What do you guys think Trump’s real plan here is? On the campaign trail. I remember hearing him claim tariffs would pay for tax cuts. Then this disappeared and they were going to spur US manufacturing. But now he has settled in on Fentanyl. We’re punishing our three largest trading partners because they let the drug into our country.
Here is an article about that argument.
It challenges a lot of the administrations claims. It also points out that 1% of US street fentanyl comes across the northern border. I’ll add to that what I heard from the Canadian ambassador to the US yesterday - Canada has been working with Trump’s team to make their border even more secure.
Canada really doesn’t make any sense here.
So what is Trump’s true motivation for starting this trade war?
Good question at the end there. I have no idea. I don’t know much about the consequences of tariffs. I know they are sometimes used to make our companies competitive. Like putting tariffs on Chinese cars. It also might encourage foreign nations to produce here in the US. But not always.
I will also assume they might compel the importer to eat the cost of the tariff and not pass it on. What I’m not sure about is how it makes the US money. I really don’t know what Trump’s goal is here.
The good news is that once we invade Canada and Greenland and the promise of no more foreign wars has not been broken as both are part of North America. .
Well here’s a pretty fascinating little tidbit from the NYT: The tariff exemption that has fueled the rise of Temu, Shein etc… Is repealed in this order. Pretty interesting repercussions - of course, WalMart and Amazon are oppose to the previous policy while FedEx thinks it’s freaking great!
"The president’s order erased a workaround that many companies have taken advantage of in recent years, particularly since Mr. Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese products in his first term. The provision, known as the de minimis exception, allowed certain products that were sent directly to consumers from online platforms to come into the United States without facing tariffs, a huge tax advantage.
This obscure provision of trade law underpins major business models. Shein, Temu and many sellers on Amazon have used the de minimis exemption to bypass tariffs. The exemption allows packages to be shipped from other countries without paying tariffs, as long as the shipments do not exceed $800 per recipient per day."
Seems like Trump’s plans are going well. We just need Justine to either leave like he said he would, or take some good advice and do what Trumps wants.
IMHO Trump is overplaying the tariff threat. Its his solution to everything.
Countries are going to eventually tell him to ■■■■ off and do what they have to do.
This could backfire and result in countries of different stripes deciding to work more closely together.
Trump feels (and rightly so to some degree) that the world will collapse without the US. Interestingly enough this very idea is explored in a speculative fiction novel by my favourite aussie author John Birmingham in his book called “After America”.
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