Trump orders U.S. firms out of China after Beijing sets new tariffs • Hacker News Board

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

#21

Post by openasocket » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 6:45 PM UTC

mindthegap wrote: post #5

> “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.

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

#22

Post by mindthegap » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 6:46 PM UTC

wendyshu wrote: post #16

mindthegap wrote: post #5

> “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.

Despite the headline no it's not actually an order it's just a suggestion...

It's not just the headline. As far as I understand, Trump said what I quoted.

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

#23

Post by save_ferris » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 6:46 PM UTC

derwiki wrote: post #2

> It’s unclear what legal authority Trump would be able to use to compel U.S. companies to close operations in China or stop sourcing products from the country By unclear, they mean no legal authority.

Not sure why this is getting downvoted. It was only the other day that Trump was referring to himself as “the chosen one”.

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

#24

Post by ksdale » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 6:46 PM UTC

mindthegap wrote: post #5

> “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.

It is not a thing. The president doesn't have the authority to do this. There were some major lawsuits about this issue I believe around WWII relating to the redirection of certain industries to serve the war effort. If I recall correctly, the result was that the executive branch has basically no authority to do this barring something like a state of emergency.

Anyone who knows more than me feel free to chime in!

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

#25

Post by bazooka_penguin » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 6:47 PM UTC

umvi wrote: 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.

I think pollution is a bigger problem. Even some runoff causes nation wide attention and scandals in the public eye.

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

#26

Post by wendyshu » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 6:47 PM UTC

mindthegap wrote: post #22

wendyshu wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Despite the headline no it's not actually an order it's just a suggestion...

It's not just the headline. As far as I understand, Trump said what I quoted.

He did indeed

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

#27

Post by ashelmire » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 6:47 PM UTC

mindthegap wrote: post #5

> “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.

There are probably a few ways the president could do it unilaterally, legally:

1) Raise tariffs to absurd levels (like, 10000% tax on anything from China).

2) Some sort of national defense justification. He could probably put all employees, companies, and executives on terrorism or customs watch lists and make life difficult for them.

3) Use existing sanctions on other nations as a way to forbid doing business with various entities in China.

There's probably also another way to do it that would, presumably, be illegal:

4) Unilaterally blockade the nation, since he's chief of the armed forces (this is an act of war).

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

#28

Post by moate » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 6:47 PM UTC

mindthegap wrote: post #5

> “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.

It carries the exact same amount of legal weight as me ordering Trump to vacate the presidency immediately.

It's an extremely weird tone, but this has been an extremely weird presidency.

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

#29

Post by theseadroid » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 6:48 PM UTC

BubRoss wrote: post #20

adamiscool8 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does Beijing have legal authority to compel the reverse, or does it rely on appeals to patriotism and backchannel enforcement to get it done?

It's a dictatorship, they will do whatever they want.

I encourage you to watch this: The Rules for Rulers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs

TLDR: dictators can't do whatever they want.

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

#30

Post by ashelmire » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 6:49 PM UTC

tathougies wrote: post #17

hello_1234 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he can set 25% tariff on everything imported from China, what's stopping him from setting 2500% tariff on everything? Wouldn't that effectively and immediately stop all trade with China?

No. American companies would still be allowed to sell to China. The constitution offers pretty much absolute protection when it comes to export tariffs.

That isn't the heart of the issue. The issue is US products being produced in China and sold in the US. We import > 500 billion from China and export under 130 billion to China.