Tariffs help level the playing field

RE: YOUR ARTICLE, “Trump expands threat of tariffs to include European automakers”

The U.S. charges a 2.5 percent import tariff on all foreign-built automobiles, including those coming from the EU. The EU charges us over three times that amount — a 10 percent tariff on automobiles the US ships to the EU. Furthermore, the EU can, and does, bypass our measly 2.5 percent tariff by building automobiles in Mexico and shipping them across our border under NAFTA rules.

Meanwhile, China, according to a recent interview with Labor Secretary Wilbur Ross, charges the U.S. a whopping 25 percent import fee on U.S.-made automobiles and also bypasses our tiny 2.5 percent import fee by building cars in Mexico — presumably under the China/GM brand — and shipping them across our border under NAFTA rules.

If that weren’t bad enough, China and other countries also ship other goods, such as steel and aluminum, across the Mexican and Canadian borders, tarifffree under NAFTA rules, while charging the U.S. large import fees on our products.

Since NAFTA was instituted in the early 90s, our accrued trade deficit with Mexico is over one trillion dollars, and 70,000 U.S. factories have shut down, costing the U.S. millions of high-paying jobs.

And yet, when President Trump proposes leveling this rocky playing field by charging reciprocal tariffs and amending NAFTA, the globalist looters and moochers scream bloody murder. That’s OK, we can take the heat. Make America Great Again.

ANN CHERRY Sandia Park