Posted on 04/05/2025 3:02:29 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
Trade wars are often said to be a risky business, but if the past few years have shown us anything, it’s that we’ve been sleepwalking through a system that’s been rigged for decades. President Donald Trump, who has made a point of his presidency to challenge globalist economic orthodoxies, has chosen tariffs to reignite debate over the structure of global commerce.
Since 1990, American trade policy has been shaped by diplomacy and compromise, but the era of polite negotiations appears to be over. On April 2, 2025, in what he denominated “Liberation Day,” President Trump announced a sweeping new tariff regime: a 10% blanket tariff on all imported goods and punitive levies on select countries, including China, where some items will be taxed at rates as high as 50%. The measures also include expedited timelines for implementation, enhanced Customs and Border Protection enforcement to prevent transshipment, and a redefinition of origin rules to close long-abused loopholes. The policy marks a deliberate turn away from decades of liberalized trade, placing strategic interest ahead of multilateral consensus.
The tariff package functions not as a single policy but as a signal that the United States will no longer tolerate systemic disadvantage in trade relations. Time and time again, successive American administrations signed multilateral trade deals that promised efficiency but delivered industrial erosion. The new tariffs, applied to over sixty nations, are designed to protect American industries from what the administration describes as chronic cheating. China remains central to this calculus, though the measures are global in scope. Steel, electronics, pharmaceuticals, and automotive components are all included. The policy is coupled with investment incentives for domestic manufacturers, a fast-track review for critical supply chains, and restrictions on firms that offshore production but continue to benefit from federal procurement contracts.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
We haven’t even been fighting back.
What Trump’s tariffs represent isn’t protectionism, but a strategic counterattack against years of systemic trade manipulation. The countries now crying foul have long imposed far higher tariffs and non-tariff barriers of their own—currency manipulation, IP theft, regulatory gamesmanship. This policy isn’t about rejecting trade; it’s about demanding reciprocity. We’re finally showing up to a trade war we didn’t start but can no longer afford to ignore.
If tariffs are so bad, according to US economists, then how come other nations love ‘em to death?
In fact, if tariffs are so bad (as economists and leaders of other countries say), let's all get rid of them.
lol....I saw VDH too on that. I have been reading about tariffs and mercantile nations since 1988 when Japanese automobiles were making big incursions into US markets. I read books on them and liked what Pat Buchannan had to say.
Rep Richard Gephardt (House majority leader at one point) was an economic nationalist back then
GREAT comments BUMP!
And yet, for some reason, all of those other countries have levied tariffs on our goods for decades.
Yeah, there are basically three levels from best to worst:
1) No tariffs and everyone plays fair (the ideal)
2) Reciprocal tariffs since not everyone plays fair
3) America plays the chump with low tariffs and everyone takes advantage of us
Trump hasn’t budged on tariff-thinking since an interview (Oprah?) decades ago . He’s also a graduate of Wharton College.
Tariffs are:
- adjustable
- flexible
- manageable
- negotiable
Trump anticipates that.
Liberals, RINOs, Wall St., financial engineers:
- bombshells
- shocking
- unprecedented
because the are accustomed to “ordinary people” performing a buffer role, so:
- inflation
- mathmatical prognostication programs
are controlable and predictable.
IOW, President Trump has decreased the level of convenience in the Juice Factory of Liberals, RINOs, Wall St., and financial engineers.
The old saying … Nobody likes to see a sucker wise up.
CBNS
After DECADES of Failed Policy, It’s Time to Give Tariffs a Try | Guest: Dr. Scott Atlas | 4/3/25 Steve Deace https://podcasts.apple.com/hr/podcast/after-decades-of-failed-policy-its-time-to-give/id481087877?i=1000702096159
Correct.
Ain’t it wonderful to have a businessman for president instead of a stinking lawyer.??
The lawyers will be after Trump with everything they can think of, and judge’s ARE lawyers. The lawyers think THEY own the government, especially the Presidency. Their PO’ed to the max and will be pulling every dirty trick they can think of for the next four years...
It’s ironic how European leaders—who’ve long exploited the U.S. through tariffs and trade barriers—are now squealing, just like the corrupt Democrats being exposed by DOGE and Musk for looting us at home.
A very wise saying.
Remember that Trump is a builder. An old decrepit building has to be demolished before erecting a new one. The demolition phase is messy and uncomfortable so let the howlers and moaning commence but when it’s rebuilt they won’t get any credit but Trump will be congratulated by those with half a brain tilted towards truth.
Reciprocity is the guiding principle of effective human relations (including trade). That is the basis for exchanging fair value for fair value — rather than one being “all give” and the other “all take” — which is the welfare state. Then, people think that all they have to do is demand endlessly more — and it is the responsibility of the competent and productive people to provide for them unquestioningly. That is the state we achieved under Biden (Democrats) — in which the “leader” did absolutely nothing — and expected “four more years.” Boy, does that end in a hurry.
It has taken a rough-and-tumble construction business magnate to even understand that America has been pushed over on its ass by the international warping of trade and to be able to fight it with actually effective means. Around-the-table negotiation is a loser for this. It takes the major economy waking up and kicking its trade “partners” in the ass with their own boots to make trade mover over to actual free trade among countries.
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