Posted on 04/03/2025 10:00:52 AM PDT by Libloather
WASHINGTON — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick slammed European Union policies after President Trump announced a 20% tariff on the 27-nation trading bloc — saying that “they hate our beef because our beef is beautiful and theirs is weak.”
Lutnick, a former CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, defended Trump’s sweeping “Liberation Day” reciprocal tariffs, which will start taking effect April 5, by pointing to the allegedly unfair treatment of US goods in global trade.
“The European Union won’t take chicken from America. They won’t take lobsters from America. They hate our beef because our beef is beautiful and theirs is weak. It’s unbelievable,” Lutnick told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Wednesday night.
“We can’t sell corn to India. We can’t sell rice to Asia. Why in the world do we let these people sell their cars? 94% of cars in Japan are made in Japan.”
Trump’s administration assessed the steepest new tariffs on jurisdictions with which the US has trade deficits and which have higher tariffs and non-tariff barriers.
The EU’s agricultural restrictions include a ban on the use of substances that provoke hormonal responses in cattle and rules that conflict with US industry-standard microbial washes for chicken.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I think I read that this issue of getting chems out of our food is on Kennedys radar
The US government should regulate commerce without taking the stock market into consideration.
“CCP will require investment in China to sell the product,”
I use to manufacture a product that used about 2 lbs of tungsten rods per unit. China has pretty much purchased the entire world’s supply of tungsten while the USA have regulated mining it out of existence. When the Tsunami hit Thailand the Chinese slapped a 10 times ‘tax’ on the supply for exported tungsten rods. HOWEVER... I could get it dirt cheap if I sent my product to be manufactured in China.
I knew they planned to steal my product so I just shuttered that production line.
Look at the Dow in 30 days when all of these countries have folded on their tariffs. 🙄
Yes, you are probably right.
Thank you 🙂
It seems to me, however, that the EU wishes to protect European farmers and their meat producers, just as the US government wishes to protect American farmers.
If only there could be a limited exchange of agricultural products between both sides…maybe it would be to the benefit of both.
You think that our tariffing Poland and Guatemala and Cambodia is somehow camouflaging the fact that China is our biggest economic adversary? Are the Chinese themselves confused?
Trade war does not equal shooting war.
“The depression was caused nearly exclusively by cheap money..the result of the federal reserve.
Credit.”
The opposite is true. The depression was caused by the federal reserve raising interest rates, and tightening the money supply in 1928. They triggered the stock market collapse, and didn’t loosen the policy which held back growth. Money supply growth in the 20s was modest, around 5% a year - not enough to cause a depression.
I'm not sure this will resolve so quickly. Hopefully you're right, but I'm really not concerned with such a short term. Meanwhile, I guess one could "buy the dip" if they have a cash position they are willing to bet with. If the market dips lower, it might be a good time to convert some of your traditional IRA/401K to Roth, and pay taxes on a lower value. This of course means you have some confidence that the market will recover before you need the money. Obviously, everyone needs to "do the math" for themselves.
Also, to keep things in perspective, the market is only down about 5% YTD. The big gains in February failed to consider the potential impact of Trump's trade policy.
This is where "Tariff Rate Quotas" come in. A country sets quotas of a product that can be imported tariff free, but once the quota is reached, tariffs escalate quickly into double and triple digits. This makes these TRQs much more Quota than Tariff. Quotas are easy to negotiate, and farmers know how much product they can expect to export. All the crazy high "tariffs" you see people complaining about from Canada are actually TRQs.
I’ve tried beef in Holland, Britain, Belgium, and Ireland. No thanks.
Nope. Cheap money. Credit was rampant.
Your opinion of interest rates had an effect that youll get no arguement from me but, credit was offered all over the place, especially in agriculture. If you think any lesd, then you need to look at how many farms were reposessed during the depression. Then, the banks failed and entire busineeses were destroyed.
The ratio of non secured debt is so high now we will be lucky to survive this in tact.
Money was cheap then, it is still cheap now.
Britain and the US are now Islam Dhimmi nations. It’s not like the 1940s when we shared similar ideologies.
Have you been worried about the unending proxy war in Ukraine these past 4 years that has stolen billions of dollarsfrom U.S. taxpayers and stretched this country's budget to the limit under a demented RAT election usurper? Obviously not, so go cry in your cereal somewhere else. You're part of the problem. Doom and gloom, just like the liberals run with.
Same thing in Holland and Belgium. The Steak au Poivre they served me was full of grizzle, barely edible. In London, the burger I ordered had so much Worcestershire sauce mixed in with the beef, that you couldn't even taste the meat. In Belfast, I ordered a Rib-eye steak medium, and it came burnt to a crisp. They don't know how to properly cook beef in Europe, and their cuts of beef are extremely poor.
I don’t disagree that there was a credit expansion that was going to cause an economic contraction. But the credit expansion in the 20s was similar in size or smaller than during the 80s (S&L era), 2000s (housing boom). What turned a likely recession into The Depression was the Feds overly restrictive monetary policies.
LOL!! Back in 2006 I took a bus tour of the British Isles. When we finally got to Ireland, I was looking forward to being able to order Corned Beef and Cabbage. Then I found out that they don’t even serve it over there. I wrongly assumed it was an Irish dish, but I was wrong. Most of the dishes they offered on the tour were lamb, and salmon, neither of which I eat. One night I was so desperate to find something on the offered menu, I ended up choosing vegetarian lasagna because there was nothing else I was interested in. Potato and Leek soup was also a regular offer. The one thing I learned about soups overseas, most of them are pureed, not like the hearty soups here that contain whole meat and vegetables.
I, too, thought corned beef and cabbage was an Irish dish. Must be an immigrant dish like chop suey.
Credit caused the great depression.
I used to know someone who had shares of RCA for around 500 bucks. Couldnt sell it so hung on to it to the day she died in the mid 80s.
If it was credit, we’d be about to start the fifth “great depression”.
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