them it’s goodfor all.

“If you are an independent dealer you really need tothink about what happened to your supplier arrangements in the 90s. Didthey show you any loyalty? Nope….they sold the tires to the easiest andlargest merchandisers. Bigger orders, less invoices!

“Lastly,why do foreign car manufacturers build cars in the USA? They found away to be competitive. Surely we can do the same with tires.
Reallylastly! I run a small business. If a Chinese person can do it betterthen me…I’m gone. I remind myself of that every day.”

Response:“Our best defense in past years was to build a better tire at areasonable cost to the consumer. Costs got out of hand and price becameeven more important than ever. When the Chinese-made tires were ofobviously poorer quality, the U.S. consumer was less likely to buythem. With the quality of these tires improving at still lower pricepoints than tires made in other parts of the world, they are becomingmore attractive to buy.

“With China becoming such a large partof world markets for all types of goods and services the question is:Can we afford to alienate a country that is such a potential and actualmarket for U.S.-made products and services?

“In the short term,tacking a tariff on Chinese-made tires and other products might behelpful, but we need to take a longer-term look at what might happen inthe future when China has retaliated by placing higher tariffs onU.S.-made products. There is also the growing debt that we owe to Chinaand the ever-growing investment that China has made in the U.S. Thesubject is tremendously complex and far-reaching and Pres. Obama shouldbe cautious about what his decision will be.”