Lie back and think of Pennsylvania
The US is alienating Japan and the EU by mishandling its obsession with swing voters in steel states — which is causing Joe Biden to make a national security issue out of the takeover of Pennsylvania-based US Steel by US ally Japan:
Questioning the sacred status of the US steel industry gets you disapproving looks in Washington, where an ostentatious attachment to things ferrous is how coastal elites signal they’re in touch with Real America. The Deerhunter has much to answer for.
But really, come on. This is way out of proportion. Iron and steel manufacture directly employs about 80,000 people in the US, 0.06 per cent of the total workforce and comfortably less than half the number of American pedicurists and manicurists. US Steel itself has just over 20,000 workers, half the number of employees at Penn State university. As I noted last week, US trade policy is disturbingly vibes-based. There’s a vague sense of the need to be seen fighting trade wars rather than actually creating jobs.
Japanese officials who complain on behalf of Nippon Steel will no doubt be explicitly told the same as the Europeans when the Biden administration tried to bounce the EU into joining its green steel club by threatening to reimpose the suspended Trump-era Section 232 national security tariffs on steel and aluminium. The electoral college is what it is, the swing states are what they are and the presidential election is this November. You’ve got to help us win Pennsylvania and Wisconsin or you’ll get Trump back. …
It’s one thing for the US to export its electoral problems by demanding its allies help micromanage a few tens of thousands of voters in the Middle Atlantic and Midwestern states. It’s another to alienate them with clodhopping threats and misguided lectures. Trading partners have voters and even principles too.
Source: One of those Alan Beattie FT columns you just want to frame!