US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU • Hacker News Board

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#381

Post by aa-jv » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 10:23 AM UTC

hayst4ck wrote: post #297

The golden prize for America's enemies is to remove the US dollar as a global reserve currency. Since trade is conducted largely in USD, that means other governments must purchase USD to trade. This is the core of trade deficits. Foreign countries buy US dollars so they can trade with other people. That guarantees the deficit since they give us something in exchange for USD, which they do not then spend on goods we m…

>The golden prize for America's enemies is to remove the US dollar as a global reserve currency.

Its also the golden prize for America's victims, it has to be said.

We can't keep propping up the USA as a moral position to aspire to, when that state continually gets away with mass murder and human rights violations beyond the scale of any other peer.

The USA is the worlds #1 funder of terrorism, and violator of international law on the subject of war.

So its not just about 'enemies'. Its really about victims.

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#382

Post by codedokode » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 10:25 AM UTC

iteratethis wrote: post #75

This won't bring home manufacturing but let's say that it will... The US doesn't have the people to do the actual manufacturing. I saw a video recently explaining how sectors like the military, construction and the automotive industry each have 100K+ positions that they are unable to fill. A return to manufacturing adds to that shortage. Apparently there's some 7 million young men of working age that are...missing in…

Actually there are people who are ok to do physical jobs but they are getting deported now.

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#383

Post by RecycledEle » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 10:25 AM UTC

I understand the "and 10% on everyone else" part of the tariffs.

Do you think the media is too dumb to understand that, or are they just playing games when they point out a 10% tariff in someone who does not export to the US?

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#384

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 10:25 AM UTC

pontiacbandit8 wrote: post #378

Trump must be a Russian asset. There can be no other explanation. To weaken NATO, remove U.S. dominance by withdrawing forces from bases worldwide, abandon maritime security, weaken the dollar, and implement hostile economic policies that maintain the dollar as the world’s currency, it seems that the final step of “America First” is to make the dollar the sole currency used only in the United States.

[deleted]

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#385

Post by theuppermiddle » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 10:27 AM UTC

hayst4ck wrote: post #297

The golden prize for America's enemies is to remove the US dollar as a global reserve currency. Since trade is conducted largely in USD, that means other governments must purchase USD to trade. This is the core of trade deficits. Foreign countries buy US dollars so they can trade with other people. That guarantees the deficit since they give us something in exchange for USD, which they do not then spend on goods we m…

Is not the US export higher if they take into account all the Software and software as service they sell?

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#386

Post by theuppermiddle » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 10:29 AM UTC

Gasp0de wrote: post #353

A possible retaliation by the EU could be to not enforce US intellectual property rights in the EU anymore. Or we could start taxing cloud companies, who, until now, have not paid taxes in the EU for profits that they generate in the EU.

This is exactly what I was thinking. Is not the US export far higher than import if they take into account the software and other IT services they sell? I would expect other countires to tarrif that.

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#387

Post by mirzap » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 10:29 AM UTC

tonyhart7 wrote: post #341

what would happen to US??? I mean you cant ignore US market right now so is this enough that factory gonna comeback on US soil??

Let's imagine they do come back. Let's say you have a toaster factory in Vietnam, which allows the US company to produce low-cost toasters for about $100. The factory workers earn $1 per hour. Now, due to the tariffs, a toaster will cost $146. And you say, "Okay, they just need to move their factory to the US and then the problem will be solved - no more tariffs. " Fine. Do you really think a US worker will work for $1 per hour? Even if you automate 80% of the factory, you still won't offset the 46% tariff. You will never get a toaster priced at $100. More likely, it will be $300.

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#388

Post by rafaelmn » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 10:30 AM UTC

hayst4ck wrote: post #297

The golden prize for America's enemies is to remove the US dollar as a global reserve currency. Since trade is conducted largely in USD, that means other governments must purchase USD to trade. This is the core of trade deficits. Foreign countries buy US dollars so they can trade with other people. That guarantees the deficit since they give us something in exchange for USD, which they do not then spend on goods we m…

This is why I don't get why my EU people are attacking Trump - he singlehandedly gave Europe political capital to rebuild itself as an independent player on the international stage. He created an environment where tighter EU integration might take precedence over petty interest squabbles. For example in what other scenario would Germany making massive investments in military be politically acceptable ? Even talking about military on EU level ?

Framing this as purely a win for China and Russia is very partisan, this has potential for all non-US countries to get away from under US thumb long term and at least for that we should be grateful to mr. Trump, from his foreign policy it seems like he is not interested in those games as he views them a net loss for US.

And the Greenland situation is showing us exactly what happens when you position yourself as leech on US military/NATO.

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#389

Post by ta20240528 » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 10:32 AM UTC

hayst4ck wrote: post #297

The golden prize for America's enemies is to remove the US dollar as a global reserve currency. Since trade is conducted largely in USD, that means other governments must purchase USD to trade. This is the core of trade deficits. Foreign countries buy US dollars so they can trade with other people. That guarantees the deficit since they give us something in exchange for USD, which they do not then spend on goods we m…

"The golden prize for America's enemies is to remove the US dollar as a global reserve currency."

I would argue that for this to become even remotely possible, America's list of enemies must not automatically become everyone else's enemies too.

that is to say: the USA's secondary statutes have to become ineffective.

To do this, the EU's blocking statutes (to ignore secondary sanctions) have to be effective. Right now Europe's own companies just ignore the statutes to keep their US trade.

To make the blocking statues effective, the EU's own research recommended fines/sanctions/bans/… on licences for foreign (read US) banks, and companies that ignore the statue and don't serve EU companies trading with sanctioned countries.

But to do that, the EU would need alternatives to American services.

Power and influence follow sovereignty.

€0,02

Re: US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

#390

Post by h4ny » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 10:33 AM UTC

ggm wrote: post #87

I think a lot of people assume the economic consequences like these have not been understood by the WH. Although I don't like this administration I beg to differ: they know what's going to happen, and they expect the coming storm because they seek what follows. They want to repudiate foreign held debt, or devalue it, by revaluation of the USD and they will wear what they think of as a one time economic shock to get t…

> and they expect the coming storm because they seek what follows.

Well, a lot of economists, including one Nobel Prize winner (Paul Krugman) have commented on this being a bad idea for the economy...

On the off chance that those people who are supposed to know what they are talking about are all wrong and haven't thought about it being some genius diversion tactics -- it's generally still a pretty bad idea for a government to effectively ask everyone to "tough it out" and "just trust me bro".

It's really disappointing that people are actually trying to theorize this as some kind of genius plan. It doesn't take a genius to figure out the amount of irreparable damage they have already done to regular folks is unacceptable (uh... I'm sure some nutters out there think that DOGE is keeping track of all the damages they have done and will pay everyone once their genius plans have worked out).

That kind of logic really amazes me.