The world reacts to Trump's sweeping tariffs: 'No basis in logic'
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Lmao wat.
I’d ask if you’re serious, but I’m also sure you are.
Honestly, I was expecting this administration to be mind-numbingly stupid, but somehow they keep finding ways to surpass my expectations on that front on a daily basis. I’d be impressed if it wasn’t so catastrophic.
I saw someone here explain it well... That when you try to understand the depths of the idiocy, you get the same feeling you do when you try to comprehend the size of the universe
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Summary
Global leaders criticized Trump’s new tariffs, which range from 10% to 49%, warning of trade wars and economic fallout.
The UK and Italy urged negotiation, while Brazil passed a reciprocity bill. China and South Korea vowed countermeasures.
Australia and New Zealand rejected Trump’s logic, citing existing trade deals and low tariffs. Norfolk Island was baffled by a 29% duty despite having no exports.
Financial markets dropped, oil and bitcoin sank, and leaders warned of inflation. Analysts say Trump risks fracturing global trade with little to gain economically.
You know what's fun? Cancelling stuff and citing the reason as 'tariff-related inflation'. It's too new and there is no response script yet, so customer service doesn't really argue.
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Nope, not for every country. Russia is missing from the tariffs
Overview In January 2025, United States exported $34.9M and imported $196M from Russia, resulting in a negative trade balance of $161M.
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I think Trump doesn’t want to trade at all. He wants us to produce everything we need.
I'm actually pretty down with that that. We should be able and ready to produce whatever we need in case another country does what trump is doing or something happens that would prevent trade. If China attacks Taiwan, we should be able to produce our own chips. We should be able to function with as little dependence on other countries as possible.
In no way do tariffs fix that. You invest in yourself, slapping your friends because they're better than you at something is really fucking stupid.
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The entities with the established distribution networks will make the money, not the little guy who makes their own little story.
If I write a little seld published novel, under your system, Hollywood can just take that story and make a movie of it without my permission. How is that better? You think more people pirating will take down these mega corps? Your system is chaos that's even worse than the current model.
They can do so currently by making a couple of minor changes and settling for a pittance because your lawsuit would bankrupt you.
"Chaos" is a better system than one benefitting corporations only.
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But tariffs are the only thing that actually forces companies to put the factories back to the USA. Or do you have a better idea?
I mean no... And, how about accepting that the US is no longer a manufacturer, and that's just fine in a global economy
tell that to the workers
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tell that to the workers
I mean we did like 40 years ago...
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the "logic" is pretty much as you described it. Only, after charging yourself with the extra tax on Walmart purchases, you obviously can't afford Walmart any longer, so you learn to make your own soap with ash and the fats of animals that you have started breeding in your own flat.
Or your neighbour does all the work instead of you, so you decide to buy soap from them. They're next door, while Walmart is across the county line, so you decide you won't charge yourself the extra self-tax with your neighbour.
Walmart"s soap, which used to be $2, is now $3, while your neighbour's soap is $2.50.
A week later your neighbour sees that demand for their soap is huge because everyone is self-taxing. So they raise their price to $2.95 to make extra profit.
In case you think this is just a contrived fiction, this is exactly what happened to many goods, like solar panels, with Trump's first-term tarrifs. Americans paid over double the average world price for solar panels.
Worse still, Trump knows this happened, yet somehow this time will be completely different. <sigh>
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Summary
Global leaders criticized Trump’s new tariffs, which range from 10% to 49%, warning of trade wars and economic fallout.
The UK and Italy urged negotiation, while Brazil passed a reciprocity bill. China and South Korea vowed countermeasures.
Australia and New Zealand rejected Trump’s logic, citing existing trade deals and low tariffs. Norfolk Island was baffled by a 29% duty despite having no exports.
Financial markets dropped, oil and bitcoin sank, and leaders warned of inflation. Analysts say Trump risks fracturing global trade with little to gain economically.
The point is to make China the new boot on the throat of the human race instead of the US
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I mean we did like 40 years ago...
40 years ago knowledge workers were in high demand, and IT was booming. Now, IT is enshittifying, so what do the workers do next? Where do they go?
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Maybe calculated tariffs on commodities where companies are contemplating outsourcing, but that's a step you take in advance in order to dissuade their action. This is like making the whole school sit with their heads down through recess because one specific kid was unruly.
because one specific kid was unruly
Edit: There wasn’t even an unruly kid.
Well, outsourcing labor was a mass phenomenon in the last 50 years.
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You need to have a plan in place before doing this to even think about bringing manufacturing back here. And tariffs need to be like the last part of the plan
I agree that a plan is needed. Still, what would be the other parts of the plan? Tariffs are the only really impactful measure, it seems to me. Tariffs on import and subsidies on export.
Also, maybe Trump is so "on-off" with the tariffs to give companies a warning to bring back manufacturing to the US, and them lifting them again to not cause a recession, giving them a few years to set up the infrastructure, and then re-install the tariffs. One needs to look for the "good outcome", sothat one steers in that way.
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Because that means you supported Trump, regardless of what you say, your actions helped put him in power.
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Summary
Global leaders criticized Trump’s new tariffs, which range from 10% to 49%, warning of trade wars and economic fallout.
The UK and Italy urged negotiation, while Brazil passed a reciprocity bill. China and South Korea vowed countermeasures.
Australia and New Zealand rejected Trump’s logic, citing existing trade deals and low tariffs. Norfolk Island was baffled by a 29% duty despite having no exports.
Financial markets dropped, oil and bitcoin sank, and leaders warned of inflation. Analysts say Trump risks fracturing global trade with little to gain economically.
Dead horse economics:
Wake up you lazy horse!
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The entities with the established distribution networks will make the money, not the little guy who makes their own little story.
If I write a little seld published novel, under your system, Hollywood can just take that story and make a movie of it without my permission. How is that better? You think more people pirating will take down these mega corps? Your system is chaos that's even worse than the current model.
Your dilemma essentially translates to "wahh, he stole my idea!"
You're also missing the forest for the trees, again. How is hollywood going to make an egregious amount of money off of 'your' idea without copyright and patent laws? Without them, piracy isn't piracy. It's just a normal and legal way of sharing media.
Sad watching how hard you people go to bat for your oppressors, but it really puts into perspective why things are the way they are.
The average person just can't see past their conditioning or how hard they've been indoctrinated to support a system that works against them. In the words of Mark Twain, "it's easier to fool a man than to convince him he'd been fooled."
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Our options on the left are to unite yesterday or die.
There isn't really another option anymore. People are dying, now, because we can't rally.
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The point is to make China the new boot on the throat of the human race instead of the US
I hate the fact that you are correct.
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Summary
Global leaders criticized Trump’s new tariffs, which range from 10% to 49%, warning of trade wars and economic fallout.
The UK and Italy urged negotiation, while Brazil passed a reciprocity bill. China and South Korea vowed countermeasures.
Australia and New Zealand rejected Trump’s logic, citing existing trade deals and low tariffs. Norfolk Island was baffled by a 29% duty despite having no exports.
Financial markets dropped, oil and bitcoin sank, and leaders warned of inflation. Analysts say Trump risks fracturing global trade with little to gain economically.
what an absolute bafoon. so devoid of thoughts
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The point is to make China the new boot on the throat of the human race instead of the US
no. the US is still the boot
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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.
