Live updates: Trump announces sweeping tariffs
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this is just going to fuck up the US economy rather than meaningfully affect any other country. you don't fucking produce anything worth a shit anymore.
Oh no. We produce stuff. The best weapons for killing people are made here.
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Putting on my best swiss cheese brain, maybe they are treating it 'like a business' and trying to do debt to income ratio? So our deficit is the debt then they look at tariffs on the imported goods as the income.
I honestly have no idea, maybe? Deficit isn't really debt though, it just means you bought more than you sold. The US isn't in debt to Cambodia any more than you're in debt with McDonald's. They just have a one way buy/sell relationship.
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In case anyones looking at this and asking question like "Why has Cambodia been dunked with 49% when they're clearly not a competitor to the US" or "Why is Trump claiming that the European Union has a 40% tariff on the US when the actual mean tariff on US goods into the EU is less than 5%", here's your answer to how these figures have been calculated.
- Take the US trade deficit with a given country (eg. China is $292bn)
- Take the total good imported by US (for China that's $439bn)
- Divide the first figure by the second! Why? Who knows! It's a number! Less talk more first grade arithmetic (if you're still following that gives us 67%)
- That gives us a random number which we'll pretend is that country's tariff of US goods even though it's completely unrelated in every way. We'll divide it by two to get the new tariff rate for imports from that country. Why? Honestly if you're still expecting there to be an answer to that question I'm wondering if you've been following. (that gives us 34%, well actually it gives us 33.5% but I'm not sure the Trump administration understands the idea of fractions so we'll just round it up from there)
The "reason" behind this is that Trump seems to think trade deficits are really bad, which is bad news for the US because it's had a trade deficit for the last 50 years. We'll ignore the fact that based on per capita GDP it's been the wealthiest country in the world for that time though.
Anyway, just to give every an idea of how completely, utterly unrelated to anything meaningful that figure is, let's take Cambodia. The country is very poor compared to the US so can't afford to buy anything that the US manufacters (Cambodians aren't driving round in Teslas or IMessaging each other). Some US companies use it for clothing manufacture because labour is cheap in Cambodia (see the previous bit about Cambodia being much poorer than the US). This means that Cambodia imports close to nothing from the US compared to what it exports, giving it a close to 100% trade deficit, so we wind up with a 49% tariff on Cambodia.
I genuinely don't understand the mindset that looks at the US's explotation of cheap labour in Cambodia and interprets the US as the victim in that relationship, but hey-ho maybe I'm just not biggly-smart enough to understand the 4d chess moves at play here. . .
Reference (because unfortunately none of what I said was made up and that geniunely is the calculation): https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/03/trumps-idiotic-and-flawed-tariff-calculations-stun-economists
Why does he think tariffs are equal to trade deficits?
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In essence this policy primarily imposes taxes on businesses, severily reduced the wealth of the billionaires, properties this forum often applauds. Funny how suddenly it's not liked.
US politics really is like picking a favourite sports team
Go Grey Socks!
Seriously though, this probably won't affect billionaires because companies like Nike can move most of their operations overseas and avoid paying tariffs during their manufacturing process, and then just pass the cost of to US consumers when they sell to that market.
Even worse, when Trump put tariffs on washing machines (which Biden kept in place) one effect was that US made washing machines (not paying tariffs) jacked up their prices for US consumers simply because there was less competition.
It truly is a sucky world for non-billinaires.
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I don't think these are reciprocal. I think these are unilateral, and when countries respond, their tariffs will be reciprocal. The distinction is very important. This is a problem created by Trump, not by other countries. You don't get to choose false language to describe it that shifts the blame.
Wait so if the admin is in favor of reciprocal tariffs does that mean they are asking other countries to raise tariffs against the US?
I'm gonna check this newly needed wiki page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariffs_in_the_second_Trump_administration#Reciprocal_tariffs -
And the other countries that have sanctions but still got tariffs?
For what? If you cant trade why? Jizus fcking christ
"Following Trump's Rose Garden announcement, a White House official told NOTUS' Jasmine Wright that Russia is "not on this list because sanctions from the Ukraine war have already rendered trade between the two countries as zero.""
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I honestly have no idea, maybe? Deficit isn't really debt though, it just means you bought more than you sold. The US isn't in debt to Cambodia any more than you're in debt with McDonald's. They just have a one way buy/sell relationship.
That's a really good explanation, there's no realistic way to make your money back from McDonald's
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No, it's at 1.105$/ā¬.
You looked at ā¬/$ instead
Oh shit youre right. Good catch. I'm an american living in Europe but my clients pay me in dollars. Sucky times ahead
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For what? If you cant trade why? Jizus fcking christ
"Following Trump's Rose Garden announcement, a White House official told NOTUS' Jasmine Wright that Russia is "not on this list because sanctions from the Ukraine war have already rendered trade between the two countries as zero.""
For what? If you cant trade why? Jizus fcking christ
That's exactly what I'm asking you...
If the answer is "because sanctions" then explain why other countries that are sanctioned by the US still got hit with tariffs?
Russia is "not on this list because sanctions from the Ukraine war have already rendered trade between the two countries as zero.""
And yet the US imported over $3B from Russia just last year. Which is to say, the white house lied (again).
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No! Your football team bad, mine good!
Haha I play soccer not football.
Just reminding people this handy button exists! -
Trump clearly has some feelings about Vietnam. He used his ābone spursā excuse to avoid being sent over there back in the day. Lmao
What a pussy
He just saw that they have a massive tariff against the US going back decades and I guess he took it personally.
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Is he using a random number generator?
Apparently ChatGPT.
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... Now?
Then too, also now.
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Ironically crashing the economy is one of the best things you can do to slow down climate change
Sure, but he is just crashing Western economy as Russia is preparing to invade rest of Europe.
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The overabundance doesn't just vanish. When the poor have less, the wealthy have more. There may be more homeless people fighting over food but the billionaires will be able to get a fleet of yachts.
Just like how a rising tide raises all boats, a sinking ship takes everyone down with it. The billionaires think being on the life rafts will make them more wealthy compared to those that are sinking.
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Trump clearly has some feelings about Vietnam. He used his ābone spursā excuse to avoid being sent over there back in the day. Lmao
What a pussy
I think it is something to do with China using it as a proxy for their export.
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Among the reciprocal tariff levels Trump announced:
China: 34%
European Union: 20%
South Korea: 25%
India: 26%
Vietnam: 46%
Taiwan: 32%
Japan: 24%
Thailand: 36%
Switzerland: 31%
Indonesia: 32%
Malaysia: 24%
Cambodia: 49%
United Kingdom: 10%Putin's bitch trying to further destabilize the world for daddy.
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Do you understand that sanctions applied are prohibitions? You and the other downvoters... Why would you apply tariffs if you cant sell or buy? Brains people!
This comment implies that you can buy and sell with an uninhabited island...
You're not serious, right? This is a bit?
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For what? If you cant trade why? Jizus fcking christ
"Following Trump's Rose Garden announcement, a White House official told NOTUS' Jasmine Wright that Russia is "not on this list because sanctions from the Ukraine war have already rendered trade between the two countries as zero.""
Sanctions doesn't mean you can't trade with a sanctioned country. The US never stopped trading with Russia.
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Doesn't the US already have full sanctions with Russia? So literally no trade is happening with them, so a tarrif would be pointless? Maybe I missed trump removing the sanctions at some point in his onslaught of nonsense.
Trade IS happening with Russia. Only specific companies and industries are sanctioned, everything else is business as usual.
