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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2018
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM
Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
Grownups must take power over tariffs
Even our small coastal
economy is already
paying the price
T
his past weekend brought news
of a possible truce in President
Donald Trump’s trade war with
China. At least there will be a pause
before a new round of tit-for-tat tariffs.
Some think the president’s style of
chest-thumping ultimatums will ulti-
mately bring economically useful con-
cessions from our trade rivals — most
of all China.
Early on in his administration,
Trump critics feared inexperienced
leadership might drive U.S. industries
off a cliff. So far, our economy has
proven resilient. Stock markets, how-
ever, are flashing warning signs. After
briefly signaling enthusiasm about the
truce, markets tanked on Tuesday, as
traders starting asking President Ronald
Reagan’s classic rhetorical question:
“Where’s the beef?” They see that tar-
iffs have been almost all pain and no
gain.
While General Motors begins shut-
tering auto plants partly due to steel
and aluminum prices driven by Trump
tariffs, local news stories about prod-
ucts from timber to crab show we
may pay a stiff price for international
grandstanding.
Coast River Business Journal has
devoted significant coverage of tariff
impacts on the seafood industry, while
The Daily Astorian recently described
how logs produced here will suffer if the
tariff truce doesn’t hold. Astoria Forest
Products leaders, workers and suppli-
ers were holding their collective breath
to see if Trump and China’s President
Xi would bury the hatchet. The answer
was “maybe.” As it stands, hiking tar-
iffs to 25 percent each way between the
two nations will be delayed 90 days. Ten
percent tariffs already in place are unaf-
fected by the Trump-Xi talks.
It also remains unclear whether sea-
food tariffs will be lowered in time to
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
President Donald Trump, second right, and China’s President Xi Jinping, second left, attend their bilateral meeting at the G20 Summit
in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A U.S.-Chinese cease fire on tariffs gives jittery companies a respite but does little to resolve a war over
Beijing’s technology ambitions that threatens to chill global economic growth.
‘Responsible Republicans in the U.S. Senate must
cooperate with Democrats in the U.S. House and
wrest tariff power away from the White House. No
president of either party should have the power to
wreck decades of carefully wrought trade policies.’
preserve the lucrative Chinese mar-
ket for Columbia River processors
who sell fresh Pacific Northwest crab
for Chinese New Year celebrations. A
growing Chinese taste for chum salmon
also may wiggle off the line.
Beyond short-term skirmishes and
their consequences for local products,
rising trade tensions in the past two years
are a reminder that it takes a long time
for industries and nations to build busi-
ness relationships, shipping networks
and trust. For now, we can only hope
that tariff spats quickly simmer down
without doing permanent damage. Will
Chinese companies immediately resume
buying Northwest timber? Will Chinese
consumers hold onto a grudge and quit
eating our crab? Only time will tell.
The trade war taps into a vein of dis-
content among working Americans
over stagnant wages and factories mov-
Water
under
the bridge
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago
this week — 2008
For the last four weeks, the Knappa football team has heard
a familiar tune from fans across the state: “Great job Loggers!
Way to go Loggers! Congrats on getting there Loggers ...”
But when it came down to predicting a winner, week after
week, the rest of the state just had a hard time in picking boys
in Blue & Gold.
To their credit, the Loggers never listened. Or maybe they
did.
Either way, the proved ‘em all wrong, and now they have
the hardware to prove it.
Knappa overcame an early 6-0 deficit and scored 20
straight points Saturday afternoon in the Class 2A title game
as the Loggers defeated the Culver Bulldogs 20-6 at Hillsboro
Stadium to win their first-ever state championship.
As the final days of November 2007 passed, cli-
matologists at the National Weather Service warned
about conditions that favored the first winter storm
of the season. This year, the end of November is a
reminder that the anniversary of possibly the worst
storm to strike the North Coast in memory is upon
us.
Today is the anniversary of the Great Coastal
Gale.
Four people died on the North Coast as hurri-
cane-force winds lashed the region for four days.
The storm left a lasting mark on towns, forests —
and the way North Coast communities deal with
disasters.
It was frightening and prolonged. And folks who weath-
ered the Great Coastal Gale will probably never forget the
2008 — Knappa’s Doug Montgomery holds the Class 2A
state championship trophy up for the fans after the Loggers
fought their way to a 20-6 victory over the Culver Bulldogs.
sound of the wind.
But what some people remember best about the storm is
neighbors helping neighbors in the recovery effort.
Some commonalities emerged from stories about the
storms. Waiting through the night as the constant wind rat-
tled the windows. The bumping and thumping as trees fell and
debris blew through.
ing out of the country. We have legit-
imate gripes with the Chinese, some
of whom are bullies when it comes to
trade secrets and intellectual property.
However, imposing what amounts
to a high tax on American businesses
is not the way to rectify this situation.
Tariffs were a key cause of the Great
Depression in the 1930s. Instead of giv-
ing the U.S. trading advantages, those
tariffs made everyone in the world
poorer and contributed to starting
World War II.
Responsible Republicans in the U.S.
Senate must cooperate with Democrats
in the U.S. House and wrest tariff
power away from the White House. No
president of either party should have
the power to wreck decades of carefully
wrought trade policies.
The Seaside Signal’s criticism of the Job Corps
(that newspaper says it looks forward to the elim-
ination of the corps under Richard Nixon “with
considerable satisfaction”) is valid only on the
surface.
The Signal says it would be more efficient and less
costly to give disadvantaged youth remedial edu-
cation in their own school districts and vocational
training in community colleges near their homes.
The ideas sound fine — much more practical than
bringing girls from the Deep South and Chicago,
Detroit and Los Angeles to Astoria for training.
The problem is that these young people in the
rural South and in the cores of the cities are shackled
by substandard schooling, poverty, racial discrimi-
nation (many of those in the Job Corps are, after
all, Negro), and broken family structures. They are
not getting the basic education, the job training or
the social acceptance necessary to become self-suf-
ficient, and it is necessary to get them out of those
environments.
The Northwest Aluminum company project at Warrenton
is “moving ahead,” a spokesman for Bell International corpo-
ration said Wednesday in New York.
75 years ago — 1943
50 years ago — 1968
Enrollment of boys and girls in Oregon’s voca-
tional work program has more than doubled in
recent years, Walter W. Morse, state supervisor of
trade and industrial education, told members of the
Astoria apprenticeship commission Monday night
at the regular monthly meeting at the Imperial grill.
The war emergency has shown the need for voca-
tional training and planned assistance for the youth
of the state, Morse said, as he complimented the
local commission on its work among Astoria boys
and girls.
Roman Catholic Star of the Sea High School in Astoria
will probably be closed at the end of this school year, the Very
Rev. Francis J. Maloney said.
The provincial superior of the Sisters of the Holy Name,
Sister Rose Veronica, wrote members of St. Mary Catholic
church last week that the order would withdraw the three sis-
ters now teaching in the high school because of declining
enrollment and increasing duties of the sisters.
Barometer fans in Astoria were speculating today upon the
meaning of a “high glass” which at noon showed extraordi-
nary high readings of 30.41 at the North Head weather bureau
station.
This is below the all-time high reached February 16, 1939,
when the glass rocketed to 30.79 and was followed some days
later by a southwest gale that swept into the low-pressure area
created when the high atmospheric pressure rushed away.
Clatsop County Interim Manager Andy Ander-
son is putting together a committee of experts to
analyze the Port of Astoria’s planned purchase of
North Tongue Point.
The committee’s job will be to tell the Clat-
sop County Commission whether the Port’s dream
industrial property is a good investment of the coun-
ty’s video lottery funds.