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What if tariffs?

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Re: What if tariffs?

#141

Post by magicalhippo »

lijok wrote: post #121
intermerda wrote: post #9

The number 39 refers to the 39% tariff rate on Switzerland. Kind of insane that the American President just made up a lie that tariffs are paid by foreign countries and rest of the administration just went along with it. It flies in the face of any common sense.

I don't know how this tariff stuff works, so for my own understanding, how come countries retaliate to US tariffs by imposing retaliatory tariffs? Are they punishing their own nationals?

> Are they punishing their own nationals?

In the same way that Trump is punishing Americans with the import tariffs, yes. However that is just the primary effect, not the goal.

If you eat less you might go hungry, but that doesn't mean the goal was to go hungry. Rather it was to lose weight, and going hungry is just the direct effect.

Part of the goal of retaliatory tariffs is symbolic, part is to indirectly put pressure on Trump by affecting US export industry.

Re: What if tariffs?

#142

Post by sojournerc »

trollbridge wrote: post #137
sojournerc wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure it's all that new. During the Bush Jr. years America was not highly thought of. I'm an American traveling through Scandinavia and Northern continental Europe for the last three weeks, now in the UK. I haven't experienced a bit of grief. Their opinion of our politics is generally separate from how they treat me personally, and I do the same for people of other nationalities. American cultural dominance is…

If anything, it would be nice if a few places were left that didn't have American cultural artifacts everywhere. My experience in the Middle East was often wondering if I were actually in either an American colony or else some place that had dedicated itself to being a kind of museum of American culture, movies, models, advertising, and so forth.

100%. I'm excited to find somewhere not playing disco and skater boy, and instead supporting their local music.

Hell, here in the UK I'm happy to hear Sheeran even though he's not really my style typically.

I don't mention that because I like American cultural dominance, merely because it is so ubiquitous.

I was in the middle of South Africa in the oughts and there were bootleg Britney Spears albums... Kind of shocking and I honestly don't exactly understand the appeal of American pop, but it's widespread...

Re: What if tariffs?

#143

Post by RestartKernel »

hshdhdhj4444 wrote: post #99

It’s actually quite shocking to leave the U.S. and experience the drastic fall in respect. The U.S. has over a century’s worth of dominance and control built in, so it’s not gonna unravel anytime soon and countries will need to grovel along for a bit. But the decoupling has begun, is almost certainly irreversible and is gonna hit Americans hard at most a decade from now. We have no idea the the chain of motion that h…

From my Western European perspective: what's specifically striking is how sentiment towards China has improved in turn. Not sure what caused it exactly, but my guess is 1) the U.S. as common rival, and 2) the amalgamation of fears of Chinese manufacturing with newfound fears of U.S. big tech into European nationalism to replace some vague sense of "Western" alliance. The latter may be turning China from the big geopolitical rival to be wary of to just another outside force.

Re: What if tariffs?

#144

Post by 1oooqooq »

Ekaros wrote: post #114
croisillon wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's thanks to the lying that he was elected in the first place, and no one around him dares to contradict him, what would be the incentives to stop?

I wish there was simple three strike policy on any elected official. Three proven lies and they are remove from office for life. And these can be anything. And not knowing at time does not change it. Only silence or absolute truth should be accepted.

lol. just last week he posted that the Canadian ad showing the audio recording of nixon against tariffs was fake.

Re: What if tariffs?

#145

Post by kryptiskt »

carlosjobim wrote: post #125
d1sxeyes wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let’s say I’m a widget seller in the US, and my widgets cost $100 to import from Switzerland before tariffs. I retail them at $150 USD in the US, but I sell internationally. In the UK for example, I retail them at £113 (simple conversion, obviously it doesn’t really work like this). Now tariffs are imposed, my import cost per widget is $139. Not only do I have to jack up my US price to $189, I have to jack up my UK p…

[flagged]

They don't sell for the highest possible price, because sales would suffer, they try to sell for the price point that brings them most profit. Adding tariffs will change the point of maximum profit upwards, drastically so for low margin goods.

Re: What if tariffs?

#146

Post by lreeves »

lijok wrote: post #136
lreeves wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a sense you can think of it that way, as a Canadian we counter-tariff the US and that can be considered punishing us; however the US is only one country and it encouraged more free trade with every other one of our trading partners so in a game theory sense it's affecting Canadian trade negatively with one country and affecting US trade negatively with you know.. every country.

I see, so like saying "we'll make it less appetizing for our nationals to do business with you, so they'll go shopping elsewhere"?

Exactly right. There are trade deals forming between countries that in unprecedented ways to avoid dealing with the constantly changing tariffs while one country says they'll take their ball and play alone.

Re: What if tariffs?

#147

Post by tonetheman »

Borealid wrote: post #59
exe34 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The exporter gets paid the same as before. The buyer pays more. There's a subtle difference, can you spot it?

Let's imagine, hypothetically speaking, that demand is perfectly inelastic. The price of a good is $10, and buyers will absolutely refuse to pay more than $10 under any circumstances. Before a tariff is imposed, the seller sells the good for $10 and keeps $10 in revenue. If a tariff of $1 is imposed under these hypothetical circumstances, does the buyer pay more? Does the exporter get paid the same as before? Clearly…

[dead]

Re: What if tariffs?

#148

Post by lukan »

spiderfarmer wrote: post #93
lukan wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Why are you attacking a point he didn't make? Trump lies. Almost every sentence is a lie. If you're allowed to lie during your campaign and you're immune from the repercussions, of course you're going to sway voters. Don't close your eyes to obvious truths.

"Why are you attacking a point he didn't make?"

Because I missunderstood.

"If you're allowed to lie during your campaign and you're immune from the repercussions, of course you're going to sway voters"

But in my world, lying is enough to not vote for them anyway.

Re: What if tariffs?

#149

Post by Tenemo »

carlosjobim wrote: post #125
d1sxeyes wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let’s say I’m a widget seller in the US, and my widgets cost $100 to import from Switzerland before tariffs. I retail them at $150 USD in the US, but I sell internationally. In the UK for example, I retail them at £113 (simple conversion, obviously it doesn’t really work like this). Now tariffs are imposed, my import cost per widget is $139. Not only do I have to jack up my US price to $189, I have to jack up my UK p…

[flagged]

So what you are saying is that no company has raised prices for any product after tariffs had gone live? That's easily proven to be false (https://taxfoundation.org/blog/trump-tariffs-raise-prices-co...).

Going by your logic, tarrifs would have always no impact on consumers, even e.g. 300% tariffs?

Re: What if tariffs?

#150

Post by magicalhippo »

mlrtime wrote: post #126
exe34 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Losing sales isn't the same as paying the tariff. The person importing the item pays the tariff. Their item won't be released from customs if they don't pay. They pay to the US government. The correct thing to say is that the tariff has an effect on demand because of the impact of adding a tariff on top of the price.

It's not a person, it's a company. The company pays 100% of the tariffs, they are passing it to the consumer who is a person.

The one importing pays the tariffs. If that is a person, say buying directly from AliExpress or some other site, then that person pays.

If it's a company, the company pays and might pass it on.

Edit: to be accurate, the importer is legally responsible for the customs declaration and the tariffs, regardless of who does the declaration and who pays. Typically someone else does the declaration on your behalf, and typically they forward any tariffs to you.

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