OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Off Topics Maybe I'm just being simplistic

Now the Chinese want to play games and want to impose tariffs on our barley exports to them I think it is a great opportunity for us to do the same and impose an 80% tariff on ALL Chinese goods coming to this country. This is probably the only opportunity this country will ever have to get back to some sort of manufacturing ability, we will never get another shot at this. All these free trade agreements are only designed for the top end of town to make their money and to hell with the Twiggy Forests of Australia just selling out our raw materials so he can get rich, then tell us how generous he is to be able to swing deals to get us face masks from China. Australia wake up to yourselves and tell the Chinese to get stuffed

While I agree with you, all the Pollies care about is looking good with budget figures and making sure their mates (the Twiggys) are happy as well. The Pollies want the 'consulting' jobs later on, while the big boys want the money, and since they own most of the media, that is the version you are going to get. Doesn't Forest own most of the WA newspapers? I know others have big investments in other media outlets.

Oh, and don't forget the Chinese bags of money floating around to various people too.

If the tariffs are any thing like ours then the endusers are the one paying it and not China; though, it might slow down the purchasing of the products but here it hasn't as domestic vendors are raising their prices too.

Hi,AVB,
the end user is always the one who is going to pay, but unless the world stands united against China and hurts their trade the world is doomed to be subject to whatever China wants to do. This is possibly the only chance the world has to reset the balance and get rid of this FREE trade imbalance.

Exactly. The whole reason behind tariffs is making somebodies products cost more in a market, therefore allowing more competition from products made in societies that have a decent wage, conditions, safety regulations, etc. Otherwise, the so called 'competition' of for example Australian or American workers is against virtual slave labour. A race to the bottom.

Stuff costs more. That is the price you have to pay if you want better quality gear, and jobs in your country. The only other way to compete with these hellholes is to lower your wages and conditions to mirror those hellholes.

Slave labour in a communist country run by a dictator is never a level trading platform for free trade agreements

No. But so many Big Boys are making buckets of cash from it, and they don't want you thinking about it that way Norm. If only more businesses would go to China, and our government just listen and do what President for life 'Winnie' Xi wants them to do, Freedom would flourish in China and Money would flow into Australia and everyone would become rich.

As the old saying goes "Put all your eggs in one basket"...no wait, I got that wrong somewhere

Yes you did it is "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." That is why I have multiple vendors that I buy from.

The theory behind tariffs is make the items more expensive so the local items can sold better. As said it is a theory but when our local companies also raise their prices it just makes the ones with tariffs look good again.

I do agree Aussie and American are better product but most consumers still fall the lowest prices without any regards to quality and then bitch like heck when they get stung. I do buy at the best price I can get for a quality product but that is not the same buying the cheapest item. Believe me their plenty of crooks out there so you got to do your homework before buying even then you can get burn every once a while by those OEM products that ships an aftermarket product.

What really grinds my gears, is the fact that China have been ripping off other Countries' intellectual property, reverse engineering it and selling it cheap, made of Chineseium as a bonus, so you buy another one in two years time.

No outlay and expense, no innovation. Yet they own the world.

I've read somewhere that in exchange for being able to trade there, they require the relinquishing of intellectual property and they do it for the quick profits to be made. A truly putrid and sneaky tactic. The Japanese have similar attitudes to intellectual property like they have a divine right to steal ideas others worked to come up with.

Everyone lets them get away with it, thats why. They get the odd complaint about IP theft, and say they will do something about it, but never do. And why should they? They never signed the international treaties regarding it. Yet businesses lined up to set up shop there!

Its like a kid that gets away with everything. Why should the kid stop? Until they get a a tanned hide, they won't stop.

And the business model of western companies is sick. It is short term, totally profit driven with no thought of where the company will be in 10-20 years time. When you see company executives get pay bonuses even after a company has gone bankrupt, it kind of tells you something. They just want those short term dollars, and the IP theft and other problems are for the next guy in the hot seat.

Hi Sapper and all contributors
Many thanks for such a considered response.

I am no more competent in giving responses than the folks here.
But ... I do blame Western countries - not China- for the decline of Western manufacturing.

WE ... our Governments and our companies ... let this happen.
Of course, the average, struggling punter will want to buy a $20 power drill or toaster made
in the C word.

I wish already wealthy Westerners were less selfish.
our 'Captains of industry' are to blame for their greed - not ours!

The average Australian would happily buy Australian if we were allowed to.

Cheers
----------------------
Jack

I have to agree that corporate greed is the root problem along with the consumer. And the consumers and companies are at fault of putting us in this mess.

Here Walmart is a good example of corporate greed run a muck. When Sam Walton started Walmart he insisted on buying American product at a fair price and selling them in his stores. Then he die leaving the company to corporate crooks that will sale anything they can make a penny on so the quality of items in the stores have really tanked over the years.

Matter of fact many companies have gone down similar paths so it is getting very hard to find quality products at a fair price anywhere.

Yes buying products made in your on country is desirable but the average consumer here could care less as long it is the cheapest thing they can get.

It sorta like a fellow that will put on 4 or 5 cheap deck belts thinking he is saving when one good quality belt at 2-3 x the price of one of the cheap would be still going strong by the time he puts on the sixth belt. What was my once after market belt suppliers are now higher then the OEM belts that I buy through my distributor.

One everyone got be careful of is those Made in your Country stickers. Not everything with them are made where they say are.

Governments have enabled the greed though. Give them an inch and they will take a mile.

There was a reason why once everything from electronics to motors to boardgames to white goods, you name it, used to be made here; it was too expensive to import them and sell them here. Foreign companies would open factories and make it here, or use a licensed factory here. They didn't want to miss out on the market.

This has been slowly chipped away with tax and tariff reduction, shipping companies licensing in the worst third world holes they can find, and other general bastardry. Once these rules are gone, Businesses do what Businesses do.

Do you blame the dog for pissing on a lamp post? No, the dog is doing what the dog naturally does.

The same with business. Businesses are there to make as much money as they can, only now that CEOs have no pride or 'ownership' in the companies they often run (being shipped in and out of different companies) they take a short term profit over longer term outlook. I don't even blame businesses for their stupidity, only that they operate within the framework they are given. And that is what they have done.

If the parent (government) allows the children to do whatever they want, then that is what they will do, regardless of the long term cost to the household (country). Witness todays world situation.

Now, contrast this with China. Try, as an Australian company over here, getting your finished goods into China and selling any. Good luck to you.

Only through Australian based Chinese concerns can products get in without getting smashed for taxes, tariffs and 'inspection duties'. As well as time sitting around on their docks for further 'inspection'.

Japan used to do the same thing.

I won't even go into currency manipulation and the hundreds of other laws required to get your products into China. But thats ok according to governments and western businesses.

Think about it.

So by stubbornly following a free market ideology to be fair on the rest of the world, other countries play on this level field unfairly to us. We willingly shoot ourselves in the foot for the sake of competing fairly which is a totally unfair environment.
Vested interests benefit while the country gets screwed. The architects of this stupidity are peace time criminals.

You summed it up pretty well MF.

Your insight is awesome Sapper. Enjoy reading your contributions.

Thanks MF,

The whole thing sickens me. It was like watching a car crash in slow motion. A no name idiot like me could see what would eventually happen when you hollow the economy out and become a farm and mine for a dictatorship, and a shop front to sell their Poo products, that is increasingly flexing its new 'made in the West' muscle, but all the businessmen, experts and politicians knew better.

Even an old housewife calling out 'don't put all your eggs in the one basket' would have been able to advise these brainiacs.

I agree completely - I can't chime in as my observations about them are usually >50% expletives haha

Hi Sapper,
You have a way with words and a good understanding of how this works but at the end of the day Austraila will end up like Nauru, had its only natural resource stripped from the country by Western countries and then just dumped back in the ocean to try and fend for itself. If anybody doesn't think this could happen to Australia they their head deep in the sands of the Simpson Desert. I'm a bit with Tyler I have to be careful how I spit things out on this subject. They only way forward for the world is a UNITED stance against the Chinese dictatorship/communist government and the attitude they have to the rest of the world. Sadly I don't believe this will happen, the US/ Aus can't do it alone, the Poms might help, but they have their Brexit problems and the reason they have this problem is because the whole of Europe is nearly broke so you couldn't rely on any backing from those countries. I will just go back to bed now because I have seen the sun has come up from the east this morning so that is a good thing