3 ms·

I remember this article a long time ago just about it. http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/in-the-early-days-of-the-pandemic-the-us-government-turned-d

I remember this article a long time ago just about it. http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/in-the-early-days-of-the-pandemic-the-us-government-turned-down-an-offer-to-manufacture-millions-of-n95-masks-in-america/2020/05/09/f76a821e-908a-11ea-a9c0-73b93422d691_story.htm http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/in-the-early-da... Basically no willingness to commit to buying enough volume for it to make sense for production to ramp up. Slap a massive tariff on any medical equipment from China and you'll get local producers that can meet the demand. Without it who is willing to chance bankruptcy for a short term "possible" boost in sales.

bilbo0s 6y ago
I'm not even sure a tariff on China would help? Just Devil's Advocate, but what's to stop those companies from outsourcing their manufacturing to Indonesia or South Korea instead? And if you tariff those two, what's to stop them from outsourcing to Malaysia or Brazil? And on and on. On items like PPE, where you can sell large amounts of those anywhere in the world, manufacturers will always game to match cost of manufacture to market price. So if it's known that Indonesia and Kenya are definitely going to be buying crazy amounts of your product if the price per unit matches their economic reality, someone's always going to try to meet that demand. Millions and millions of pennies is still a lot of money. Plus you can sell the same PPE you manufactured at low cost into the EU and US. It's just too profitable. I suppose you could slap a tariff on PPE from anywhere other than the US? That would probably work.
- christkv 6y ago
  I think we are going to have to do this in all western countries. Healthcare equipment is just too critical to leave to the corporate accountants to profit maximise.

3 ms·

I remember this article a long time ago just about it. http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/in-the-early-days-of-the-pandemic-the-us-government-turned-d

by christkv 6y ago

bilbo0s 6y ago
I'm not even sure a tariff on China would help? Just Devil's Advocate, but what's to stop those companies from outsourcing their manufacturing to Indonesia or South Korea instead? And if you tariff those two, what's to stop them from outsourcing to Malaysia or Brazil? And on and on. On items like PPE, where you can sell large amounts of those anywhere in the world, manufacturers will always game to match cost of manufacture to market price. So if it's known that Indonesia and Kenya are definitely going to be buying crazy amounts of your product if the price per unit matches their economic reality, someone's always going to try to meet that demand. Millions and millions of pennies is still a lot of money. Plus you can sell the same PPE you manufactured at low cost into the EU and US. It's just too profitable. I suppose you could slap a tariff on PPE from anywhere other than the US? That would probably work.
- christkv 6y ago
  I think we are going to have to do this in all western countries. Healthcare equipment is just too critical to leave to the corporate accountants to profit maximise.