The world reacts to Trump's sweeping tariffs: 'No basis in logic'
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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.
They should tariff Israel a lot more
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I am really afraid that this is what America is coming to. The problem is that we have a third of the country that supports the Mango Mussolini.
We'll have to see if that holds true after people watch their requirements get obliterated by a drastic drop in stock values across the board. Biden didn't do enough to show the people that the economy was doing well and recovering better than other countries under his watch. Trump won't be able to pin this downward economic trend on Biden cause it happened too fast and multiple sources have cited the import tax, or fear of them, at the reason for the stock market tanking.
It's owning the libs is so important that tRump voters will still vote for the ones actively hurting them, then those people are truly beyond help.
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Trump's government has made the US a village idiot - and if the idiot gets into a fight with the whole village, the idiot will have more bruises.
Why he does that - I don't pretend to understand.
He's trying to destroy the country. Amassing as many bruises as possible is the point.
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Well just to be fair - and i know people like shitting on Trump but hear me out - the complaints from workers against out-shoring labor to other countries has been very loud for many years.
Everytime the newspaper reports "Company X has moved its factory to China" you can be sure that lots of people are gonna complain about it. 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?
Who is going to invest many millions in setting up a business to make something when they have no idea what fuck-nugget will do next week that might fuck them over? Where are they going to source the raw materials when no one will want to trade those materials to a market that wants to fuck them over? How are Americans going to pay for these goods that will be more expensive than they are under the previous set up? This is abject stupidity.
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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.
Meh, I think it's fine and good for countries to specialize and be dependent on each other. Keeps the peace through mutually assured economic destruction. Global upticks in isolationism preceded the World Wars. Also, it just makes sense, because different countries have different resources, and their populations are differently skilled.
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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.
Can we stop winning already? I'm tired of winning so much.
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I've been saying this for years - why does anyone listen to him? He has no credibility - his whole life bio shows this clear as day.
Americans are trained from birth to value ignorance as the greatest virtue. Donald Trump represents everything that American culture venerates.
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I'm dumb but that just means that every product will be 30% more expensive for Americans, right? And the 30% is just... Going to the state or something? So it's just taxing your ppl?
Companies will raise prices to account for what they're losing on the tariffs.
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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."
By having the resources to create and distribute a product with polish.
Acting like you're smarter than the people you're talking to while missing the very obvious point that we're not starting from nothing. Being pedantic about me referring to piracy by what it's called now doesn't change how impractical it would be to have no ownership at all of ideas. Why would anyone pay for content at all?
Your "solution" means no one can make a living doing creative things. The current system has flaws that can be fixed. "No system at all" is worse for literally everyone involved, both creators and consumers of said content.
You should stop publicly felating yourself over how unshackled your mind is, since this idea is so incredibly stupid.
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Your mistake is thinking that Marvel is art.
Everything done with skill is art. From Citizen Kane to the design of a candy wrapper.
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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.
Why do so many people on the Internet default to a completely unnuanced worldview? Like there's more than two diametrically opposed options that can be taken.
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Yeah. That's how it works. If you don't get involved you effectively support the party that wins. Lol
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Yeah. That's how it works. If you don't get involved you effectively support the party that wins. Lol
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By that logic you don't think foreign currencies are real?
Sure they are, as long as foreign nationals pay their own taxes with them.
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By having the resources to create and distribute a product with polish.
Acting like you're smarter than the people you're talking to while missing the very obvious point that we're not starting from nothing. Being pedantic about me referring to piracy by what it's called now doesn't change how impractical it would be to have no ownership at all of ideas. Why would anyone pay for content at all?
Your "solution" means no one can make a living doing creative things. The current system has flaws that can be fixed. "No system at all" is worse for literally everyone involved, both creators and consumers of said content.
You should stop publicly felating yourself over how unshackled your mind is, since this idea is so incredibly stupid.
By having the resources to create and distribute a product with polish.
Yeah, I'm going to ignore you after this. You're too far behind and I can't be arsed to bring you up to speed.
For everyone else, this commenter clearly doesn't understand that without copyright and patent laws, hollywood won't be able to restrict access to their content behind artificial scarcity. Anyone will be allowed to share their movies freely, which will have a direct impact on their bottom line.
This is why corporations like copyright and patent laws. It's also another example of how useful idiots have been conditioned to work against their own interests and fight anyone who fights back.
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Trump's government has made the US a village idiot - and if the idiot gets into a fight with the whole village, the idiot will have more bruises.
Why he does that - I don't pretend to understand.
He's preparing for an authoritarian takeover.
Almost every dictator in history enacted massive tariffs so they had a way to control the economy. Loyal businesses are given tariff exemptions while all the other ones are suppressed. That's what Mussolini did, that's what Putin did and now it's what trump does.
I'll wonder if that "we need guns to defend ourselves against an oppressive government" statement was true.
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Everything done with skill is art. From Citizen Kane to the design of a candy wrapper.
Sure, but that wording becomes detrimental when you only expect high-quality things because that's what you associate with art, forgetting that there is also entertainment that doesn't need to be high quality necessarily.
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He's preparing for an authoritarian takeover.
Almost every dictator in history enacted massive tariffs so they had a way to control the economy. Loyal businesses are given tariff exemptions while all the other ones are suppressed. That's what Mussolini did, that's what Putin did and now it's what trump does.
I'll wonder if that "we need guns to defend ourselves against an oppressive government" statement was true.
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Trump's government has made the US a village idiot - and if the idiot gets into a fight with the whole village, the idiot will have more bruises.
Why he does that - I don't pretend to understand.
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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.
There is simple logic in it. Punish everyone, and then let them come to you asking for exemptions. Then he can demand things in exchange. After that it's "Pray I don't alter the deal any further."
UK already asked for an exemption and he said they should buy chlorinated chicken first. If every country responds in the same way he's making bank. If they respond with a boycott on anything American, especially digital services, things get bad.
In their sleep or getting their food 
️.