Posted on 04/12/2025 8:35:53 AM PDT by bitt
The guidance that was issued also excludes flash drives and memory cards from the new tariffs President Trump exempted phones, computers and chips from his new tariffs on Friday.
The guidance that was issued also excludes flash drives and memory cards.
Trump has imposed 145% tariffs on imports from China.
He paused further tariff actions on other countries in favor of a 10% baseline tariff.
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One thing we learned from the 2024 elections. Crying, whining and throwing tantrums work. America has become a nation of Tantrum Babies.
Fine tuning. Throw out everything and then let it back in case by case.
Does that mean that prescription drugs are subject to the higher tariff? Those drugs should be made here, to ensure the supply does not get cut off.
The panicking, far-left, crybabies get their way.
I get that this is strategic. We’re FAR TOO DEPENDENT on these items. The relief should be TEMPORARY, with a stated deadline for being reapplied.
Yes, but so should chips.
This looks fubar. I hope there some plan here being executed and it’s not just a major blunder. At any rate, it’s not looking good.
That and IPhones would cost 3000 dollars minimum
Fine tuning and negotiating should come first.
This is haphazard and amateurish.
Uh, yeah. That’s what we have all been saying for years. Welcome to the party.
Well, some of us have been saying for YEARS that Apple should be manufacturing iphones here in the USA.
My friend who has his own customs brokerage business and is a huge fan of President Trump says his business is now in complete disarray. They cannot keep up with all of the changes. Everything changes every day and they cannot keep up with it.
The people who do the underwriting for international transactions cannot keep up with it. He said that it is currently the same as if you were trying to get a mortgage on a $500,000 house and you had to purchase a $5,000,000 bond to cover possible issues with the transaction. The bond costs as much as the house, yet you are not allowed to just pay your trading partner cash even if you could.
It has become a giant mess, and it is completely halting trade. He said that he now has only two ships that he is currently hoping to get goods to his customers from. One is stuck off the coast of California and the other is standing by somewhere near Taiwan. Both are basically standing still in the middle of the ocean. If his customers do not get their supplies their businesses will have to close their doors.
My friend just got back from the NCBFAA Annual Meeting and Board Meeting that was held in Chandler, AZ. https://www.ncbfaa.org/home “The NCBFAA represents more than 1,300 member companies with 110,000 employees in international trade - the nation’s leading freight forwarders, customs brokers, ocean transportation intermediaries (OTIs), NVOCCs and air cargo agents, serving more than 250,000 importers and exporters. The Association’s members handle more than 97% of the entries for goods imported into the United States and are directly involved with the logistics of these goods. Further, members operating as OTIs are involved with approximately 80 to 85% of all exports from the United States.”
He shared so much information about this conference with me that I was completely overwhelmed. He is still a big fan of President Trump and trusts that the actions being taken will result in positive change. But as of yesterday, afternoon there are some big challenges that will need to be taken care of very quickly to keep everything moving and avoid a worldwide problem.
And as usual we have career government workers in the system who may be intentionally mucking things up. Currently international trade is headed towards becoming completely paralyzed and not just for the US. The way the worldwide supply chain works depends on everything to continue moving in predictable ways and it is not now doing that.
While optimism about long-term benefits persists, the immediate chaos —exemplified by ships stranded at sea — signals an urgent need for streamlined policies to prevent widespread economic fallout. The NCBFAA’s insights confirm the scale of the issue, as their members handle the vast majority of U.S. trade logistics.
The supply chain relies on goods and ships — but first of all it depends on confidence, predictability, and functional bureaucracy, all of which seem to be under serious strain as we speak.
That is one strategy and is probably the ideal strategy but it requires time and running numerous scenarios through a model that may or may not reflect reality. I have been involved with turn around situations in business and they often require fast changes which are done by trial and error because the time is short.
When there is very little time and when such models do not exist or may not likely reflect all of the consequences, then its rational to subtract everything and add back. It is a chaotic method of change but it is effective when time is short. This is exactly how decisions are played out when the goal is to work fast. There is little time for analysis.
Trump has a two year time frame and a comprehensive plan to make changes in many areas.
A chaotic process for a business won’t effect the world economy as this has.
My friend also said that many of the experts on China he spoke with at the NCBFAA conference thought that China's recent “military exercise” where they completely surrounded Taiwan signaled an impending invasion. They felt that the “trade war” resulted in the Chinese pulling back and giving up this likely action for at least this year.
It was explained to me that there are reasons why the window of opportunity for the Chinese to invade Taiwan opens in March and closes in April. So, one silver lining to the current situation is that it may have averted a possible expected invasion by China. And we probably will not have to worry about this for at least another year.
So, it is possible and fairly likely that this situation has more to it than meets the eye.
I get it. But I would’ve offered the exemption but placed this condition:
Any company seeking an exemption from tariffs must present a five-year plan for on-shoring production based here in the United States. It must show milestones for 20% in year 1, 40% in year 2, and so on to 100% by the end of year 5.
Otherwise, you don’t get the exemption.
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