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Trump announces higher tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods

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By Delphine TOUITOU

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CrazyJoe, that's exactly how these things work! The hope is the tariffs will increase prices, driving the consumers towards buying more locally produced good, and the manufacturers to keep the production local

9 ( +14 / -5 )

Does Trump STILL not understand that American consumers end up paying the tariffs, not the Chinese sellers?

7 ( +19 / -12 )

Governing by tweet sure is awesome for those that lack the intellectual capacity to govern correctly.

6 ( +16 / -10 )

the economy stagnated under Obama

Fake news

6 ( +14 / -8 )

For those bashing Trump:

Who do you mistrust more: China or Trump?

China has been a lying, cheating, bullying country since 2000. China wants all the benefits of being in the WTO, without playing by the rules.

While Trump is clearly off-balance, at least he acknowledges the fact that China steals IP, manipulates currency, subsidizes industries and bullies its neighbors. Obama, Bush and Bill Clinton (both Democrats and Republicans) all just 'looked the other way' at China's indiscretions and look what has happened in the meantime. Give Trump credit, at least he understands that there is a problem with China and he has shone a spotlight on it.

6 ( +11 / -5 )

 Give Trump credit, at least he understands that there is a problem with China and he has shone a spotlight on it.

100%

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Lowest unemployment since 1969.

Roaring economy.

The sitting President always gets credit for the good or the bad economy.

China wants to retain their unfair trade. It will always be unfair, but it can be less unfair.

3 ( +11 / -8 )

The best GDP growth during Obama's presidency was 2.9%, with an average of 2.1%. Granted, he inherited a recession from the establishment Republicans and Democrats.

He inherited a car crash of an economy from Bush 2.

The idea that the economy stagnated under him is Fox News-level fake news.

3 ( +10 / -7 )

Trump’s on a winner here, putting the Beijing plutocrats on notice that access to the U.S market is not an automatic right, but a privilege that has to be earned.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

CrazyJoe, that's exactly how these things work! The hope is the tariffs will increase prices, driving the consumers towards buying more locally produced good, and the manufacturers to keep the production local

Need to realize the scale of Chinese manufacturing. Outside China, many things are simply not produced at enough scale to allow American buyers to simply switch suppliers. Short term pain but perhaps gain in the long run. Also depends on how long this administration lasts.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

Trump announces higher tariffs on Chinese goods

Not mentioned in the article but this is also about shipping costs, the US postal service and the UPU (Univsal Postal Union) inside the UN.

It is the UPU that is causing a lot of problems for the middle classes in many OECD countries and can also be accused by environmentalists as enabler of increased pollution, to name a few.

Why?

I recommend this short speech by Jayme Smaldone inventor of the Mighty Mug.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4735915/mighty-mug-jayme-smaldone-cnet

Or basically, he raises the question as to why it costs him $8. to ship one coffee mug to his next door neighbor, while costing a Chinese COPY coffee mug $1. to ship to his neighbor, which is actually offered as “free shipping”.

Lots of problems with trade with China. If Trump blows this, he knows his chances of re-election are slim. So this won’t be over for awhile.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

But you forget, it is we who chose profits over workers at home. Our businesses sold out for cheaper wages abroad, and a developing country simply processed the orders. Yes, these workers took a look at the products and said maybe we can make them too and just lifts the designs and blueprint but China isn’t forcing us to buy their products. The US has a trade deficit with some 110 countries as we are a consumer oriented society.

Thats just more defeatism style liberal thinking. America used to be a place where people all around the world look towards for innovation and great products. Then somewhere along the way, people like you got lazy and started to invite and work for foreigners. Anything can be undone, and thats what Trump wants to do. The only thing a Democrat is good for is dreaming up useless programs that dont work and other doofus solutions like hyper progressive policies and diversity, which havent worked. Where Im from, swaths of hotels and gas stations are now owned by Indians and Middle Easterners, who employ the locals, or their own family. The Japanese companies are all managed by, (surprise) Japanese. Democrats dont care about this dynamic, they only care about useless programs and promises that help to get them voted.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

Besides a greater opening of the Chinese market to U.S. goods, Trump is pressing for structural changes such as Beijing ending its practice of forcing U.S. companies that operate in China to share their technology. Trump is also demanding that China halt intellectual property theft and subsidies to state-owned companies.

This is the most important part of the negotiations. If Trump reduces the trade deficit while this remains largely intact then he really will be useless.

Besides, he could lower the trade deficit overnight by stopping his own manufacturing there, but that would mean he would have to give jobs to his American base, and there's no way in hell the billionaire will take less profit by hiring American workers.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

No worries, Biden will cancel these tariffs and do anything else the Chinese want when he becomes president.

That Biden is not the answer does not respond to the earlier comments on Trump’s lack of a thought out policy. If Company T is wasteful, your answer says well Company B is also incompetent. Not a good rebuttal.

Trump is the one who cancels the Iran deal and the Paris Agreement. His strategy is no more than delete, backspace, and undo. The office requires more due diligence.

Biden: : "China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man. They're not bad folks, folks. But guess what? They're not competition for us”?

Biden is almost worse than Trump. If you eat at Eggroll Express or Panda Express in the Midwest and that’s the extent of your interaction with the Chinese, the workers of restaurants, then that comment is the best you’ve got, but if you’ve worked in Silicon Valley, your view of Chinese and Indians would be different. Biden is simply wrong on this. China is becoming a power, irrespective of how it deals with corruption.

Does Crazy still not understand that without putting tariffs on Chinese goods, there will be no change in the huge unfair trade imbalance with China, which is a huge economic threat to the U.S., something Biden refuses to acknowledge.

But you forget, it is we who chose profits over workers at home. Our businesses sold out for cheaper wages abroad, and a developing country simply processed the orders. Yes, these workers took a look at the products and said maybe we can make them too and just lifts the designs and blueprint but China isn’t forcing us to buy their products. The US has a trade deficit with some 110 countries as we are a consumer oriented society.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Trump invites the Chinese to come over on Wednesday but announces higher tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to welcome them.

If the Chinese call his bluff and cancel the trade talks, things will get interesting. No one wants to sit and work out an agreement under a threat. DonaldTrump EQ under the test.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Is Trump really qualified to make these judgements? His Trump retail items were made in China. Also Ivanka's fashion goods were outsourced to a China factory with cheap labor.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Fake news.

Not according to Wall St. and the Feds, but to Obama lovers, probably.

According to facts. Not alternative facts. Not crackpot conspiracy theories. Not Tucker Carlson.

The economy was not stagnant under Obama. Those who think it was stagnant either live in a fake news bubble or, quite possibly, do not know the meaning of the word ‘stagnant’.

It’s quite shocking to see this kind of thing posted.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

There is no point having talks with the Trump administration. They are a waste of your time. Best thing to do is hit the Americans back harder! China needs to cancel their orders of Boeing aircraft. Stop buying all agriculture. Hit the Trump supporter right in the wallet!

0 ( +6 / -6 )

Lowest unemployment since 1969.

Sigh. Just a reminder to those with selective memories, but in 1969 the US was at WAR. Armaments factories were operating extra shifts churning out all sorts of weaponry, and males in the 18-21 age group without student deferments or 4F exemptions had no problem finding jobs, since Uncle Sam was drafting them. (Military conscription continued until 1973.) If the US finds itself in another war, I suppose unemployment will decline even further.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

so without even being at war, Trump has matched war time unemployment lows. Great news that makes his number even more impressive.

0 ( +7 / -7 )

so without even being at war, Trump has matched war time unemployment lows. 

That's a false equivalence, since over the last 50 years look what's happened to the ratio of of Americans working in manufacturing, vis-a-vis those who toil at lower-paying jobs in the service economy.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Chinese tariffs will even make people fat and unhealthy according to NY Times. Delusion. Remember when these tariffs were going to cripple our economy? Wrong.

Others suggested that national health care costs could be inflated by Mr. Trump’s tariffs if the price of fitness products put that $600 treadmill out of reach or made even basic sporting goods unattainable.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Serrano: "China, which is a huge economic threat to the U.S." This is what it's all about. The reality is China is the second largest economy after the US and in the near future will be the largest and this is what the US is afraid of. The US wants to continue, not only its military and political domination of the globe, but also its economic domination. Washington is not so concerned about the Chinese military but about losing economic domination and hence global dictatorship. With the lose of economic supremacy the US will lose its ability to stranglehold the globe with boycotts and sanctions.

> Muratafan: " China steals IP, manipulates currency, subsidizes industries and bullies its neighbors." This is what the US has been doing for the past 70 years. Do some reading!

> So you would rather be under the Chinese boot instead of the American boot?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Tariffs won't solve the real differences in business practices between China and western countries.

China is addressing trade and corporate investment as a country, with a united front, dictated by the govt leaders. They know that few companies will bring charges against them in the WTO because they don't want to be shut out from China forever.

In the west, companies refused to go on the record since 2000 about unfair trade demands with Chinese owned companies and the Chinese govt not enforcing WTO rules. Since no company would go on the record, no other country had proof which is necessary to bring WTO sanctions. These companies caused the problem and it will never get better until they all provide proof of the WTO rule violations.

Trump thinks that tariffs will help. They will not. Best case is that trade slows and prices become higher. Tariffs don't lead to any long term solutions where China wins AND the west wins too.

Something has to change. Either China will change and follow WTO rules or the west will need to change to follow Chinese business practices where govts are involved in a wholistic approach to business.

Another option is to setup rules for Chinese people and companies doing business, education, living, in western countries that mirror what China does.

Having a dictator for life means that the current plans won't change in a few years in China, unless some outside force causes them to change. Basically, the entire world needs to force this issue.

In the end, a prosperous China will have an educated, well-off, middle class who will demand a more open society. That is good for the world, but it will take at least 40 more years for the "entitled" kids to grow up an take over the political system there.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

If you read Bob Woodward's book Fear, you see how chaotic and dysfunctional Trump's economic policy is - and the fact that he had zero knowledge and makes no attempt to learn. Gen Kelly tried to manage all the warring factions and gave up, calling it "crazytown"...

Just like in 2000, when Clinton handed off to Bush II one of our strongest economies ever, and 7 years later the Repubs ran it into the ground with their cozy relationship with Wall Street, the same thing is happening now - Obama had to fix all the Repub excesses putting it back on a path to growth, and now we have Trump, killing it with idiotic trade policy.

A politician that does what voters elected him to do.

Replace "voters" with "Putin" and you'd be correct...

-1 ( +8 / -9 )

If you read Bob Woodward's book Fear, you see how chaotic and dysfunctional Trump's economic policy is - and the fact that he had zero knowledge and makes no attempt to learn.

Trump is a pure tactician, not a strategist, moving from “deal” to deal, hoping to improve his position one step at a time. Win, lose or draw, he moves on to the next. He is not the sort of person to actually plan a major “war” - military or economic. Strategy is not his forte (pronounced FORT - this being the word of French origin, not the similarly spelled word from Italian used to mean “loud” in music.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

the economy stagnated under Obama

Fake news

The best GDP growth during Obama's presidency was 2.9%, with an average of 2.1%. Granted, he inherited a recession from the establishment Republicans and Democrats.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

Who do you mistrust more: China or Trump?

Both are equally deceptive and untrustworthy. Both lie to get what they want. Both do not care who gets hurt in their ambitions.

Smart people trust neither.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

Chip StarMay 6 07:31 am JST

Governing by tweet sure is awesome for those that lack the intellectual capacity to govern correctly

> How is this 'relevant to this topic and why is it still up on the poster board? After all any 'pro trump' posts are promptly removed as being off topic by the masters

Meanwhile, Tariff's are an excellent way of forcing a settlement. For years Americans have voted for administrations that promised to have trade policies that promoted American interests only to end up with one sided arrangements controlled by outside forces. At last there is a president who is negotiating on behalf of the United States against predatory trade practices of China.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

@Mr. Noidal,

I really dont know what they want. Yes, they do identify real problems, but they never provide any solution that works. Now they know that their original doctrines have failed, so they have become even more radical and nuts. Your left with this defeatist, resigned, hopeless, give up kind of feeling when you live in a democrat controlled city or enviroment.. Everything has to be fair for everybody. Anybody who believes or "gets with that" is a fool, IMO.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

The Chinese economy is showing further signs of slowing, Trump knows the power of the US economy and is prepared to use it, China has asked for the tariffs to be lifted, will be only a matter of time before China folds and Trump wins again, short term pain for long term gain.

-2 ( +9 / -11 )

Serrano: "China, which is a huge economic threat to the U.S." This is what it's all about. The reality is China is the second largest economy after the US and in the near future will be the largest and this is what the US is afraid of. The US wants to continue, not only its military and political domination of the globe, but also its economic domination. Washington is not so concerned about the Chinese military but about losing economic domination and hence global dictatorship. With the lose of economic supremacy the US will lose its ability to stranglehold the globe with boycotts and sanctions.

Muratafan: " China steals IP, manipulates currency, subsidizes industries and bullies its neighbors." This is what the US has been doing for the past 70 years. Do some reading!

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

Or have liberals created a new way keep score like they tried to do with “muh popular vote”?

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

No worries, Biden will cancel these tariffs and do anything else the Chinese want when he becomes president.

Does Trump STILL not understand that American consumers end up paying the tariffs, not the Chinese sellers?

Does Crazy still not understand that without putting tariffs on Chinese goods, there will be no change in the huge unfair trade imbalance with China, which is a huge economic threat to the U.S., something Biden refuses to acknowledge.

-3 ( +8 / -11 )

China will hit back on everything from autos to airplanes to food.

-3 ( +6 / -9 )

@blacklble  I just took it as true.

Consistent. Partisan extremists, especially those who bifurcate, see the world as binary - my beliefs or my enemy's, nothing in between - rarely do research to find truth. So many just repeat something they read on social media or somewhere on the Internet without fact checking. Facts interfere with their overly simplistic beliefs. For them it's much easier to scan whatever media they believe to find slogans to parrot. An example: reading something in a JT post and repeating it.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

The problem with China is their counterfeiting of companies intellectual property, its time for China to abide by global laws.

-4 ( +10 / -14 )

Great to hear. Five more years of this, please!

-4 ( +8 / -12 )

Obama had to fix all the Repub excesses

Have ya seen the latest figures? Obama spent too much time telling everyone what couldn't be done while Trump has gone ahead and achieved them, the economy stagnated under Obama, if Trump cured cancer you would complain that he's put the researchers out of work, Geez!

-6 ( +8 / -14 )

Why China takes this? They should block the Taiwan strait.

-11 ( +2 / -13 )

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