I Did Business With China, and America Won
Democrats and Republicans might not seem to agree on much these days. But when it comes to trade, they chant “China trade bad, tariffs good” in stereo, even as the data show the exact opposite.
For 15 years, I was responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in Chinese imports entering the United States. I invented two enduring products—the “Backpack Beach Chair” and the “Magna Cart” portable hand truck—that can be found in Costco and other stores to this day.Â
Let’s use the Magna Cart to illustrate how America made billions while China made crumbs. The Chinese factory charged me $10 for a cart that cost them $9 to manufacture. U.S. retailers bought it from me for $15, then sold it to consumers for $30.
To recap: The factory made $1, I made $5, and retailers made $15, minus freight and U.S. tariffs.
The freight costs went to shipping lines, U.S. railroads, truckers, warehouses, and America’s highest-paid union workers—longshoremen at the Port of Los Angeles. As for those tariffs: Do the Chinese actually pay them, as former President Donald Trump claims? That would be illegal, as U.S. Customs charges tariffs only to the “importer of record,” which must be a U.S. entity. The monies collected go directly to Uncle Sa
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