• 3 Posts
  • 223 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: June 16th, 2023
  • joekar1990@lemmy.worldtopolitics @lemmy.world•The digital countermove to Trump tariffs | America’s mid-air dismantling of the global system of trade represents a one-time chance to competeEnglish
    6·
    5 days ago

    The author keys into some points critically important that most don’t think about. America imports more manufactured goods and raw materials than it exports. As the administration has endlessly gone on about. However, it exports more ‘services’ than any country in the world. I think Trump and Lutnick simply are assuming that won’t change or come under discussion. Most of these American ‘services’ exports are heavily advantaged in favour of American exporters to the UK and the EU. That’s because these ‘services’ are effectively not taxed, nor regulated. (With a few notable exceptions.) That’s because, in the EU particularly, there has historically been a deference to America—for implied military defense against Russian attack. The Oval office meeting w Zelensky, together with ignoring Denmark re: Greenland, and Canadian 51st state rhetoric has however finally started breaking the wall. Thereby freeing the UK and Europe to trend towards now taxing and regulating such American ‘services’. That will allow UK and EU competing ‘services’ to flourish. Because, essentially, the anti-circumvention laws, besides making certain American billionaires ridiculously rich, mainly serve to inhibit innovation.

  • joekar1990@lemmy.worldtopolitics @lemmy.world•Trump outlines what ‘total victory’ looks like in his trade war. It’ll cost youEnglish
    10·
    12 days ago

    he’d declare “total victory” if import taxes were as high as 50% a year from now

    “The country will be making a fortune,” Trump told Time, claiming businesses will reshore production to the United States, adding jobs and investment — a theory debunked by a large number of businesses and economists. “Oh, zero would be easy, but zero, you wouldn’t have any companies coming in. They’re coming in because they don’t want to pay the tariffs.”

    That plan faces extreme challenges, including training American workers who have been hesitant to take factory jobs (the United States has nearly half a million open factory jobs it can’t fill, according to the Department of Labor’s latest job openings report). Also, tariffs themselves have made factory construction significantly more expensive. And even if businesses wanted to reshore production, that process can take years.

    We live in the dumbest fucking timeline. He’s been obsessed with tariffs since the 80s and doesn’t understand the nuance you need to use them as an actual tool.