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Trump orders U.S. firms out of China after Beijing sets new tariffs

reuters.com

31–40 of 115 posts

Re: Trump orders U.S. firms out of China after Beijing sets new tariffs

#31
post #3

It's hard to just pick up and switch when you are so entrenched. That said, I would love if more US companies built stuff here in the US. Yeah, prices might be a little higher, but at least we aren't exploiting the labor of vulnerable people in foreign countries anymore.

The people have voluntarily agreed to work for the companies. How does it help them if the option is removed?

Re: Trump orders U.S. firms out of China after Beijing sets new tariffs

#32
It won't matter if US implement 100% tariff on China, what's going to happen next is that they're still going to create 800 parts in China, which gets shipped to Vietnam and assembled there and exported as a product of Vietnam. Vietnam (or whatever other country) would benefit at the cost of China/United States and more carbon emission due to shipping.

The enormous electronic manufacturing in China isn't moving anywhere, there's just nowhere that has the scale, infrastructure,and the know how to produce cheap electronic products. If you think this is still all just people on the assembly line, you've got a very historical understanding of this process.

Re: Trump orders U.S. firms out of China after Beijing sets new tariffs

#33
post #12

Recently, I was in Germany (I live in Baltimore, MD) and was pleasantly surprised that a lot of goods are made in Germany. It is hard to find anything in our stores that isn't made in China.

Germany’s mittelstand is remarkable. Sweden’s domestic manufacturing industry is also impressive.

Edit for spelling.

Re: Trump orders U.S. firms out of China after Beijing sets new tariffs

#34

> “Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA.” What a weird tone. Is that a thing in the US? Can the president (legally) order companies "home"? Doesn't sound like "land of the free" to me.

"immediately start looking" does not equal "ordering companies home."

Re: Trump orders U.S. firms out of China after Beijing sets new tariffs

#35

> “Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA.” What a weird tone. Is that a thing in the US? Can the president (legally) order companies "home"? Doesn't sound like "land of the free" to me.

The other weird thing politicians do is add the word "great" to everything - great state, great company, great nation, great this, great that... to the point that the effectiveness of the word is lost.

Re: Trump orders U.S. firms out of China after Beijing sets new tariffs

#36

> “Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA.” What a weird tone. Is that a thing in the US? Can the president (legally) order companies "home"? Doesn't sound like "land of the free" to me.

No, it's not a thing. Generally speaking, the president can't do much here besides ask companies to do this. There might be some ways he could force companies to no longer do business with China, like declare sanctions against China, but they would be on shaky legal grounds. And by shaky legal grounds, I mean guaranteed to be challenged in court and go all the way to the Supreme Court.

[deleted]

Re: Trump orders U.S. firms out of China after Beijing sets new tariffs

#37

> “Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA.” What a weird tone. Is that a thing in the US? Can the president (legally) order companies "home"? Doesn't sound like "land of the free" to me.

If it was feasible for companies to manufacture in the US they would. Effectively blocking China without a concomitant investment in US manufacturing is a lose/lose situation.

Re: Trump orders U.S. firms out of China after Beijing sets new tariffs

#38

> “Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA.” What a weird tone. Is that a thing in the US? Can the president (legally) order companies "home"? Doesn't sound like "land of the free" to me.

Absolutely not. It's not remotely a thing, and would not withstand any scrutiny whatsoever.

Except that it is happening right now, and I don't see politicians doing anything substantial to stop it.

Re: Trump orders U.S. firms out of China after Beijing sets new tariffs

#39
post #3

It's hard to just pick up and switch when you are so entrenched. That said, I would love if more US companies built stuff here in the US. Yeah, prices might be a little higher, but at least we aren't exploiting the labor of vulnerable people in foreign countries anymore.

>but at least we aren't exploiting the labor of vulnerable people in foreign countries anymore

Well, they will be jobless now.

Re: Trump orders U.S. firms out of China after Beijing sets new tariffs

#40
post #3

It's hard to just pick up and switch when you are so entrenched. That said, I would love if more US companies built stuff here in the US. Yeah, prices might be a little higher, but at least we aren't exploiting the labor of vulnerable people in foreign countries anymore.

That's an extremely narrow version of global economics. There are tons of benefits to local markets being serviced by local producers, and there are also benefits to being serviced by foreign producers. Also, if you take those jobs away from foreign markets without replacing them (or fixing the labor conditions) how exactly can you see a generation starving and jobless as a net good?

Isolationism doesn't work without completely changing the paradigm, and what you're proposing is basically just saying "Good luck on your own" as if without American corporations these people would immediately shift to some sort of worker's paradise.

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