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Trump’s erratic trade policies are baffling businesses, threatening investment and economic growth
Associated Press ^ | March 6, 2025 | Paul Wiseman, Anne D’Innocenzio and Mae Anderson

Posted on 03/07/2025 9:04:31 AM PST by karpov

Marc Rosenberg, founder and CEO of The Edge Desk in Deerfield, Illinois is getting ready to introduce a fancy ergonomic chair designed to reduce customers’ back pain and boost their productivity. He figures the most expensive one will sell for more than $1,000. But he can’t settle on a price, and he is reluctantly reducing the shipment he’s bringing to the United States from China.

There’s a reason for his caution: President Donald Trump’s ever-changing, on-again, off-again tariff war with America’s three biggest trading partners – Mexico, Canada and China.

The latest reversal came Thursday. Two days after imposing 25% taxes — tariffs — on all imports from Canada and Mexico and threatening to detonate more than $1.3 billion in annual U.S. trade in North America, Trump announced that he was suspending many of the levies on Mexico and some of them on Canada for a month. This was an expansion of his Wednesday announcement when he exempted auto imports from both countries for 30 days, and it also comes after a previous monthlong tariff reprieve for Canada and Mexico right before they were to take effect Feb. 4.

“Trump is jerking around the entire continent of North America right now, it’s stupid and it has to stop,” Democratic Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia said. “Today there are businesses that don’t even know if the goods they trade in are subject to Trump’s tariffs. Everything Trump does on trade seems designed to maximize chaos and uncertainty.

Rosenberg and his ergonomic furniture, meanwhile, are contending with a 20% tariff on imports from China – which Trump on Tuesday raised from 10% -- but he’s not sure where the tariff will actually land.

“The misdirection is making it very tough to plan for the year,’’ he said.

(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS: apfakenews; dissociatedpress; fakenews; tariffs; tds
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Tariffs will tend to raise prices, and that is unpopular. Tariffs on manufacturing inputs like steel and aluminum cost more jobs in industries that use those inputs than they save in industries than make those inputs. Trump extols tariffs, but the fact that he often delays them suggests he has some awareness of their harms.
1 posted on 03/07/2025 9:04:31 AM PST by karpov
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To: karpov

It is way past time to permanently ban Agitation and Propaganda from all White House access.

Let them cover North Korea—where their friends are.


2 posted on 03/07/2025 9:05:48 AM PST by cgbg (The Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise.)
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To: karpov

President Trump uses tariffs as bargaining chips—can be given up when he gets what he needs from other countries.


3 posted on 03/07/2025 9:06:52 AM PST by cgbg (The Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise.)
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To: karpov

Trump is using “reciprocal” tariffs as a bargaining chip.


4 posted on 03/07/2025 9:06:56 AM PST by RoosterRedux ("Think AI is scary. Imagine the world run by gov't bureaucrats.")
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To: karpov

AP is trash read no further.


5 posted on 03/07/2025 9:07:10 AM PST by gibsonguy
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To: karpov

Not just tariffs, but how frequently he whipsaws around, creating massive uncertainty. Chaos ain’t good for markets, folks.


6 posted on 03/07/2025 9:07:21 AM PST by nwrep
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To: karpov
Trump extols tariffs, but the fact that he often delays them suggests he has some awareness of their harms.

Trump wants to make a deal on some issues and to do so he needs leverage. Tariffs create leverage that he can trade for what he really wants.

7 posted on 03/07/2025 9:08:48 AM PST by pepsi_junkie ("We want no Gestapo or Secret Police. F. B. I. is tending in that direction." - Harry S Truman)
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To: karpov

Stopped reading at AP


8 posted on 03/07/2025 9:10:29 AM PST by delchiante
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To: karpov

I live in NYS.

We’re about to get hit big time by tariffs.

The country comes first.

I support the tariffs.


9 posted on 03/07/2025 9:11:01 AM PST by mewzilla (Swing away, Mr. President, swing away!)
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To: cgbg

You beat me by 4 seconds with the same thought.:-)


10 posted on 03/07/2025 9:11:07 AM PST by RoosterRedux ("Think AI is scary. Imagine the world run by gov't bureaucrats.")
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To: cgbg
President Trump uses tariffs as bargaining chips—can be given up when he gets what he needs from other countries.

I don't understand why this is so hard for people to figure out especially after his first term.

11 posted on 03/07/2025 9:11:25 AM PST by Dahoser (Liz Cheney needs to work on her soccer skills so she fits in when she transfers to Guantanamo High.)
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To: karpov
...and he is reluctantly reducing the shipment he's bringing to the United States from China....

This guy relies on shipments from China?

And this is supposed to be a reason for Trump to curb our tariffs??

Unbelievable.

12 posted on 03/07/2025 9:13:06 AM PST by FreeReign
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To: mewzilla

Folks might want to check our my links on this FR thread...

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4302689/posts

Harm to NYS is on Deep State’s head, not Trump’s.


13 posted on 03/07/2025 9:13:48 AM PST by mewzilla (Swing away, Mr. President, swing away!)
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To: nwrep; cgbg; RoosterRedux

Trump isn’t trying to create chaos. He looks at the present situation and tells other nations that it’s unacceptable based on the past and present actions of those nations. So, he imposes a tariff. Now if the other nations accept his tariff, then we have a status quo and no chaos. But if they agree to the change that he has demanded, then the tariff is modified or nullified. That is what creates the “chaos,” and it isn’t Trump’s fault. It’s called negotiating.


14 posted on 03/07/2025 9:14:22 AM PST by Enterprise ( These people have no honor, no belief, no poetry, no art, no humor, no patriotism.)
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To: delchiante

The AP believes they’re relevant.

Someone needs to do an intervention.


15 posted on 03/07/2025 9:14:23 AM PST by BrexitBen
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To: nwrep

Tagged, because I want to keep tabs on another foreign troll that FR used to ban.


16 posted on 03/07/2025 9:15:26 AM PST by LouAvul (1 John 2:22: He that denies that Jesus is the Christ is a liar and antichrist. )
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To: Dahoser

On FR, they do understand. But FR has a lot of anti American never Trumpers, foreigners mostly. FR used to ban them. Not so much anymore.


17 posted on 03/07/2025 9:16:37 AM PST by LouAvul (1 John 2:22: He that denies that Jesus is the Christ is a liar and antichrist. )
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To: nwrep

But it is good for change in Washington and with the MSM and Deep State.

They used to always be steps ahead.


18 posted on 03/07/2025 9:16:37 AM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: nwrep

Your post reminds me of one of the leftist judges whose sole basis for their ruling was that the status quo was really really important.

These are revolutionary times.

Join in—or get out of the way.


19 posted on 03/07/2025 9:17:29 AM PST by cgbg (The Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise.)
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To: Enterprise

Again, globalists, how dare the Us stand up for itself.


20 posted on 03/07/2025 9:17:30 AM PST by cowboyusa (YESHUA IS KING 0F AMERICA, AND HE WILL HAVE oNO OTHER GODS BEFORE HIM!)
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