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

Re:Rock and hard place

[Rick Zeman]

Right. Just imagine what an iPhone would cost now if it was built with US labor wages and protections in factories with US (especially pre-Trump) environmental controls and protections.

Re:Now we know

[DNS-and-BIND]

Trump isn't a Republican. He was a pro-abortion Democrat for ages. He's an outsider who hijacked the GOP nomination that rightfully belonged to Jabe Bush.

The Democrats, when faced with another outsider who tried to hijack their nomination, wisely rigged their own election to prevent this disastrous outcome. They then argued - and won - in court when they said voting didn't matter as they were a private organization who could do as they liked.

It's funny how everyone says tariffs are so horrid and awful, and yet China, Japan, Germany (more with non-tariff barriers there) and so many other countries all over the world use tariffs and they work spectacularly well for their economies. China went from third-world shithole to amazing country in 30 years by keeping tariffs high. Every product imported to China endures a 17% tax plus an additional tax depending on the class of good. Plus customs hassle, storage fees, etc. Chinese exports to America suffer no such problems and it works great - for the Chinese.

Re:Now we know

[JustNiz]

Yawn. yet another spineless passive-aggressive lib/dem troll making entirely emotion-based attacks on people while hiding behind AC.

Re:Prices increase either way.

[BeanThere]

"LOL everybody knows that he is just talking out off his ass"

Yet these same tactics got North and South Korea to start talking about peace. But we should listen to the children on slashdot who go "LOL Trump ass derp derp" who have done nothing and achieved nothing in their lives, over a guy whose brash negotiating tactics helped mend global geopolitical rifts that are older than most of us on here.

Re:This is kind of hilarious

[DNS-and-BIND]

If tariffs are so horrible, how is it that China, Japan, Germany (more with non-tariff barriers there) and so many other countries have done fantastically well by using them?

Buy American, hire American. This is what the US government *should* be doing. Why have they been falling down on the job for the past 40 years?

Plus, think of the harm being done to our greatest competitor, China. Without our gargantuan market to dump their cheap junk on, they'll have severe problems at home. They'll be less available to interfere with our plans for global domination.