The White House has confirmed that the formula behind President Trump's new tariffs is essentially based on the U.S. trade deficit with a foreign country, divided by the country’s exports. Here's how that works. https://nyti.ms/4jgr9e8
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
It feels like a lot of you at the @nytimes.com reports what Trump and his administration says is truth, but they're all lies, all the time. Why can't your paper just say that?!
The analogy is this, I have a trade deficit with my mechanic b/c she doesn’t buy anything from me, but I buy service and parts from her. So to retaliate and make it more fair, I have her charge me more. Then I take that difference and give it away to billionaires in tax cuts.
Sorry, my reduced demand already sent my mechanic looking for business in Asia and the Middle East so she’s booked now. Even if I increase my demand later, she’s already reestablished her trade routes. I could offer to pay her more. Also my car needs rubber, something I can’t grow myself.
This is so stupid. Trade deficits are in no way bad things. This policy assumes that any country that we buy stuff from should be expected to buy as much of our stuff. Why? We’re importing something of value and selling our wares to the highest bidder in a global market. That’s capitalism.
Can you please call out the fact that 47 misrepresented this as the tariff rate being charged to the US? It’s not. It’s not a reasonable proxy either because it’s entirely possible (and common) to have a trade deficit without unfair practices or currency manipulation.
What would you expect from someone who thinks trade balances are subsidies? He also conveniently ignores the services side of trade where America has a big surplus with most countries.
Yeah, this is not real economic math, folks. It's trade numbers that aren't well related mixed together through a bad formula to come up with a wrong answer.
Thing is, trump will use this to "lower" the rates back down for each nation after he negotiates a deal and claim victory. Mark my words.
You know they say that all tariffs are created equal, but you look at me and you look at Vietnam and you can see that statement is not true.
So you take the us trade deficit with Vietnam which which is 123.5 billion, you divide that by their exports which is 136.6 billion you get a 90% tariff
Well, I see a lot of thought and preparation went into going line by line and evaluating each situation, oh wait, never mind they just pulled numbers out of the beautiful mind of the Dear Leader and used that to tank the economy. How are those egg prices doing today?
That calculation is complete lunacy!!
China makes lower value items that US couldn't possibly make for that price I.e wages r higher in the US!
The economy in the US is becoming more tertiary (services) than manufacturing! There is a higher mark up or profit on services than manufacturing I.e GDP++
asking any economics expert out there....is there any way to defend this calculation? is it sane at ALL? cause it seems like they just said, here's two numbers, let's divide one by the other and see what happens.
Donnie's tariffs are not based on foreign tariffs against U.S. exports, so they are not "retaliatory." They result from a simplistic formula that targets successful trading countries, not unfair traders. And U.S. consumers, via higher prices, will thus pay for tax cuts gifted to his donor elite.
The idiots think trade deficits are tariffs. We have (or rather had) trade deficits because US consumers have (or rather had) more disposable income than those other countries. I guess Trump just took care of that by obliterating our disposable income.
How about you gutless humps actually say what you think . . . which is that this is about as monumentally stupid a fucking way of going about a monumentally stupid thing as can possibly be imagined.
If tariffs are based on the deficit between two countries, then it should be based on a per capita basis talking into account the value of their currency. Raw numbers are useless. Example: If you take into account Canada's population, they import FAR more than the USA does per capita. Economics 101
The world is moving towards a consumer boycott of all American brands ...... formulas, calculations .... complete nonsense. For a country to be big and strong, its allies must be just as big and strong. The USA was left without friends for three months.
Comments
Can it ?
But your point isn’t wrong.
Thing is, trump will use this to "lower" the rates back down for each nation after he negotiates a deal and claim victory. Mark my words.
So you take the us trade deficit with Vietnam which which is 123.5 billion, you divide that by their exports which is 136.6 billion you get a 90% tariff
Break everything, then control it, and us, in the chaos and weakness of that follows
Just one time.
China makes lower value items that US couldn't possibly make for that price I.e wages r higher in the US!
The economy in the US is becoming more tertiary (services) than manufacturing! There is a higher mark up or profit on services than manufacturing I.e GDP++
Everyone who voted for Donald Trump is a piece of shit.
No . . . he’s a “risk taker.” Fuck you people.
replace "Here's how that works" with "Economists are baffled"