Live data from Hacker News

White House announces 25 percent tariff on Chinese tech goods

theverge.com

271–280 of 390 posts

Re: White House announces 25 percent tariff on Chinese tech goods

#271

If we assume that this sort of thing is of short-term detriment and long-term benefit, isn't now the best possible time for it? Admitted unemployment is lower than it has been in a long time and admitted inflation is still quite low. Complaining about protectionism now and calling for it when the economy is in the crapper would be reminiscent of the Arkansas Traveler ... Of course we don't have to make those two assu…

Bollox.

Re: White House announces 25 percent tariff on Chinese tech goods

#272
post #33
post #21

So, to encourage manufacturers in the US to build more stuff in the US, they will increase tariffs on components so that it will cost even more to build something in the US than to build it in China. Good plan, hello Canada!

I am in the middle of starting a business around a product that will get slammed by this. I was going to import the components and have the boards built here.("Made in the USA" labels are huge for my target market.) Assuming I am parsing all of this correctly it will end up being better for me to have the PCBs assembled into the products in China and not create jobs in the USA.

Are we to infer that BOM is the big cost for you, even though you're doing all the manufacture in USA? That seems unlikely to me, based on what I've heard about electronics manufacturing.

Re: White House announces 25 percent tariff on Chinese tech goods

#273

> It includes a broad range of components used in electronics manufacturing, specifically naming touchscreens, batteries, and electric motors. General components like transistors are also named on the list as well as more specific components used in televisions, cameras, and radio receivers. [..] Notably, the list does not include cellphones or completed televisions. So, this will, er, serve to discourage companies f…

Any coincidence that Foxconn is building a large display factory in Wisconsin?

The $4 billion in incentives and waiving of environmental reviews had absolutely nothing to do with it: http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/28/news/companies/foxconn-wisco...

Re: White House announces 25 percent tariff on Chinese tech goods

#274
post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just wondering, but what does a "firm but gentle push" look like that brings "back" local jobs? "Bringing back local jobs" is the entirely wrong way to solve the issues facing those that are losing jobs in declining domestic industries. It's just the easiest for a (probably) blue-collar worker to engage with and the easiest for a politician to sell, even if it's pure fantasy.

> "Bringing back local jobs" is the entirely wrong way if so, what is the right way?

Workers need new jobs, most likely in new industries. That's how it's always worked.

But a coal miner learning a new skill/new skills is a lot harder for him than just getting his old coal mining job back... Unfortunately one of those (well maybe both of them) isn't going to happen.

This is just as true for steel manufacturing.

Re: White House announces 25 percent tariff on Chinese tech goods

#275
post #148
post #53

Here is the list https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/enforcement/301Investig... Tractors, fork lifts, agricultural equipment Lathes Milling Machines LED's Lithium batteries Touch screen Not a lot of electrical "tech" goods besides these three above, maybe PCB and GPS equipment. About the tractors, milling machines, and lathe. I like this, because the new products that are available ... are chinese crap. But they are…

Did you not read the list, or are you unfamiliar with electronic components? Every single component commonly found in consumer electronics is covered in that document. That includes the individual components (passives, actives, everything), the circuit boards, the wires, the power supplies, the connectors, displays, switches, fuses, sensors... everything.

that stuff is not on the list. I re-read it three times. Can you point out the cut and paste? PCB, cases, and LED for displays and touch screens,yes I did see. I guess next time you go to harbor frieght for a $900,000 industrial PCB it'll be 25% more. Better use the 20% off coupon

Re: White House announces 25 percent tariff on Chinese tech goods

#276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember, that's the approval rating of Congress as a whole, including members who are of the opposite party. Individual Congresspersons enjoy a much higher and more reasonable approval rating, especially among their constituents.

Well, yeah. Bernie Sanders has a very high rating but even at 70 percent his high rating hardly budges the rest of Congress. The problem is they just don't work together. I wouldn't be heart broken if we decided to just break into smaller City states that came up with laws on their own so there were more options. Progressive states could have legalized weed and universal health. Red States could have no public safety…

"Bernie Sanders has a very high rating but even at 70 percent his high rating hardly budges the rest of Congress."

They don't average the approval rating of each individual Congressperson. They literally ask, "Do you approve of the job Congress is doing as a whole, yes or no?" (at least that's what they did when I was asked to take one of those opinion polls).

"I wouldn't be heart broken if we decided to just break into smaller City states that came up with laws on their own so there were more options. "

I mean, we kinda have that with States. The issue is, there are many things that transcend geographical borders. While moving between states isn't as onerous as moving countries, it isn't the easiest thing in the world to do, especially if you don't have a job lined up or money.

Re: White House announces 25 percent tariff on Chinese tech goods

#277
post #28

I guess my earlier comment was too long, so let me provide a shorter version: this action actively harms anyone attempting to design, prototype, and manufacture electronic devices in the US. There isn't a single component in the projects I'm currently working on which isn't impacted by this. My cost of goods just went up by 25% across the board today in an effort to help "protect" American businesses. I don't feel li…

Your comment proves too much. It would equally apply in the scenario where the foreign country is dumping goods to destroy local competition (i.e. the "Walmart destroys local stores" story writ large). And yet, in that scenario most people would be in favor of tariffs. More generally, as I understand it, the reason economic orthodoxy is against tariffs is because of "comparative advantage", and the idea that differen…

The US has higher wages than third world countries for most workers and more than China. So for things that take more human labor, we are disadvantaged if we make them. Those things may be cheaper to but and import. Things with more IP behind them or requiring less labor are more likely to be efficiently produced in the US. So importing those goods that can be much more cheaply in say china or mexico saves everyone in the us from buying a higher made local object.

Tariffs might help a very few people, those working in a factory that makes these 'higher human overhead' objects. But everyone else will (1) first pay more for the object that's probably still not made in the us but not imported at higher cost. Things built by using that now higher priced widget will cost 25% more because of the tariff. so they have to lose most/all profit and/or increase their price, kicking it up the food chain.

So it's a net negative to have tariffs on things that can be made by basic hourly workers. There must be some people helped, like say a steel producer who makes things that was competing with China. But like coal workers, there aren't that many. Remember there are more Arby's workers than coal miners.

Re: White House announces 25 percent tariff on Chinese tech goods

#279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is actually quite self-explanatory: if an action that is intended to protect one party (US electronics manufacturers) at the expense of another party ends up instead harming the former, then by definition said action is good for no one.

It’s actually good for every country not affected by it.

Name even one country not adversely affected by increased tariffs? I’m genuinely curious who comes out ahead on this.

Re: White House announces 25 percent tariff on Chinese tech goods

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, more likely the companies making them will just move production elsewhere or go out of business. Components are big part of the cost of your average consumer device, and margins mostly aren't high.

It depends a lot on exactly what kind of production facilities we’re talking about moving. Simple plastic injection mold shops? Sure, maybe. Multi-billion dollar chip fab plants? Not so much.

Right. It is extraordinarily difficult to just pack up a high-tech factory and move it to another country. Actually moving the plant and machines is the easiest part, the hard part is the people. Training people to be experts at high tech jobs takes a lot of time, and even then you're losing the decades of experience and the high concentration of likewise experienced and well-trained suppliers nearby.

Of course we could just move the people here too, but our current immigration policy doesn't seem too fond of that approach either.

Post reply on HN