• huppakee@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      63
      ·
      15 hours ago

      China’s strategy worked great, just counter any announced tarrif with an equal reciprocal tarrif and he’ll back off eventually. I wonder if we have more or less to loose than China had.

        • huppakee@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          13 hours ago

          Totally, don’t want our governments to be pushed over. Just saying I have no clue how we compare to China in this.

      • TWeaK@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        11 hours ago

        No, blind retaliatory tariffs would be stupid. When someone is punching themselves in the face, the correct thing to do is not to also punch yourself in the face.

        Tariffs have 3 effects:

        • The buyer pays more.
        • Because the buyer pays more, the seller makes fewer sales.
        • The government collects tariff tax revenue.

        Whichever way the tariff goes, export or import, it will negatively affect that nation’s people. An import tariff, like this, would negatively affect local consumers. An export tariff (eg Canada tariffing electricity exports to the US) would negatively affect local businesses through lost sales (the genius with Canada is the US can’t stop buying electricity, so sales local sales would stay the same).

        The only way a tariff makes sense for a country is if the tariff tax revenue is reinvested into the local economy. For example, if you tariff imports, you should use that revenue to incentivise local businesses to grow to replace that import.

        Trump is not doing that. He’s just collecting tax money from American people. He’s almost certainly going to spaff that away on some scam, probably crypto, and basically bankrupt the American taxpayer and fuck up everyone’s livelihoods.

        EU countries should not copy Trump and blanket tax their citizens for American imports. If the EU were to implement tariffs (and I argue this isn’t necessary or worthwhile), they should only be done with a plan to reinvest, such that there is a net benefit. Blunt tariffs with no plan will almost certainly have a net negative effect.

        China is like Trump, in that neither of them care much about the negative effects on their people. That’s why China went hard with retaliatory tariffs. The EU does not need to emulate that behaviour.

      • magic_lobster_party@fedia.io
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        14 hours ago

        Don’t worry, he’ll back down either way. He’ll just claim that he’s made a great deal with EU even if no such deal has been made, and then lower the tariffs again.

        • albert180@piefed.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          13 hours ago

          In our national news they’ve said that the EU made offers and the Trump Team didn’t even responded to them, and they have the impression that they are severely understaffed and through the flowers indirectly said not very competent

      • albert180@piefed.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        13 hours ago

        They’re also throwing out the Windows Garbage out of government and critical systems and switching to Linux, and want to audit the sources for the remaining systems

    • DMCMNFIBFFF@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      14 hours ago

      I say do nothing, as per another reply I made ITT.

      Just because Trump hurts Americans with his beloved increased taxes—i.e. increased tariffs—doesn’t mean we should hurt our own people with the same. The MAGAts might enjoy that sort of masochism, but we don’t.

      • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        edit-2
        12 hours ago

        Forget physical goods, hit us where it really hurts. Use the intellectual property clause, and start cracking down on Big Tech.

        The US makes all its money with power projection through its services, so fuck them up. Please.

        And for heavens sake, Europe would be healthier with a little less Twitter and fewer fees payed to the US.

        • BackYardIncendiary
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          10 hours ago

          This would be the perfect time to call out their hypocritical extension of copyright through recent trade deals.

          American tech companies have made fortunes by violating licensing and copyright laws. Force Uber and AirBNB to buy taxi and hotel licenses. Put an intellectual property tax on AI. Prosecute Paypal for banking without a charter, ban cryto as illegal currency… the list goes on.

        • DMCMNFIBFFF@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          10 hours ago

          That’s another good idea;

          and this would actually benefit most Americans.

          maybe have a 20-something-European entertainer calling himself “Kid Rock” who who does covers and derivations, decked out in EU stars, who publicly burns the American flag, and if he’s a transman, even better. 😁

          “Whatcha gonna do, MAGAts? Sue me? I live in Europe, where we have Freedom. not in USSA!”

      • huppakee@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        13 hours ago

        I believe the economics agree, but the diplomats don’t. I am hoping the economics are the reason the eu is taking their time to respond.

      • TWeaK@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        11 hours ago

        Thank you, this is something I’ve been screaming from the rooftops.

        Trump doesn’t care about the American people who will pay his tariffs. China doesn’t care about Chinese people paying their tariffs on US goods (although there are probably fewer US imports to China anyway). The EU does care about its people, and shouldn’t tax them with tariffs.

        Tariffs only work if you can prevent the local harm (eg Canada were going to tax electricity exports, the US can’t stop buying electricity so Canadian businesses wouldn’t lose sales) or to at least have a plan beforehand to reinvest in local businesses that can replace the imported good.

      • albert180@piefed.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        13 hours ago

        The responses are usually surgical. Last time EU also targeted Republican voting states with Sanctions

      • Mike@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        13 hours ago

        We don’t hurt our own people. Europeans shouldn’t be buying US groceries anyway, there’s no need to.

        The only thing that is largely inescapable is software, and that mostly affects businesses anyway. The USians will hurt way more.

      • WanderingThoughts@europe.pub
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        12 hours ago

        It seems ignoring him hurts his pride the most. No real response is needed anyway. EU has the whole process ready. Just take the map marked “Trump tariff”, look in the index for 50%-75% and start from there. Probably the first step is a wait period for when he charges his mind yet again.

        • Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          9 hours ago

          The real secret weapon against trump is taking his toys away. No one’s managed to do it but I want more than anything is to win back the house and senate, take his Qatar plane away and use it for humanitarian aid.

          I will fall asleep tonight dreaming of only this one thing.