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Trump Ups Ante on China, Threatens Duties on Nearly All its Imports (reuters.com)
U.S. President Donald Trump warned on Friday that he was ready to slap tariffs on virtually all Chinese imports into the United States, threatening duties on another $267 billion in Chinese goods on top of $200 billion in imports now primed for levies in coming days. Reuters: The moves would sharply escalate Trump's trade war with Beijing over his demands for major changes in economic, trade and technology policy. China has threatened retaliation, which could include action against U.S. companies operating there. Hours after a public comment period closed on his $200 billion China tariff list, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he was "being strong on China because I have to be."
"The $200 billion we are talking about could take place very soon depending on what happens with them. To a certain extent its going to be up to China," Trump said. "And I hate to say this, but behind that is another $267 billion ready to go on short notice if I want. That totally changes the equation." [...] The $200 billion list, which includes some consumer products such as cameras and recording devices, luggage, handbags, tires and vacuum cleaners, would be subject to tariffs of 10 percent to 25 percent. Cell phones, the biggest U.S. import from China, have so far been spared, but would be engulfed if Trump activates the $267 billion tariff list. Further reading: Apple says Trump's China tariffs are going to hurt the company.
"The $200 billion we are talking about could take place very soon depending on what happens with them. To a certain extent its going to be up to China," Trump said. "And I hate to say this, but behind that is another $267 billion ready to go on short notice if I want. That totally changes the equation." [...] The $200 billion list, which includes some consumer products such as cameras and recording devices, luggage, handbags, tires and vacuum cleaners, would be subject to tariffs of 10 percent to 25 percent. Cell phones, the biggest U.S. import from China, have so far been spared, but would be engulfed if Trump activates the $267 billion tariff list. Further reading: Apple says Trump's China tariffs are going to hurt the company.
I'm fine with buying less shit from China, or paying more for what I actually do need to buy (from elsewhere or from China when necessary).
It ultimately means China gets less of US money. A lot less. It's China who loses here, not the US. The US is hundreds of billions in trade deficit to China. China has far, far more to lose in this game of chicken.
China can end it all now if they just agree to one simple thing. Fair trade. If China doesn't like the tariffs and restrictions they can get rid of the same exact tariffs and restrictions they impose on us, and poof, we reciprocate.
I don't know about the rest of /. but my wages have not kept pace with inflation.
This trend is very true, well documented, and has been happening since the early 70s when wages became decoupled from productivity. This has happened regardless of which party is in power so it's not a D or R issue. It's a free trade / taxes / mass immigration issue. Trump is a symptom of rage at the establishment, as is Bernie. He's actually pretty benign compared to how it will go if things don't improve. Just as people now think of Bush II more fondly based on Trump, Trump himself is likely going to be thought of more fondly than what's down the road. I expect in my lifetime to see someone make a political career out of the rage from not one banker in jail. Until the guillotines come out don't expect it to get better. The 1% have it too good and the expense of too many.
I'm sorry, which industries has he bailed out? Coal? Natural gas and renewable are still eating their lunch. Steel and aluminum? I fail to see the boom except is CEO's blowing smoke in Trump's direction, although he very much likes and believes it.
In the meantime, he's helped tanked the farming and ag business. His tariffs are being paid by every industry and customer reliant on those imports. And now that inflation is taking off and given the eye-watering deficits and debt, the interest rates will continue to rise. That is tanking the rest of the world's economies. And sooner or later, they won't be able to afford American exports because of the dollar's strength and their own currencies weakness. See Turkey for a preview.
If you completely surround an enemy, his soldiers will fight bravely. If you leave them a path to escape, they will run away.
This is actually a pretty good time to put some trade pressure on China. They've reached the end of an era of explosive growth and the transition to something more sustainable is bound to put pressure on them. A trade war can really hurt them right now (as it can hurt us as well).
This is a time to have your exit strategy worked out. If we have a shrewd and accurate idea of what we can feasibly walk away with, we could do quite well out of a little trade saber rattling. The thing is if we don't have an exit strategy, we can hurt our own economy and give the Chinese regime a legitimate scapegoat for its own problems.
So this is a test of the president's acumen. Does he have the brains to know when to walk away from a conflict?
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Now, you can argue that my wages will start climbing as a result of this
No, you can't argue that. As Americans replace jobs designing smartphones with jobs sewing t-shirts, wages will go down, not up.
High tariffs mean higher prices and lower wages.
Every complex problem has a solution that is simple, obvious, and wrong. Protectionism is one of those solutions.
As Trump has turned the Republican partyy into the party of tariffs and protectionism, next up is a Nixonian re-implementation of wage and price controls. The freeze on Federal employee wages at a time when unemployment is low is merely testing the waters for the next phase. As the Republican party shifts it position to whatever it is that Trump wishes, and obeys his every move, ordinary citizens do not understand that any money coming in from tariffs is not for them.
Am I wrong? Perhaps. But we shall see shortly. Trump is reinventing the Republican party as we speak, and they lack the intestinal fortitude to oppose him. I would not be terribly surprised if we nationalize industry soon, and Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan will smile as they sign the law.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Looks a lot like aphasia. At least temporarily, Trump lost the mental capacity to pronounce that word. Not the ability to recognize the word, because he caught himself and tried to pronounce it again, making exactly the same mistake again. Clearly not his dentures or a dry mouth, two theories that were advanced after a previous similar episode. No, it is clear that some wires are crossed inside Trump's brain. Considering who it is, this should be a medical emergency.
Watch his videos and you will notice a number of more subtle, but substantially similar events. And sometimes he completely loses track of the logic of a sentence he is trying to construct. These events seem to be increasing in frequency. That is my unscientific observation. This really needs to be assessed properly and scientifically by medical professionals, except not this guy.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
It is funny that wage growth is suddenly considered a problem in the last decade. We are rich.
Between 1979 and 2007, the bottom 90% of the US only saw a total of 16.7% wage growth. From 2007 to 2016, the bottom 90% grew another 4%.
If you look at the 90th to 99th percentile, you see wage growth of 56.9% over the 1979 to 2007 time frame, and another 7.9% since.
It is only when you look at the top 1% that you see wage growth of 156.2% from 1979 to 2007 and -2.9% since.
So, 90% of us can legitimately complain about wage growth sucking since 1979. It has been much less than 1% per year. But this is only a problem now that the top 1% have fallen from their routine 4% per year wage growth that we have a problem?
Whatever. Cry me a river. Why does it seem that the media only represents the elite?
Recent wage growth trends look more like a slight downpayment on an income distribution correction to me. 90% of us would be vastly happier if we simply returned to a 1970's income distribution without any change in the overall total income. Over 40 years, that bulk of our nation has only recently crossed a total of 20% gain. The rest of you, especially the top 1% who have grown by 311% over those same 40 years, are welcome to at least show enough shame to shut up if not to lobby for change.
data
Not only have we been exporting jobs, we've also been importing cheap labor. Don't believe the figures on the number of undocumented workers. There are millions more than that - just wait until the next census to see for yourself.
I've personally seen jobs that used to be good-paying jobs go away because illegals undercut the wages - electrician, plumber, carpenter, mason, etc.. Yeah, those are considered blue collar jobs, but they used to be pretty good career choices with a good income.