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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."
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.
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.
there's the folks who want to keep economic and physical resources on hand and maintain and develop manufacturing capability to ensure self sufficiency.
That's not quality-of-life; that's your local economics market. Back before manufacturing was big, America had this huge dialogue about how evil manufacturing was encroaching on the good American way of life where 90% of the workforce was in agriculture.
Quality-of-life is how people live, not how your nation's means of production are composed. It's about the people. It's about being able to eat, about being secure and not becoming homeless, and about having access to hygiene and medical care and social mobility.
On one side, what happens if international trade goes to hell?
Your nation has already fallen.
If we lose stable electricity for a day or two, our entire logistics system falls apart. We rely so much on communications and on shipping from town to town--much less across the states or to other nations--that we can't even keep stores stocked without trucks showing up every single day. After five days of high-speed communications being down across the nation, this nation isn't recovering; it's already over, the Constitution is no longer and shall never again be in force, and there is no capacity to maintain order and domestic tranquility.
Trade with other nations is a mechanism of stability. It gives us allies who are vested in helping us stay in one piece, and severely reduces the likelihood of war because neither side could sustain it.
why live like a Great Depression survivor when that crisis may never come?
In which case your isolationist nation is getting invaded by someone with the military prowess of Canada.
As with most things, the most successful strategy is probably a middle ground between the two extremes.
That assumes either side is an extreme, rather than that we're simply not leveraging mechanisms we should use. Holding your breath every 60 seconds could be said to be a middle-ground between breathing and not breathing when faced with, for example, air pollution.
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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.
It's confounding only because most business negotiations are done in secret. When it leaks out it makes a lot of sense.
Trump has done a few things differently than most presidents. First, he's refused to divest himself of his businesses - usually a president puts their business in a trust so any decisions they may won't have potential conflict of interest.
It's why Russia is a big deal - it's one of the few countries where his businesses have done really, really, really well.
Or why ZTE suddenly deserves a lot of support (China dumps a half billion into a Trump hotel).
Next thing you know, Mexico will build a Trump hotel and it'll be "wall? what wall?" or if Mexico wants to build stuff using American equipment, "NAFTA GOOD!"
The problem is, these negotiations are done in private and under the privy of no one, so what looks erratic really turns out to be negotiation tactics to get a better deal.
Trump bends the way the dollars flow.
This remains a joke. Trump restored ZTE because China gave Ivanka a trademark that she wanted. There has NEVER been such a corrupt president in office as trump. If he wants to be fair, he will put the same tariffs/vats on CHinese goods that they put on western goods. Likewise, he would require that all factories with chinese owners to have 50.1% American ownership. In addition, no more deals will be allowed in china for moving manufacturing over there. IOW, when we develop a product here, it will not be allowed to be manufactured in CHina, or for that matter, for ownership to be transfered to any chinese company.
Not sure how to deal with their subsidies, dumping, and manipulation, but even this would be a good start.
Then allow China to deal with it as they see fit. If CHina removes an items, so do we.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.