The world reacts to Trump's sweeping tariffs: 'No basis in logic'
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I think you're kind of being unfairly downvoted because it's definitely underappreciated how much tariffs are used in modern trade deals.
Putting selective import tariffs on certain goods (like say car manufacturing) might be a wise move if you want to encourage the US to develop a manufacturing base. It's worth noting that the US, and most other countries have been doing this selectively for years.
This is reeeaally far from the tariffs that have actually been anounced though, which are the highest rate the US has had in around 100 years, and applied pretty indescriminately. There are some goods that the US just can't produce itself (like certain rare earth minerals that aren't in the USA) but even worse, because of the insane logic of applying them to countries as they have been done, it opens up this type of event:
- A comany like Apple might assemble laptops in the US, but import parts like chips from, say, China.
- They now have around a 40% tariff on all chips, which is really going to drive up cost, and leaves them with two options.
- Option one, they bring all manufacturing into the US, which would take a long time to build up the infrastructure, and still really ramp up the price because wages in the US are so much higher than they are in China
- Option two, they outsource everything to say Mexico or Canada who don't pay the tariffs on Chinese chips, and just pay the wholesale import tariffs are needed to bring things from Mexico/Canada to the US. They also get to skip out all the reciprocal tariffs that other countries are placing on the US in retaliation for the recently announces ones when they import out to, say, Europe.
Even option one is bad, because Apple might sell laptops internally, but the newly increased price makes them super uncompetitive with rival firms overseas, so it might still lead to a loss in overall jobs for US workers.
I'm not pretending this doesn't suck - but US based international companies like Apple have a clear incentive to just forgoe the US as much as possible now. This kind of risk is why countries have traditionally been very conservative with changing tariffs.
I think you're probably right that there might be an argument for countries to be less conservative than they have been, but the US government just cranked up the dial from 0 to 11 and we're all about to find out what that might look like in real time.
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If it's good enough for inventors, it's good enough for musicians, writters and software developers.
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So 100% on brand for Trump and America in general
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AI would make a lot of sense, considering that there are uninhabited islands on the list.
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Official EU website hosting American-made media for a nominal fee. Can't tariff data!
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Oh no. Anyway...
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Every time I think they're hiring rock bottom they bring out stronger drills.
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Heads up, UK, the US will use you as a toilet every chance you give it, and we've just dropped all pretense, however thin it may have previously been, about caring about our "allies". Speaking as a US citizen, I would strongly advise against considering yourself a close friend to the US until we get our shit sorted.
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You have to remember the people doing this are fucking idiots who have convinced themselves they're smarter than everyone else.
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I recently read an article that suggested the best retaliation would be to stop enforcing US intellectual property in the EU. One of the biggest exports they have is media, if we would stop enforcing their copyright it would cost them a lot of money.
Depression.
It's a depression.
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That’s a hilariously apt analogy. Drill baby drill! 🫠
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Depends. Do Mericuhns pay their taxes in Dollers?
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translated some analytics written for Russian audience.
from here: https://t.me/s/artjockeyAbout the Tariffs
Today marked the “great day for the USA” previously announced by Trump, as the U.S. has now imposed import tariffs against the entire world. I won't make predictions about how this will affect the global economy, how much the S&P has dropped, and so on. Instead, I want to draw attention to something that might not be immediately obvious.The newly introduced tariffs can be divided into three parts: economic, political, and protective.
At the core of these tariffs is a baseline 10% duty on all imports. I'm not sure why there’s so much noise around this—basically, Zoomers invented the reusable shopping bag, and Trump has invented VAT. The U.S. has never had a national-level VAT before, only state-level sales taxes. Now, there will be a federal VAT, but only on imports and only at 10%.
There are also clear protective tariffs, intended to give advantages to domestic manufacturers and to motivate foreign companies that want to sell in the U.S. to move production inside the country, so they can stay competitive against local producers. These are 25% tariffs on all imported cars and computers. It’s all fairly straightforward and not worth overanalyzing. Russia has all of this too: VAT, protection for domestic car makers (e.g., AvtoVAZ), and maybe in the future Trump will even “invent” vehicle recycling fees.
In short, Trump could have quietly pushed a 10% import VAT through Congress without much publicity, and you wouldn’t have even seen the news in any headlines. But in that case, he wouldn’t have been able to kick off a series of trade wars.
The most interesting part of the tariffs is their political nature. I think everyone understands that the 54% tariff on all imports from China (a combination of a previous 20% and today’s 34%) is by no means a reciprocal move—it’s a global trade war that could even precede a real war. This was expected; Trump launched a trade war with China during his first term, and the motivations are clear.
What’s far more intriguing are the tariffs against some of America’s allied countries, which, in my opinion, make up a rather unexpected list:
India: 26%
Japan: 24%
EU: 20%
Taiwan: 32%
South Korea: 25%
Israel: 17%
Philippines: 17% (a country hosting U.S. military bases aimed at China)
Meanwhile, countries that didn’t receive tariff increases and stayed at the base 10%, from a global perspective, include:
South American nations: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay — 10%. Panama also 10%.
Oil-rich Middle Eastern countries: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, plus Turkey.
AUKUS members: UK and Australia — even though Trump criticized Australia in a speech, no extra tariffs were added.
Africa: Though likely of little strategic interest to Trump for now.
From this differentiation of tariffs, you can infer how Trump views the U.S.’s global strategic direction—a vision that will likely be pursued further.
Notice the low tariffs for South America. Remember how Rubio, right after taking office, made a diplomatic tour across Latin America—something that hadn’t happened in a century? It seems Trump is aiming to “pull Latin America out of China’s hands” and form a U.S.–Latin American alliance in the Western Hemisphere.
At the same time, clear preferences are being given to those joining new U.S. military alliances, as alternatives to the increasingly hard-to-control NATO.
On the other hand, traditional U.S. allies are out of luck. The economies of the EU, Japan, and South Korea—countries that have money but are not considered crucial allies by Trump—are being treated as revenue sources.
This is especially evident in the EU’s case. According to the “Trump Doctrine”, the main rival to the U.S. is China, and the EU is useless in the fight against China. They won’t go to war over Taiwan, nor will they support a likely sanctions regime against the PRC. So, in Trump’s view, they should simply start paying America in hard currency now, with the long-term plan being further deindustrialization and relocating manufacturing to the U.S..
The tariffs will go into effect between April 5 and 9. Based on past experience, I wouldn’t be surprised if they never actually take effect—maybe they’ll be repealed, suspended, or something else. But if nothing changes and the 20% tariffs on the EU, Japan, and others remain in place long-term, then the so-called “golden age of universal prosperity” will likely become a thing of the past for those nations.
