Slashdot Mirror
White House Announces Tech Tariffs, Investment Restrictions on China (axios.com)
The White House announced this morning a plan to levy a 25% tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese tech goods -- with the exact list to be announced next month -- as well as tech investment limits for Chinese nationals and entities. From a report: It also plans to pursue litigation at the World Trade Organization relating to Chinese intellectual property abuses. The big picture: It's a show of force that has surprised some sources close to the White House who believed Trump would defer any aggression towards China until after the North Korea summit. A source close to the White House who has a keen understanding of the internal dynamics on China told me that this is an "initial move in a long negotiation that shows the Chinese Trump is very serious -- and a move to balance the criticism that he was soft on ZTE."
Yes, he wants to be the exporter--the one threatened in the trade relationship by the capacity of the importer to just go to the next country over and pull the plug on your economy--so he's willing to harm America by reducing the benefit we get from lower-cost goods.
Mostly, he and Bernie Sanders don't understand economics, and they're projecting their failed grasp of macroeconomics onto a nation.
Support my political activism on Patreon.
And "with the exact list to be announced next month "
China don't have to worry, next month they will list what and when is going to be effectif hten, China will buy another hotel to Trump and every sanction willbe drop !
Ceci n'est pas une Signature !
The tech community in general is more educated and mere diverse (in some ways) than the general population and hence much less will to support trump. Plus tech CEOs are not psychologically the types to kiss the kings ring so yes, he is about to screw tech for both fun and profit. Probably he will use as leverage to extort more personal gain out of Beijing.
Many consumer electronic devices are beyond the simple repairs of yester-year's picture tube TV sets. Not only are the devices much more complicated than they used to be, the very concept of repair manuals is flat out scarce, and then there's the problem of built-in obsolesce as well.
We do need a much better electronics recycling program. Part of which would take those devices that are repairable, fix them, and then sell them at low cost of give them to people that don't have, and can't afford to buy new off the shelf. But when you've got fried circuits that require a replacement part that only the manufacturer can provide, it's not a cheap and easy fix.
On the subject of tariffs however? This move is just plain stupid. We don't manufacture finished products here in the States. This is going to end up being a straight up tax on the middle class, and it's only going to further blow up in our faces. You can't transition from a free trade economy to a protectionist economy overnight, and running around throwing up huge tariffs on imports is not going to hurt the countries we import from nearly as much as it's going to hurt us. It takes years, decades even to setup the manufacturing facilities and establish a sufficient supply chain to assemble a complex product. Meanwhile, it's a big world out there and there are plenty of other people China can sell to and buy from.
It's a hoarding/bunker mentality versus a focus on quality of life.
On one side, there's the folks who want to keep economic and physical resources on hand and maintain and develop manufacturing capability to ensure self sufficiency.
On the other, you've got the folks who want to enjoy as many of the available ancient vises and modern conveniences as possible.
Both sides have good arguments supporting them. On one side, what happens if international trade goes to hell? And on the other, why live like a Great Depression survivor when that crisis may never come?
As with most things, the most successful strategy is probably a middle ground between the two extremes.
I'm sure they will negotiate a solution where her business gets a concession and this goes away. The good thing about corruption is that it's predictable and it's much easier to run a business in a predictable environment.
Look, protectionism isn't a "new" idea. It has been tried over and over throughout history. In fact, it has been more the norm than the exception. It hurts the economies of both importers and exporters, and leads to job losses and lower living standards.
Tell that to the Chinese as they've been using protectionist policies against the US for decades and engaging in tactics like flooding Western markets with super-cheap goods by "dumping" products at artificially-low prices subsidized by the Chinese government at a loss with the sole purpose of destroying US industrial and commercial sectors.
The Chinese have in effect been waging a trade and economic war against the US for decades. This response is long overdue and relatively mild in comparison.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.