Slashdot Mirror
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 $500 billion worth of Chinese imports over issues such as intellectual property theft.
While Apple et al are still making their products in China, Trump didn't offer Apple a place to find the millions of laborers needed to make their products, given that the official unemployment rate is at a historic low of 3.9%. Manufacturers also need to compete in the labor market with garbage companies who need to find American laborers willing to recycle their own trash -- a job once imposed upon China as a condition to enter the World Trade Organization and enjoy advantageous tariff rates. China is gracefully giving back those jobs as the U.S. is complaining of unfair trades.
While Apple et al are still making their products in China, Trump didn't offer Apple a place to find the millions of laborers needed to make their products, given that the official unemployment rate is at a historic low of 3.9%. Manufacturers also need to compete in the labor market with garbage companies who need to find American laborers willing to recycle their own trash -- a job once imposed upon China as a condition to enter the World Trade Organization and enjoy advantageous tariff rates. China is gracefully giving back those jobs as the U.S. is complaining of unfair trades.
Isn't there an 800$ tax/duty etc free limit on importing items from abroad? If they buy their iPhones from Canada, and the cost is under $800 US...
Sorry Trump, "Those jobs aren't coming back": https://www.nytimes.com/2012/0...
Even if the factories could be built here for a reasonable cost, even if the ecosystem of manufacturing suppliers could be recreated here, even if there were enough people looking for work, Americans would not want to take jobs working at such factories even at average factory wages.
Try to bring those jobs back here and welcome to $2000 iphones.
Someone pointed out that in an import/export imbalance relationship, the country that does the exporting feels the pain more quickly and deeply. Presumably, if China blocked all exports, manufactured goods would become more expensive in the US or hard to find. However, on the flip side many companies in China would have severe cash flow and revenue problems and go bankrupt, leading to massive unemployment, etc. Bad for one side, worse for the other.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Pretty much everything that Trump has done, without approval from Congress, is going to get undone once he's out. So every company is just going to keep things in place, because it would be suicidal to invest in a move, only to have the reason for doing so undone before the move is finished.