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

bbc.com

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

#611

Post by commandlinefan »

TrackerFF wrote: post #62

From what I understand, de minimis exemption has also been removed. That is a huge, huge deal. It effectively means that all goods imported from China will be slapped with a 30% import tax, as soon as said goods arrive the US border / customs. Usually what happens then, is that the courier will pay that tax, and then bill the recipient later on - as well as charge some fee/fees for the work done. This is why in some…

> This is why in some European countries, that $1 item from China with free shipping can end up costing $10

This is what strikes me about these new tariffs... for all the concern about how it's going to impact the US economy (and I don't doubt it will), this is STILL far, far, less protectionism than literally every other country in the entire world. Donald Trump's justification for all this is that the U.S. is propping up the entire world economy to it's own detriment, and I'm not sure he's necessarily wrong here.

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

#612

Post by rtkwe »

e40 wrote: post #541
roxolotl wrote: post #479

Aside from everything else one thing what strikes me as particularly insane is how it’s not even defensible as a protective measure. My favorite everyday olive oil comes from Tunisia. They now have a 38% tariff on them. There are no out of work olive farmers in the US. The orange man wanted tariffs, the orange man is going to get tariffs. Now we have to hope the American people aren’t so dumb as to still be convinced…

California produces very high quality olive oil. I buy it at Costco. The Kirkland brand likely comes from outside the country.

California produced 1.94 million gallons of olive oil in 2023. That same year the US used ~98.5 million gallons of olive oil. There just isn't enough space to produce that much olive oil in CA much less produce it profitably or in ways that wouldn't devastate the environment. And all that is ignoring that it takes around 10 years for an olive tree to get to consistent production.

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

#613

Post by rthomas6 »

TaurenHunter wrote: post #599

I don't see anyone mentioning that the United States needs to manage its massive national debt, currently in the trillions, by issuing Treasury securities. These securities mature at varying intervals and require continuous "rolling" or refinancing to pay off old debt with new borrowing. Significant rollovers are expected from April through September 2025, with additional short-term maturities due by June. Higher int…

The flaw I see is centered around this paragraph.

> How can rates come down? The present uncertainty around tariffs and a potential crisis could create conditions that pressure interest rates downward before those Treasury securities mature, by influencing Federal Reserve policy.

Rising prices due to tariffs won't pressure the Fed to lower interest rates. It will increase inflation and worries of inflation, which will actually pressure the Fed to RAISE interest rates. A slowing economy won't stop inflation... We are likely entering into a period of "stagflation". The way out last time was very high interest rates and short term economic hardship.

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

#615

Post by throw__away7391 »

TaurenHunter wrote: post #599

I don't see anyone mentioning that the United States needs to manage its massive national debt, currently in the trillions, by issuing Treasury securities. These securities mature at varying intervals and require continuous "rolling" or refinancing to pay off old debt with new borrowing. Significant rollovers are expected from April through September 2025, with additional short-term maturities due by June. Higher int…

> What are the flaws in this thinking?

-> Treasuries are considered safe during such crisis.

Is that truly still the case? Does the world consider the US stable right now?

I am astonished at how effectively the administration has blown up every pillar upholding the US economy, short, medium, and long term. The damage done here is incalculable. In all of human history never has so much wealth been destroyed so quickly.

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

#616

Post by __turbobrew__ »

casey2 wrote: post #156

The US particularly has an extremely large population of men (10s of millions) who don't work. Who knows if they'd be doing "low skill" manufacturing if somebody was around to hire them. But if you actually wanted this to work you would have started by subsidizing american raw materials.

Why is there a focus on men not working? I have seen it in at least 3 comments in this thread.

Latest bls stats show men unemployment at 4.2% and women unemployment at 4.1%

https://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cpseea10.htm

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

#617

Post by thworp »

zerreh50 wrote: post #607
TaurenHunter wrote: post #599

I don't see anyone mentioning that the United States needs to manage its massive national debt, currently in the trillions, by issuing Treasury securities. These securities mature at varying intervals and require continuous "rolling" or refinancing to pay off old debt with new borrowing. Significant rollovers are expected from April through September 2025, with additional short-term maturities due by June. Higher int…

An economic crisis will reduce tax income though, reducing the ability of government to pay even if the interest is lower

In the long term, yes. In the medium term, companies and people liquidating their assets and paying capital gains tax actually gives the state a windfall.

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

#618

Post by jmathai »

hnarn wrote: post #526

I'm European. While it's pretty childish to paint the US and the EU as two human being with a "relationship" it's of course pretty jarring to see a country that has for my entire life been the undisputed cultural hegemony simply check out of the world stage and suddenly treat everyone on "their" side (culturally, politically and economically) like an enemy, or at the very least an abuser. I'm not an economist, but I…

Quality of life has been going down for most Americans over the past few decades. It's harder to buy a house, raise a family, etc. on a modest income. Increasing cost of goods has outpaced wage increases but there are probably other factors at play too.

Americans lived in a world where all you needed was a decent job and you could have a good life - defined by what I said above. That's not the case anymore and they're upset about it - they're looking for someone or something to blame.

The republican party chose to blame immigrants and the democrats chose to blame lack of DEI. This fractured the citizens into two camps who can seemingly find no middle ground anymore.

Meanwhile, the wealth gap continues to increase and the middle class is shrinking. But neither political party can run on a platform of reducing spending AND higher taxes on wealth. They'd lose their funding sources - so they're stuck with immigrants and DEI.

Meanwhile, Trump sees an opportunity to extract wealth from the working class by reducing government spending and diverting those savings to corporations and the wealthy. Moderate Americans feel a bit powerless given how quickly our long standing legal and government structures seem to be deteriorating.

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

#619

Post by abvdasker »

TaurenHunter wrote: post #599

I don't see anyone mentioning that the United States needs to manage its massive national debt, currently in the trillions, by issuing Treasury securities. These securities mature at varying intervals and require continuous "rolling" or refinancing to pay off old debt with new borrowing. Significant rollovers are expected from April through September 2025, with additional short-term maturities due by June. Higher int…

If the Trump admin's goal were to reduce the national debt it would make way more sense to use fiscal policy (increase taxes) rather than some roundabout way to force the Fed's hand on monetary policy. The tariffs do basically function as a massive regressive tax increase in the form of a sales tax, but that comes with truly immense risks on the demand side of the economy. Guess what happens to tax revenue during a recession.

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

#620

Post by jccalhoun »

mcoliver wrote: post #92

Here's a csv and google sheet of the data. Turns out they aren't tariffs countries charge us. They are trade imbalance percentages. Unreal: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xK0OQ5VGl8JHmDSIgbXh... https://gist.github.com/mcoliver/69fe48d03c12388e29cc0cd87eb...

Interesting. While I think these tariffs are a bad idea, I'm not qualified to fully pass judgement. However, knowing Trump, when I saw the numbers I instantly suspected they would be wrong.
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