Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

U.S. Readies $11B in Tariffs on E.U

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 98 posts

Re: U.S. Readies $11B in Tariffs on E.U

#21

Post by stale2002 »

oneplane wrote: post #5
marcrosoft wrote: post #4

Good! In the past few years the E.U has passed absolutely ridiculous laws and taxed U.S. based companies through these ridiculous laws because they want a slice of the pie too. Edit: They are getting tax through fines by said ridiculous laws not by direct tax.

Such as? As far as I know the EU has had a rather positive position regarding the US for the last decades, and still does, even after the most recent election. According to this page: https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/europe-middle-east/europe... it's rather balanced. Whoever upsets that balance might need to reconsider, but the US would definitely have a problem if less stuff comes in from the EU. For the EU, howev…

Well, one recent example is that of article 13, which is a massive expansion of copyright law.

Yeah, no thanks. I do not at all what expansive intellectual property laws to be spreading all over the world, and hurting creators like that.

Creators benefit way more when it is easy to share and use and modify other people's content.

Re: U.S. Readies $11B in Tariffs on E.U

#22

Post by dmix »

olliej wrote: post #10
Thorncorona wrote: post #3

The irony of Boeing complaining about favorable treatment by the government is palpable.

Other countries are going to start ignoring FAA safety rulings now, so meaning that in exchange for a short term monetary gain a bunch of politicians and executives will probably cause significant long term costs - although the people who made those decisions and took those bribes won't have to pay for those consequences, they've already got there's :-/

This is some weak logic. So a super-high capital business like an Airline is going to flaunt aircraft safety rules, potentially risking hundreds of lives of their customers and employees... to what exactly? Buy some cheaper uncertified Chinese(?) aircrafts or fly other certified aircrafts unsafely...to make a little extra money? And then run away when the lawsuits and families of the dead come chasing you?

Re: U.S. Readies $11B in Tariffs on E.U

#23

Post by citilife »

In 2016 the US imported $416B and exported $270B to the EU. Although $11B is a large number, it's a 2.6% tax on the total. More interestingly, is what they are taxing.

Personally, I'd rather have tariffs than income tax. At least then I can choose what to buy.

Re: U.S. Readies $11B in Tariffs on E.U

#24

Post by Maarten88 »

marcrosoft wrote: post #4

Good! In the past few years the E.U has passed absolutely ridiculous laws and taxed U.S. based companies through these ridiculous laws because they want a slice of the pie too. Edit: They are getting tax through fines by said ridiculous laws not by direct tax.

What ridiculous laws do you mean? GDPR? Or monopoly abuse fines? Do you think US businesses should be able to run under US law in the EU, meaning they can do whatever they want to consumers, monopolizing markets by violating local laws, taking in huge profits, and then hardly paying corporate taxes (neither in EU nor US)?

None of that has anything to do with these tariffs, btw.

Re: U.S. Readies $11B in Tariffs on E.U

#25

Post by munk-a »

gumby wrote: post #19
munk-a wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, the current administration was elected on a platform of "America First" so, what did you think would happen? I think the US has been self-centered for quite some time, and there was a hilarious thread in a different article that went into the idea that America is the world-policeman that everyone wants but... yea, for equal treatment and to avoid regulatory capture - one needs to avoid that dying empire.

The so-called "America first" policy works against the interests of the United States though. Or is it "destroy America first, screw up the rest later?"

Protectionism (in this form) has never been a good policy, but it's always quite appealing to the protected companies - and when companies have the ability to sway elections (money in politics) then you can reasonably expect quite a lot of it to be going on.

Re: U.S. Readies $11B in Tariffs on E.U

#26

Post by sonnyblarney »

ulfw wrote: post #9

(deleted)

Nations are economic competitors, it's really naive to put this in terms of 'selfish / confrontational'.

All nations are 'selfish' in direct trade terms.

In terms of Geopolitics, there's an enormous degree of material goodwill added by the US following the WW2 and the creation of the NWO and not all of it is 'repaid' to them. The entire framework of global trade relies on the US, even today. Most of the free world still depends on the US for defence, at least partially and in some very 'lynchpin' ways.

The US's negotiations with China are reasonable.

The negotiating positions on refiguring NAFTA were mostly reasonable, although I don't think it will make a difference.

And FYI it's the EU that's constantly skittish, changing their minds, and arbitrarily taxing and back-taxing US companies often for their own, self directed problems (i.e. Irish/Dutch/Luxembourg taxation).

Even though Donald Trump is a huge political jerk, making noise for the sake of making noise, there's little on the table that is entirely unjust. The 'bad noise' is mostly rhetoric.

Re: U.S. Readies $11B in Tariffs on E.U

#27

Post by dmix »

gumby wrote: post #12

More subsidies to that callous killer Boeing, from a government of the megacorps, by the people, for the megacorps.

That's what almost always the outcome of gov economic policies. Help a few large companies who are friends with the gov, whether it's giant food producers producing corn no one wanted in the first place, pharma companies competing against generics, banks making a killing on low-end mortgages, etc, while increasing costs and other burdens on regular citizens (or pushing unneeded externalities on to other countries).

We're experiencing that in Canada too with the dairy cartel getting cross-party support from both liberal and (mainstream) conservative parties because it helps a few local farmers stay moderately-wealthy while 100% of the population has to pay more for dairy products.

Re: U.S. Readies $11B in Tariffs on E.U

#28

Post by sonnyblarney »

munk-a wrote: post #13
ulfw wrote: post #9

(deleted)

I mean, the current administration was elected on a platform of "America First" so, what did you think would happen? I think the US has been self-centered for quite some time, and there was a hilarious thread in a different article that went into the idea that America is the world-policeman that everyone wants but... yea, for equal treatment and to avoid regulatory capture - one needs to avoid that dying empire.

"America First" ... "US has been self-centered for quite some time"

Anyone who suggests that France is not 'France first' or that Switzerland is not 'Switzerland first' etc. etc. has not been paying attention.

Re: U.S. Readies $11B in Tariffs on E.U

#29

Post by oneplane »

stale2002 wrote: post #21
oneplane wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such as? As far as I know the EU has had a rather positive position regarding the US for the last decades, and still does, even after the most recent election. According to this page: https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/europe-middle-east/europe... it's rather balanced. Whoever upsets that balance might need to reconsider, but the US would definitely have a problem if less stuff comes in from the EU. For the EU, howev…

Well, one recent example is that of article 13, which is a massive expansion of copyright law. Yeah, no thanks. I do not at all what expansive intellectual property laws to be spreading all over the world, and hurting creators like that. Creators benefit way more when it is easy to share and use and modify other people's content.

I don't think that has anything even remotely to do with tariffs or trade.

But if it did: those lows are for the EU, not the rest of the world. Same goes for GDPR. Nobody is required to trade with the EU, or sell to the EU or buy from the EU. But if you do, the rules of the agreements that are made apply. This is nothing new, and works the same way for trade or interaction with pretty much any country. Imagine trying to sell stuff to China with Taiwanese flags...

Re: U.S. Readies $11B in Tariffs on E.U

#30

Post by h3throw »

It seems most posters didn't really read the article as the tariffs appear to be in compliance with a WTO ruling on something illegal the EU is doing wrt subsidies to Airbus. Unsurprising that the NYT and HN goes with the lead that Trump is unilaterally fucking up world order yet again but in this case it doesn't seem so deserved.

I really wish both groups (the NYT and HN) would be more nuanced when it comes to Trump. Otherwise, we all end up justifying Trump's and other Alt-Righties' claims of bias.

Post reply on HN