Trump tariffs live updates: 104% tariff rate on China to go into effect Wednesday

11 comments

1. Snippet from this news update: “Trump’s 104% tariff rate on China to go into effect early Wednesday
   White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Tuesday that Trump’s threatened additional 50% tariff on China will go into effect early Wednesday, bringing the total tariff rate against Beijing to 104%.
   “They will be going into effect at 12:01 a.m.,” she said.
   “It was a mistake for China to retaliate. The president, when America is punched, he punches back harder,” Leavitt said. She added Trump believes China “wants to make a deal” but doesn’t know where to start.

2. Tariffs cannot simultaneously be a negotiating tool and onshore manufacturing, it’s one or the other.

   How is anyone supposed to respond to any of this when it’s not even clear what the US wants beyond balancing trade deficits which economically means nothing?

   They’ve slapped something like a 60% tariff on Lesotho because the US buys diamonds from there.

   How are the poor people of Lesotho supposed to buy enough American goods to balance that deficit?

   This whole thing is unbelievably stupid and embarrassing that no one in MAGA land is man enough to call the stupidity out.

3. There is already talk about China possibly banning US films on their market among other retaliations.

4. If Trump essentially blocks all direct trade with China with insanely high tariffs, does it makes it more likely for China to try to take Taiwan? After all one of the painful consequences of that war would already be done.

5. So dollar stores in US are now going to be $2 stores. 

6. So, tight your belt for next cold war between USA and china in this century

7. one million % tarrifs!

8. It is worthy to notice that Trump once “threats” China that he will apply 100% tariffs on China if they invade Taiwan. Now the tariff has reached 104%. So, if what he means on “100%” is “100% additional”, then his previous threat is just delusional: 104% is effectively cutting off nearly all trades with China; 204% won’t make any difference. If he means “100% in total”, then China should invade Taiwan later this week since they will have 4% tariff less, not much, but better than nothing.

   I understand Trump’s eager to bring manufacturing back to US, but I seriously don’t think it will work out very well. US and her people need confidence on consistent policies that could encourage investors and workers to find out a way of re-prospering US’ industry. Unfortunately, we failed to see any consistency in recent presidents. Factories and skilled workers do not appear overnight; they need years of construction, education and training. Even investors want to invest in new factories in US, what if other party gets elected? Will it nullify all previous subsidies and discounts? What if the tariff barriers get lowered by new president or members of congress? Actually, we even don’t know if Trump and his Republican/MAGA supporters can win in midterm of 2026; if they lose majorities in Senate and House, what will happen? No one knows.

   Now, Republicans have majority in both parts of US Congress, but the margin is very slim. They have majority in Senate by 3 seats (53 out of required 50; for DEM, they need 51 seats to secure majority in Senate), and majority in House by 2 seats (220 out of required 218). In 2026, there will be 33 Senate seats and all 435 House seats up for election.

9. The BBC has a decent article on the latest US China tariffs. I’ve attached below.

   It turns out that the top exports from the US to China are Soybeans and Aeroplanes/parts for planes.

   How realistic is it for China to simply say we are going to take soybeans from Brazil now (the world’s biggest producer) and get their planes from Airbus from now on? Surely this is one of the softer but likely outcomes?

   As a worst case scenario, how likely is a Chinese annexing of Taiwan? They are already experiencing the US tariffs as if they had already done it.

   https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g2089vznzo

10. So Trumpy Dumpy is imposing tariffs to punish a trade deficit but what about the services surplus the US has with all countries. What if they tariff the US to the cost of the services surplus?

11. This was an opening shot to start negotiations with everyone except China. Most of the will be negotiated with a fair deal for both parties. I think the China tarrifs are more punitive and hopefully force production to countries that are friendly with us.

Comments are closed.