Trade War begins: US and China exchange $34 billion in tariffs

The trade surplus Germany has with the US. It was never about cars. German cars are not really very popular here. Germany will be forced to lower its trade surplus across the board. The same is true with China, Japan and South Korea. All of these countries have a trade surplus with the US which they will be forced to reduce on pain of tariffs and limits on their access to the US market. The US market is the largest and richest in the world. If you can't sell here because you are tariffed you aren't really in the game. That's what is going on now. Germany is starting to realize they can't win and are coming around to the idea of fair and balanced trade with the US and that is wise. China will have to learn its lesson the hard way and will suffer very much including dangerous domestic unrest at home.

 

I am not sure if this will necessarily lead to war but certainly something to watch. So long as lithium/cobalt is scarce it will be very difficult for the electric car market share to rise at a significant rate. Since the Establishment own much of the Oil Oligopoly s this suits these international financiers just fine.

Should Bolivia's reserves prove to be significant enough to be able to increase lithium supply to a point where the oil market is threatened ... then I could see the Establishment stepping in to disrupt this supply.

The other thing to watch is alternative's - new battery technology. Graphene looks to have some promise as an alternative. Should this technology bear fruit this could be a significant disrupter.

 

This represents a loss in earnings for every country US is trading with.
It will cause domestic unrest in Germany as well as China.
Germany isn't as fractious a country as China, but people losing their jobs and taking pay cuts is politically unhelpful to say the least.
It's not a vote winner. Don't expect them to thank you or see any fairness in this. It's going to hurt.

This is not not a zero sum gain. The pie can only be sliced so many ways.
If your slice gets bigger, someones else's is going to get smaller.

 

A German car built in South Carolina and sold in the US will not be facing an import tariff unlike one built in Germany and exported to the US. The German built car should be more expensive than the US made car.

Yes, its going to hurt but its the world trade predators like Germany and China have created. They are reaping what they sowed.

 

Wrong, the EU is the largest market in the world. So far trumps tariffs achieved that we did grow on the US market, since the special steel Germany delivers, is not produced in the US.

Meanwhile Germany dismissed to buy american gas and also cancelled Boeing aircrafts. In June the trade deficit even grew larger.

As is said, you only produce ****. Why dont you start to produce things people want here?

The goal here is to crush trump.

USA problem is, that they have become to meaningless to control world trade and thats what we now see. The counter tariffs mostly crush small american business and teh next target here are the american internet companies like Google, Amazon and Apple. Since USA is ripped apart, its even easier. We do tariff excemptions for states like California but crush states like Wisconsin.

Fun fact: Italy just yesterday cancelled its F35 order.

USA currently loses on all fronts.

I support all this. The far right in Germany wants the final break with USA. This so called "alliance" must be destroyed. No matter what.

I want a trade war

 

They are indeed.
Their happy time is coming to an end.

 

We reap more profits right now. China cancells Boeings and buys our Airbus. We see alot business redirected from america to Germany right now.

 

Then this will give other Asian countries an opportunity to start manufacturing less expensive goods for the American (and international) consumer.

 

40% of your national economy is exports.
Your people will starve.

Look at Iran and see what being sanctioned by America means.
No one will trade with you.

You won't just lose your American markets but you will lose every market that makes more trading with America than it does you.
Which is all of them except Russia. Who will be the ones who take over your country when it collapses into famine, if you are lucky.

 

Airbus is French.

(America produces Airbus too of course).

 

You had better post the numbers and the reasoning behind it your statement. I can't calculate the cost of a job from the price of steel.

And who is it that gets paid those several million?

 

War is good. War has brought the world to the present, and war will take the world into the future.

 

I see. So the average difference in tariffs is about 1.5%. You would be happy if the EU just wrote us a check for 2 billion dollars? Because I think they would probably do that just to shut Trump up.

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You misunderstand their nature.
They want to destroy you.
Curb you.
Defeat you.
Eclipse you.

And regain their crown.
The one you took from them in 1945.
Their rightful place in the world as it's leaders.

You are their enemy.

I don't really care if the EU sends you money,
I don't really care if you or they tariff each other.
I don't give a ****.

In about 1 years time my country is going to have to set it's own trade barriers against the EU.
The debate you are having is one we are about to have ourselves

My prediction is the EU is not smart enough to write that cheque.
That their political leaders will choose to fight and do yet more damage to the EU economy.
And they will sit pretty in their ever growing palaces while countries like Germany are full of people taking it in the arse for their vanity.

 

there are several local brands in CHina + dozens foreign brand, all made in China, the factory work can goto those factories in short term if china decide to make GM/Ford bussines operation diffcult in china. but trade war are damaging both side, this is a fact. US and China will both lose, there aren't winner here.

 

It could lead to the inevitable collapse of the EU with each country, naturally, looking after their own self interests.

 

Yes trump delusion syndrome makes any meaningful communication impossible. I submit your posting record as evidence.

 

Boy you really are a master contortionist, not to mention a skilled straw pitcher.

As for stronger. In the sense that China can far more easily control their population, not to mention the information they are fed, then yes I believe China could weather a trade war with less political and social disruption than the US.

No offense but the highly opinionated, ignorant, kneejerk. fallacy spouter types make me even sicker.

 

Unlikely. Anti Americanism is reason d'etre for the EU.
It will rally them together tighter.

An existential threat unites people.

 

I can do that.
The US produced $113 billion in steel in 2017 and imported $29 billion.
The average price was about $600 a ton.
The price of US produced steel is now $1000 a ton. A 66% increase.
So we used to pay $142 billion for all steel used in America.
The new rate will be $235 billion.
There are 87,000 people employed in steel mills. To increase production would require and additional 25% at most, so about 22,000 jobs.
That's a little over $4 million each for those 22,000 jobs.
Nobody gets paid the $22 billion. That is sucked out of the US economy as inflation. The 22000 new workers will get about $1 billion of the $22 billion.
Estimates vary on how many jobs will be lost because of the increase in steel cost passed on to manufactures, but for sure it will be more than the business gained from 22,000 jobs.

 

That's very true, but that anti Americanism was there long before the EU was formed and can continue on a country by country basis after its collapse, just as it always was.

 

With 37% of the global supply, I think you are correct. The only alternative source is Brazil. Either or, the world needs its soybeans.
Agriculture is the one industry that even in free trade agreements there are carve outs - seems everybody's gotta eat and food production is the MOST strategic asset a nation can have.

Hard goods and services is an entirely other kettle of fish. Long term damage can readily be had if it gets to the point of constructing alternative supply lines and concommitted long term agreements.

Trade wars are high risk, mutually damaging and in this instance wholly unnecessary.

 

If you try and break the EU up, you will make it stronger.
If you present a threat to them, you will unite them.

Do not misunderstand the relationship. The purpose of the EU, it's reason for being, is to take on American hegemony.
If you feed it, it will grow.

 

What a crock. There has been an anti american sentiment in EVERY country since ww2.

Of course in the minds of trumpland and its allied facist nutters, if there is one euro who is anti american the entire EU is anti american.

Yet another display of the brilliant logic of the ideologically entrenched and intellectually bankrupt.

 

So speaks a bloke who doesn't live in Europe.
It is an anti American institution. By nature.

It's purpose is to unite them as a single body to rival American power.
That is it's job.

If you don't understand that simple fact, you don't understand the EU.