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US' Proposed China Tariffs Would Target Robotics, Satellites (engadget.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: The U.S. Trade Representative has published the list of Chinese products that would be subject to its proposed tech tariffs, and there are a few clear themes. The move would hike the costs of about 1,300 products, including industrial robots, communication satellites, spacecraft and a slew of semiconductors.The aim, as before, is to punish China for allegedly goading American companies into transferring their patents and technology to Chinese firms for the sake of claiming economic superiority. The USTR claimed the proposed tariffs would stymie Chinese plans while "minimizing the impact" on the American economy. The tariffs are still subject to a 60-day notice process that would include public comments until May 11th and a public hearing on May 15th.
Importing cheap semiconductors to the EU, designing and assembling my technology in Romania and then selling the finished product to the US could well be cheaper and more profitable than producing it in China and importing it directly from China to the US because the tariffs are going to even out the cents I have to pay the Romanians more? And all that without risking having my designs stolen so the Chinese could crank out cheap knockoffs?
On behalf of the EU, I wish to express my gratitude towards dear leader across the pond.
Don't discount the economic damage done by the cheap knockoff process - it's so common that it's become a meme. It's nigh impossible for anyone to make electronics in China any more, even small hobbyist designers (think Adafruit and Sparkfun) get their products copied and sold for pennies.
Then there's the direct theft of IP (trade secrets, business practices, and such) that the FBI estimates at $600B/year.
Then there's selling steel and aluminum at below-market prices until our domestic producers go out of business (at last count, we had one steel foundry left that was capable of making the steel plates needed for military hardware).
Then there's the lack of IP enforcement, so that lots of Chinese run pirated code and view bootleg media without paying for it.
Then there's "thousand grains of sand", where Chinese students and scientists (in the US) coming back to their country are encouraged to bring one or two small pieces of technological or scientific information.
Then there's keeping their currency artificially low, so that we always have a trade deficit with them (they end up getting more and more of our money).
China has consistently violated their trade agreement in every possible way, and has done so for decades.
We're *already* in a trade war, it's only just now that we're doing something about it.
Taxes are the problem because the promote the offshoring of US jobs. Eliminating income taxes would cause the world's manufacturers to stampede to build factories here, in a no-income-tax environment, and quickly employ everyone who ever thought that he might, maybe, someday want a job. Prosperity would return to the USA if we got rid of income taxes. The FairTax would let us get rid of income taxes.