Posted on 04/03/2025 5:52:50 AM PDT by karpov
President Trump unveiled his new “liberation day” tariffs on Wednesday, and they are another large step toward a new old era of trade protectionism. Assuming the policy sticks—and we hope it doesn’t—the effort amounts to an attempt to remake the U.S. economy and the world trading system.
All details aren’t clear as we write this, but Mr. Trump’s tariffs look “reciprocal” in name only. First he’s hitting every nation in the world with a 10% “baseline” tariff to sell in the U.S. market. For those he calls “bad actors,” he’s adding up the country’s tariff rate on U.S. goods, plus an arbitrary estimate of the cost of its “currency manipulation” and non-tariff barriers. He then takes that total number and applies half of that in tariffs on the country’s exports to the U.S.
He’s hitting China with a 34% tariff, but our Japanese friends will pay nearly as much at 24%. The European Union gets whacked with 20%, India with 24%. We’ll assess the details further in coming days, but for today let’s consider some of the consequences already emerging in this new protectionist age:
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Tariffs will raise prices and have already been tanking the stock market, which is down more than 3% overnight. This will hurt Republicans in the midterms.
Shortsighted, also nearsighted!
Tariffs are one factor impacting prices. Before we become prophets of disaster let’s see what the overall effect in prices and availability will be.
In WW2, the Soviet Union relocated the production of thousands of factories great distances in just a few months.
morons. Trump tariffs are only tit for tat. fair trade is the goal.
India charges a 104% tariff against the retail price on fully-assembled motorcycles imported into the country, as an example.
As detailed in “The Art of the Deal”, you start with an outrageous offer, so you have room to negotiate. Most of these tariffs will be substantially reduced, or even removed, once the countries they impact do the same to the tariffs they impose on US trade in their country.
Now we see the problems it creates. The WSJ is a rag that is littered with anti-Trump writers, and devoid of any real journalists.
Free traitors at WSJ whining again?
‘Eff them.
.
later
Yeah. The WSJ is the NYT of finance. Nobody pays attention to that gllobalist rag.
short term pain, long term gain. We survived just fine before the free traitors raided our country and destroyed our manufacturing. All so traitors like romney could make a quick buck off the backs of his countrymen. These people are total sickos who hate you.
The WALL street journal is owned by lunatic liberals ... nothing ‘republican’ about them ...
If tariffs are so bad, why is it OK for other countries to tariff our goods?
curing a patient from cancer or getting a person addicted to heroin clean again usually isn’t pain free
I agree with you man...we should continue to be the worlds doormat as they tariff the ever-loving sh!t out of us, making our trade deficit continue to sky rocket, discourage creation of industry in our country, as we do nothing to right the ship.
:P
“production of the famous T-34 tank was moved 2,000 km from Kharkov to the Stalin-Ural railcar factory at Niznhy Tagil, Sverdlovsk, under the leadership of its designer, Alexander Morizov. This involved moving 30,000 workers and dependents, and 10,000 machine tools. They were all boxed up and moved east.”
“Workers re-assembling a steel works at Chelyabinsk were given just 75 days to restart production. This involved laying railway tracks, re-assembling 18 machine shops and connecting compressed air supplies. Starting with frozen ground, working round the clock, and living in tents, the workers achieved the task in 56 days.”
“Chelyabinsk became home to the world’s largest tank factory.”
“In addition to the removal and re-assembly of the factories, the Soviets also built 3,500 factories from scratch from 1942 to 1946, which equates to 750 a year.”
https://www.left-horizons.com/2021/10/08/eighty-years-ago-evacuation-of-soviet-war-factories/
Gee, if asking the rest of the world to charge us the same tarriffs as we charge them is not fair then CHARGE!
“fair trade is the goal.”
Financially balanced by nation trade needs to be the goal.
Definitely will. The long term is probably great. But it takes years to get manufacturing up and running in the United States. One thing Americans are not is patient. They will determine this in November 2026.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.