Trump Tells Apple To Make Products In the US To Avoid China Tariffs (thehill.com)

hackingbear writes: President Trump acknowledged in a tweet that "Apple prices may increase because of the massive Tariffs we may be imposing on China," but suggested the issue was not with the tariffs themselves. "There is an easy solution where there would be ZERO tax, and indeed a tax incentive. Make your products in the United States instead of China. Start building new plants now," Trump wrote. The U.S. is threatening to impose 25% tariffs on all $500 billion worth of Chinese imports over issues such as intellectual property theft.

While Apple et al are still making their products in China, Trump didn't offer Apple a place to find the millions of laborers needed to make their products, given that the official unemployment rate is at a historic low of 3.9%. Manufacturers also need to compete in the labor market with garbage companies who need to find American laborers willing to recycle their own trash -- a job once imposed upon China as a condition to enter the World Trade Organization and enjoy advantageous tariff rates. China is gracefully giving back those jobs as the U.S. is complaining of unfair trades.

Comments

This is kind of hilarious

[rsilvergun]

On paper we're at full unemployment. But funny enough there's a ton of resentment around not having jobs in America. Of course, everyone knows the unemployment stats are nonsense. But we act like they're not.

This leads to some crazy political theater. For one thing we've got economists trying to come up with excuses about why wages aren't climbing despite "full" employment. And now we've got Trump needing to explain to businesses where they'll get workers needed to run factories when on paper those workers already have jobs. I mean, I suppose Trump could argue that he'll do mass immigration. I'm sure that'll go over swell at his monthly rallies.

Re:This is kind of hilarious

[alvinrod]

Unemployment numbers are meaningless if they fail to consider the labor participation rate (which itself isn't the full picture). There are still a lot of people without jobs that have essentially given up on finding one. What we should be looking at is the number of hours of labor that are being worked. It doesn't matter if you've got two jobs on paper if they're both being filled by the same person because they can't get a 40 hour position any longer.

Tariffs are beyond idiotic as a solution to our economic issues and even if Trump does somehow manage to enact them, they're not going to survive beyond his presidency. We should be going in the opposite direction and removing all tariffs. If China or some other government wants to subsidize a local industry, let's import the hell out of those products. I'd be over the moon to get some other country's tax payers to foot the bill for the goods I purchase.

Or assemble them anywhere else but China

[Anonymous Coward]

Why United States?

Find millions of laborers?

[Anonymous Coward]

I doubt that they need that many. In the U.S., a million Chinese laborers become 999,000 robots and 1,000 robot technicians.

Re:Rock and hard place

[pots]

Apple just got a ton of money from that giant tax cut. We're going to be paying for Apple's tax cut for decades, they can afford to lose out a little on their already very comfortable profit margins.

Re:Rock and hard place

[fermion]

With consumer electronics, and increasing cars, there is no made in one country. Parts are sourced from all over the world. Tariffs are going to add to costs no matter where it is made because a lot of stuff is going to have to be imported no matter what.

One relevant criticism of the tariffs is the actual cost of work done of assembling the Apple product is a tiny faction of it's value. For a $2000 computer it might be less than $100.So taxing the full value can be considered unfair, as the conservatives always like to say.

What I find interesting is that lots of industries do not face such complications. For instance apparel can be sourced more easily that cars or electronics, and assembled in the USA. However, as simple as it is to make clothes in the USA, Trump and his family still chooses to make the clothes in Mexico and China.

So, as Trump chooses not manufacture in the US, and in fact regularly imports workers from other countries instead of hiring local workers, we can only assume that he knows, as president, something we do not. Like maybe US workers are inferior.

Re:History

[kenh]

There's another problem with moving manufacturing to the US.

There's also the reality that other countries impose their own excessive, punitive tariffs on manufactured goods from the US.

Tariffs aren't uniquely American.

Re:Rock and hard place

[kenh]

Now the actual chip & electronics manufacturing capabilities of China, combined with reasonable quality affordable staff, that's a lot harder to replace.

Any manufacturing capability China has can be easily replicated in America, esp. by a company like Apple with their seemingly infinite financial resources, what can't be replicated here are low wages, lax environmental and worker protections.

Re:Rock and hard place

[Koby77]

I'm skeptical that there is a labor shortage. Simple supply and demand rules of economics tells us that if there is a labor shortage, then the price of labor should increase. Small increases are normal due to inflation, and I'm glad if there are a few companies forced to shell out a few more bucks to its workers, but so far I haven't seen any huge amounts that would indicate a "labor shortage".

Re:Recycling solution:

[Kernel Kurtz]

Meanwhile, economy is going great, Americans have jobs and a reason to feel good about their economic prospects for the first time in 10 years.

That is true in most places. The long recovery from 2008 is not a Trump exclusive

They'll never choose what's good for the US over what's good for their own people

Those are not necessarily mutually exclusive things. Or didn't use to be anyway.

Re:No, no it isn't 3.9%

[Paul Carver]

Unfortunately, yes, because those long term unemployed adults are called retirees

Hold on a minute. So Trump is lying about unemployment because he quoted a rate that doesn't include RETIREES?

Your comments about drug and medical costs are irrelevant. I'd love to see major changes in the US Healthcare system, but anyone who calls a number "unemployment" when it includes retirees is full of shit. If somebody retired and then ran out of money and started looking for work then they're unemployed, but you can't just say that everyone who is not working is unemployed. At least not if you want to keep the word "unemployed" as a bad thing.

Unemployment means #1 you want to work and #2 you're able to work. If you don't meet both those criteria then you're not unemployed regardless of whether you don't have a job.

And if the only "work" you're willing to do is work that no one is willing to pay you for then you don't qualify as wanting to work. I do things that require skill and effort but that no one would be willing to pay me to do but I also do things a company IS willing to pay me for. If I CHOOSE to only do the former and not the later then I should NOT BE counted as unemployed.

Re:Prices increase either way.

[Zero__Kelvin]

I always love these "Most people don't understand that Trump just sounds like a moron who went bankrupt several times and couldn't even make money with a casino, but really he is a negotiation wizard and very stable genius who went bankrupt several times and couldn't even make money with a casino" comments. Pure gold.