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Trump Announces $60 Billion Tariff on Chinese High-Tech and Other Goods (techcrunch.com)
Following months of investigations by the U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, the Trump administration announced on Thursday at a White House briefing that the administration intends to place about $60 billion of tariffs on Chinese goods, with the bulk of them likely to be focused on the high-tech industry. The White House will announce a final list of goods subject to the tariffs in the next few weeks. From a report: "We've lost over a fairly short period of time, 60,000 factories in our country. Closed, shuttered, gone. Six million jobs at least, gone. And now they are starting to come back," President Trump said during the briefing. "The word that I want to use is reciprocal -- when they charge 25 percent for a car to go in, and we charge 2 percent for their car to come into the United States, that's not good. That's how China rebuilt itself."
Can’t be sad about this one.
Because otherwise how are we going to be able to afford all these now more expensive trinkets and toys?
Oh. Wait. We're not supposed to. It's supposed to further expand the wealth gap and pretty much finish off the US middle class.
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This is not good for anyone, as the slew of economists and economic reporters have been putting out there for the last few weeks.
But more than that it's every day Americans who are going to be paying for it. 20-30% more on every electronic device, gadget, previously untariffed good that was imported, all to do what? Temporarily prop up industries / companies here in the US that won't significantly change their employment levels, capital investment in manufacturing, or supply chains in time until these tariffs are lifted?
"..the blind, hateful liberals.."
There is no need for this trash talk unless your are a hateful person yourself.
Against good-faith trading partner, it is boneheaded move. Against China, that is anything but open market themselves it is not.
China imposes them on us. And the memo states that tariffs are to be put in place only when things are unfair. If China doesn't want these tariffs, they can drop their own.
The plan is to match tariffs, all the way down to 0. If you don't want these tariffs, you can ask China to drop their own, which would make us drop ours.
Fair is fair, is it not?
(Actually, it's not, because their workers are treated like slaves and they shit all over the environment. We should be imposing higher tariffs on them than they are on us while those things are true.)
Yes trade barriers are very bad.
Which is why these reciprocal tariffs against China will hopefully force China to abandon it's xenophobic, racist, and anti-free market trade barriers that it has maintained for years and years.
So Trump is clearly trying to end China's boneheaded move of having trade barriers against U.S. products.
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
Then they will just buy $60 billion worth of airplanes from Airbus. We just pissed off Europe not long ago. And they will import chicken feet and other farm products from somewhere else.
So here's the thing, as consumers we have to ask ourselves an important question especially for the folks who can afford it. (If you're close to poverty then it's understandable that you don't have choices.) But for those of you that can afford it, would you buy a cheap gizmo or a more expensive gizmo supporting your own home country? I prefer to buy locally made stuff myself if I can find it at a "reasonable" price.
Above all, he wants to at least appear to be successful. This is just part of the charade. I don't know if it'll end well or badly so i'm not holding an opinion on this specific issue.
I miss the days of decency and cooperation.
Fact: You're not old enough to remember such times.
The economies are so interlinked that any real trade war could create unstable and unpredictable times.
... that anything could happen... the problem is it may not be able to be predictable. ... is more than likely just pretending to know and guessing.
The US owes so much debt now, that if China starts dumping accumulated debt they could force a spike in interest rates that basically throw the US into a hard recession.
It could lead to a currency war as China could hit back with devaluation equivalent to the tariffs.
The Chinese banks are not very transparent - and if the current swoon turns into a worldwide stock market crash - could be the start of another Asian crisis (we just cannot know) if it is prolonged.
Companies cannot just turn on a dime and change manufacturing (i.e. move it to other locations), so it could spike inflation and it could also disrupt major American companies supply.
Or it could just be taken in stride. The problem is that the markets were already overly exuberant, and there are many bubbles that could be popped
Anyone that claims to know what will happen
Would it not leave everyone blind?
If China lowered their tariffs, who of you thinks the USA would do likewise and not just keep the money as politicians love to do? I want a show of hands.
An eye for an eye does not leave the whole world blind.
The people who don't poke other people's eyes out to begin with don't get their eyes poked out in reciprocation.
If A eyepokes B, and B (or an agent acting on B's behalf, such as the state) eyepokes A, it ends.
If A (or A's agent) then eyepokes B (or B's agent), it's a new case of eyepoking, not a reciprocal of the second.
While assholes will get angry at reciprocal (just) eyepoking punishments and then start new instances of eyepoking, non assholes will not.
If you apply this policy fairly and swiftly, the assholes and some of their victims will be left blind (this is unavoidable in any system with assholes).
Most of the non assholes will be fine, and better off because all of the assholes will be crippled.
Remember that tax cut you guys gave the wealthy, with those temporary peanuts for you... well those peanuts are being snatched back by the administration! SO WEIRD! Could never have seen it coming! Enjoy that extra few bucks a week!
the jobs aren't coming back. Not very many anyway. Any factories built here will be run by robots. On the other hand we might end up bringing back the pollution.
The trouble with tariffs is they don't work as half measures. If you want to do isolationism like Brazil does that's fine. But get ready for $1500 Playstations and $3000 video cards. That's why you can still buy a Sega Megadrive in Brazil without irony.
Oh, one more thing. Any chance these tariffs will be passed on to me in the form of services like roads, schools or healthcare? Given the $1.5 trillion dollar tax cut we just did (83% of which went to the 1%) I'm guessing no. It's just like the lottery. They claim the money will go to services but then they shuffle it around and turn it into tax cuts for the rich.
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Where do you think the parts are made that you will use to repair that formerly-cheap, now-expensive tech bauble?
You are welcome on my lawn.
Everything Trump does is a childish ego response to prove he has a bigger dick.
Like the majority of EVERYTHING that is sold in the US is made in China. So how's this in any way good for Americans and American companies?
Of course ... Would be much nicer if things were not offloaded to China constantly as that's usually the first step in loss of the quality of a product.
You're answering your own question.
The proposed tariffs are reciprocal.
If China doesn't like them, they can lower the tariffs they impose on us, and we will respond in kind.
Alternatively, China can keep being unfair, which should cause manufacturing to move away from China and either to the US or to somewhere with more equitable trade agreements. Such changes will take time to play out, of course. But Trump has been shouting about bringing manufacturing back to the US for years now. If he can do it, it'll be a huge boon to our economy.
We've lost over a fairly short period of time, 60,000 factories in our country. Closed, shuttered, gone. Six million jobs at least, gone. And now they are starting to come back," President Trump said during the briefing.
Factories gone for things that can be made much less expensively over seas, gone from a now more services-oriented US economy. Many, perhaps most, of those jobs won't be coming back and, if they do, US consumers will pay a steep price. Trump is longing for a World that was, but has now moved on.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Painting everyone with the same brush and insulting them is not conductive of spreading truth.
Beside speculating on the behavior of others as if they all conformed to your projected image, what truth did you intend to state?
.... from eastern EU, with love :), thanks !
:>
not joking
Trade barriers are a bonehead move. Always were, always will be. Even when dealing with dealing with Fascist Regimes, Communist Dictatorships, Massive Genocidal Maniacs, Murderous Muslim Theocracies, State Sponsors of Terrorism, Countries deploying State-sponsored Hackers to loot IP, companies forced to share their IP merely to sell in the country, Human Rights Abusers, and Kleptocracies.
Remember, Trade barriers are a bonehead move. Always were, always will be.
You are wrongly assume that perpetual growth, infinite resources, and non-zero sum trade are real/possible outside of MBA spreadsheets.
It happens that in post WW2 period it was mostly true, but this will not remain so indefinitely. Strong China is a long-term threat to the Western World. Trading with China, on unequal footing, makes China grow more than us. Hence, long-term a trade war with China is better than uneven trade with China.
Except you're also cunts that like to play "technicality" bullshit. You don't have "tariffs" for many products... but you have "select partners", "regulations", and "subsidies" for a lot of areas. You can take the tariffs down to zero, but no one can compete with your corn price because you want to keep your farmers happy, and only a select club can sell you beef and lemons, because of "regulations" on the quality of the product.
You're not a free market. Don't go about bullying everyone into thinking you are. We're not stupid.
This is exactly what economists said he should have done instead of a blind protectionist tariff on steel and aluminum. How can you argue against mirroring the exact tariffs imposed on US goods overseas?
....and the market dropped 700 points. If Trump's headed for another bankruptcy, he wants to take us all with him.
"Truth is what works" -- William James "It works!!" -- o-dark-AM comment
Doesnt trump and his several members of his family sell various "made in china" goods (trump shirts, etc).
If "Made in the USA" is so important, why isnt his own stuff made there? Do as i say and not as i do?
Since both USA and China are WTO members, I wonder how Trump administration thinks they can avoid retaliation through WTO arbitration.
China can even the playing field by dropping their own tariffs. If not, well. . . too fucking bad. They have the means to fix this, they just elect not to.
Seriously, why the hell would any country tolerate doing business with China when their polices are blatantly designed to promote Chinese Companies over foreign ones ? As long as China continues this behavior, I have zero issues with cutting them off from the markets they are so obviously screwing over.
Once sales of their top money makers cease, it won't take long for them to realize how dependent their economy is on getting the rest of the world to buy their crap. No sales = no money = economy going to hell in a hurry.
So, to any country ( not just China ) that plays these games, I say bring it on.
You want to be treated fairly ? We only expect the same in return.
Which, really isn't that much to ask.
Why would China get into that kind of war, which it can't win? Do you know how much US debt China holds? Do you have even the faintest idea what would happen to the US dollar and the US economy if China started dumping it? You should look it up.
Of course, maybe those consequences could be avoided if another country, like Russia for example, decided to start buying it up at a discounted rate.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Hint: there are darn few hard leftists in the US. Sanders is about as far left as they come, and Sanders is centrist by the standards of most of the rest of the developed world. The Left doesn't control much in Congress, even when Democrats are in power.
Nor do leftists call reasonable liberals "alt-right" and "fascist". We reserve those for the insane right wing. If you want to call those folks "reasonable", you should probably get out more.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes