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Single malt Scotch whisky targeted by United States tariffs

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Re: Single malt Scotch whisky targeted by United States tariffs

#61

The EU subsidized Airbus, which hurt the American company, Boeing. Therefore, all Americans have to pay 25% more for european wines, cheeses, and whiskey. How does this make any sense?

Easy to explain, someone even made a movie about Trump's special beef with Scotland. http://www.youvebeentrumped.com/youvebeentrumped.com/ABOUT_T...

It involves a Trump golf course project.

Re: Single malt Scotch whisky targeted by United States tariffs

#62
Plus Spanish wines, olive oil, cheese and iberian ham exports valued 1270 million Euro.

I assume that Canada and Russia will keep gladly buying this products as before, and that new channels will open with China and other Asian countries. Is not impossible also that the raise in prices for US citizens would be made permanent after trump interlude by the increase of demand. Is uncertain what will happen.

Interesting times to be alive ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Single malt Scotch whisky targeted by United States tariffs

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a pretty simple theory -- if Americans have to pay 25% more for certain European goods, then they will be incentivized to purchase those goods elsewhere, therefore hurting Europe. Of course, this assumes the goods are fungible; this could backfire if no suitable substitute exists for those goods.

Single Malt Whisky starts out at a high price point. I do not think that anyone that normally would spend $ on this is going to care. Not quite the correct item to tax. Find something that is not a luxury with an equivalent US product.

> Single Malt Whisky starts out at a high price point. I do not think that anyone that normally would spend $ on this is going to care.

Many high quality single malts are $40-50. Expensive for a daily drink, but within reach as an indulgence. The new tariffs will raise the price of the bottle by $10. That's not terribly significant on it's own, but knowing that buying a bottle contributes $10 on a needless trade war to feed a maniac's ego is pretty irritating.

Re: Single malt Scotch whisky targeted by United States tariffs

#64

I think this could be a good moment for us to pause our consumption a bit, and think about buying only what we really need. Not just because of the tariffs but as a signal that we as consumers can pull back when necessary.

For a country that spends so much time worrying about government interference in the lives of private citizens the reaction to the government introducing a slew of new taxes on the import and purchases of private citizens has been illuminating.

Re: Single malt Scotch whisky targeted by United States tariffs

#65
post #62

Plus Spanish wines, olive oil, cheese and iberian ham exports valued 1270 million Euro. I assume that Canada and Russia will keep gladly buying this products as before, and that new channels will open with China and other Asian countries. Is not impossible also that the raise in prices for US citizens would be made permanent after trump interlude by the increase of demand. Is uncertain what will happen. Interesting t…

Canada buying and then selling them to the USA more expensive than direct but cheaper than with the penalty.

Re: Single malt Scotch whisky targeted by United States tariffs

#66
post #62

Plus Spanish wines, olive oil, cheese and iberian ham exports valued 1270 million Euro. I assume that Canada and Russia will keep gladly buying this products as before, and that new channels will open with China and other Asian countries. Is not impossible also that the raise in prices for US citizens would be made permanent after trump interlude by the increase of demand. Is uncertain what will happen. Interesting t…

Canada buying and then selling them to the USA more expensive than direct but cheaper than with the penalty.

Is a probable outcome, yup. Or US citizens smuggling products across the frontier, The Simpson's style.

Taking in mind that those are among some of the most faked products in the world I would not surprise if a black market emerges to overcome regulation and somebody became pretty rich selling counterfeits.

Maybe US now will need a wall also in the North, who knows?. Other probably scenery is that a lot of US citizens start self-restricting themselves to consume only US products that is a perfectly respectable option also (but would increase pressure against US nature).

Re: Single malt Scotch whisky targeted by United States tariffs

#67
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can actually get many kinds of cheese which is similar to parmigiano in Europe. Grana Padano is a much less expensive protected hard cheese, and many producers have similar non-protected cheese (Biraghi is a very large producer, for example). There's usually plenty of mixed pre-grated cheese bags too. The point is: it's not called parmigiano or parmesan, as that would be cheating the consumer.

> as that would be cheating the consumer. That's the excuse, it's more about pleasing the local producers, as Denomination of origin laws generally are. As a consumer, I care much much more about taste and price for the same type of product. That is, if it tastes the same or better, and is cheaper.... I don't care if it was produced 100 meters from my house outside of Europe, or in the basement of a 1300-year old chu…

[deleted]

Re: Single malt Scotch whisky targeted by United States tariffs

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any sources listing total tariffs on each side? I tried searching, but couldn’t find anything.

> The EU imposes a 10 percent tariff on passenger cars, compared with the 2.5 percent U.S. duty on European autos. A study by the CESifo Institute in Germany found unweighted average EU tariffs of 5.2 percent, compared with the U.S. rate of 3.5 percent. “The EU is by no means the paradise for free traders that it likes to think,” Gabriel Felbermayr, director of the think tank’s Center for International Economics, tol…

Thanks for the link. But isn’t it sort of meaningless to talk about unweighted percentages? If either side applies an extremely high tariff for a product that is rarely traded, then it would have a large effect on the unweighted average, but no real effect on trade (though I suppose you could argue that it can affect single sectors in a devastating matter).

The best numbers I could find are more comparable, namely total US tariffs of 7.1 billion USD on imports worth 684 billion which approximately equals 1% vs EU tariffs of 5.7 billion USD on imports worth 575 which is also roughly equal to 1% [1,2]. To me that seems pretty fair.

However I think the biggest issue (as an EU citizen) is the US insistence on not adhering to EU regulatory regimes, which is what I think made a lot of people oppose the TTIP. Also note that this has not been an issue when negotiating a EU-Japan trade deal.

[1] https://www.handelsblatt.com/today/politics/unfree-trade-tru... [2] https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/europe-middle-east/europe...

Re: Single malt Scotch whisky targeted by United States tariffs

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Truly, most of us will just switch from scotch to bourbon until this is cleared up (which is the purpose). I'm gonna pass on that, bourbon is too sweet and tastes gross to me. I suspect if you like Scotch then Bourbon is probably a bad fit.

There is plenty of nice American non-bourbon whiskey. Japanese whiskey is also excellent. At the same time, if you like the burning hospital taste, there’s no substitute for Islay Scotch.

You’re probably better off going the Japanese route IMO.

Re: Single malt Scotch whisky targeted by United States tariffs

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Single Malt Whisky starts out at a high price point. I do not think that anyone that normally would spend $ on this is going to care. Not quite the correct item to tax. Find something that is not a luxury with an equivalent US product.

> Single Malt Whisky starts out at a high price point. I do not think that anyone that normally would spend $ on this is going to care. Many high quality single malts are $40-50. Expensive for a daily drink, but within reach as an indulgence. The new tariffs will raise the price of the bottle by $10. That's not terribly significant on it's own, but knowing that buying a bottle contributes $10 on a needless trade war…

WTO authorized the tariffs. This started way before trump. Read the article before blaming trump as sole cause
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