Trump's threats of tariffs are already working

Looks like Trump's threats of tariffs are already working.


Mexican President Agrees With Trump to Stop the Flow of Immigrants
Trump threatened to impose a 25% across-the-board tariff on Mexico on the first day of his presidency.
Trump says Mexico will stop flow of migrants after speaking with Mexican president following tariff threats, Louis Casiano, Fox News, November 27, 2024


Ottawa is promising to boost border security to appease Donald Trump in the wake of the incoming U.S. president’s threat to slap a 25-per-cent tariff on all Canadian goods and services.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau convened an emergency meeting with the premiers Wednesday to forge a battle plan after Trump's trade broadside two days earlier.
Trudeau told them that no one should assume the new president might change his mind or is bluffing, so his ultimatum must be taken seriously.

Ottawa pledges to strengthen border to appease Trump after tariff threat , Adrian Wyld, Toronto Star, November 27, 2024

 

Lest anyone be deceived by events, Trumps threats of tariffs is "working" because foreign leaders fear exports and sales to the US may be seriously impacted and harm their countries. But let's not confuse this with increasing costs of goods for Americans. The opposition to trump's tariffs is saying that when a tariff is imposed on needed or popular items that are not being made in the US, sales in the US will largely continue and the price of those items will rise significantly. Leading economists have expressed concerns and warnings.

 

Probably will not take money out of the pockets of American consumers any more than any other type of tax would.

(And obviously if the price rises too much, there'd be the option for those items to be made in the U.S. again, serving as a possible "pressure release valve" in some cases)

 

huh?

I think you might want to read what I wrote again.

 

The funny thing is that tariffs caused trade wars that kicked off the Great Depression and caused it to be worse than it had to be. The Smoot-Harley Tariff act of 1930 was a mistake.

How will Tariffs not be a mistake this time?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot–Hawley_Tariff_Act

McKinley’s tariffs were also poorly received and lead to dissatisfaction among American voters and caused dissatisfaction among America’s trading partners. McKinkey himself would have withdrawn them had he not been assassinated.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKinley_Tariff#Reactions

 

Trump says.......LOL

Well, I guess we don't need a wall then if Mexico will stop all illegal immigration.

Sure sounds like they told Trump something to get him to shut up.

 

That claim is disputed and not agreed upon as a historical fact.

If you want to discuss or debate that, I suggest you start another thread or leave the link to another thread here.

Besides, I could point out that most of those tariffs kicked in after the Great Depression was well underway. So if we're only talking about cause-effect relationships, it could just as easily be argued that the tariffs helped lead to the eventual ending of the Great Depression, wouldn't really make less sense than your argument.

 

Because the U.S. did not really have a net trade deficit in the years then, as it does now.

In my view, when a country has a gigantic long term trade deficit (imbalance), then a reduction in trade is not really the major thing it has to worry about. It would be better to have less trade if the country can drastically get its trade deficit down, and start importing less as a percentage compared to what it exports.

Not only that, but the few things America is currently exporting does not really create a lot of jobs for Americans, for the most part. That would require a detailed analysis, but I am thinking of things like agricultural products.

 

America has a deficit because people don’t want to buy American stuff.

 

American stuff is (still) excellent.

I would say, moreso, that Americans and probably a lot of westerners around the world have developed an appetite for cheap ****.

Now excuse me while I go browse on Temu for something cheap to replace the last cheap thing that broke....

 

American stuff is very far from excellent.
We’re talking of a country that calls MacDonalds outlets ‘restaurants’ and the things consumed ‘meals’.
Name one 100% American manufactured household item worth buying.

 

Pyrex, Weber (barbecues), Cuisinart.

Why just stick to household items? That's mostly cheap crap.

Now please name if you can British household items worth buying. My father had an old Norton motorbike. Britain used to be the manufacturing centre of the universe.

 

I am no more going to say anything British is worth buying any more than you can say American stuff is excellent.
American stuff can't compete with so much stuff from other countries for both quality and value.
I mean America is a country that thinks you can make a decent cup of tea by putting a tea bag in cold water and then in the microwave! Have you ever had American 'chocolate', or American cheese?

 

The USA has a trade deficit with Canada because it has been buying oil which gives American workers jobs. If you remove oil from the balance sheets, there is no US trade deficit with Canada. Canadian oil would have been one of the first things to go if Trump is able to cause the price of oil to drop by ramping up production. Alberta oil production is expensive and not profitable when oil prices drop.

I think Trump is really saying that he wants Canada to give up its sovereignty just as he wants Denmark to give up sovereignty over Greenland,

What he is really doing is driving allies to have closer trade relationships with other countries. I would hope that would mean Canada forms a free trade block with other commonwealth countries or the EU.

In the short term, Canadians everywhere are cancelling trips to the USA and our government is looking at pulling American products like alcohol off the shelves. We can spend our money elsewhere.

Personally, I would be happy to see China start selling its cars in Canada. I have always driven Chevy and specifically bought my current car knowing it was created by the Detroit-Windsor auto cluster. If Trump wants to sever that cluster, so be it. I’d be happy to buy a $10,000 Chinese car, it saves me $40,000.

The US is not going to be a superpower much longer if the US severs its trade relationships. As BRICS gains momentum it seems stupid to alienate America’s allies.

The USA, on the other hand can enjoy buying aluminum from Venezuela instead of Quebec.

 

One thing I do agree with Trump on is that Canada needs to bump up defence spending to 5% of GDP. We haven’t met the NATO commitment this century. It’s pretty clear that part of his Tariff plan is to impose tariffs on countries that don’t meet those spending requirements.

still, I can’t help but feel the man is a idiot when he refers to the 2% defence spending commitment as a payment and acts like it’s a payment to NATO to the USA. It’s also stupid that Canada is always there taking a major role when NATI requires it but there is no acknowledgment of that.

 

I don't think Canada is the main country that skeptics of Free Trade are focusing on when they advocate for tariffs.

Canada basically has a bunch of natural resources (lumber and mineral ores, and some natural gas) that no one doubts are beneficial to the U.S.
The U.S. does have a slight trade deficit with Canada (of 9%), which is not ideal. But it probably would not take strong measures to reduce that.

 

Here's my perspective.
If America can't compete with another country on quality, that would not be the country to focus on in terms of tariffs. The problem right now is with other countries with lower prices.

I personally don't really see a reason why the U.S. would need to protect its markets from things produced in Germany, France, the U.K., or even Japan right now.

These are not in the category of countries that are really at issue.

If they are countries with similar standards of living, similar wage levels, and levels of regulations (including level of enforcement) that are similar to (or exceed) the level in the U.S., then there's not really an economic reason to put up trade barriers.

I do agree Trump might be going a little too far in his weaponization of tariff threats to browbeat countries (like Canada) into doing something. Most of this does seem concentrated on immigration enforcement, however. That could be a little bit of another discussion. It does seem like Canada may be being intentionally lax on their visitor policies, knowing that many of those visitors are probably going to use their entry into Canada to illegally sneak into the United States, which is what the politicians currently running Canada are probably happy to have happen. So depending on how true that is, Trump could be partially justified with these threats.

 

Hershey's isn't too bad!

I used to like Kraft singles when I was a kid.

I buy American shoes.

Tesla cars.

You and I may not think some of their products are worth buying but they do have a diverse market in Australia.

 

I suppose it is a matter (literally) of taste when it comes to foodstuffs, but I would say the percentage of people in the UK who buy American chocolate or cheese is microscopic.
There are a few Tesla cars, way outnumbered by other electric cars, I don’t know about American shoes personally because I am a vegetarian.
The trade balance is not about household consumption but big ticket items like natural resources, America is very poor on design, quality, creativity, taste, and longevity and people would much prefer products from other countries or their own.
I think America should tariff hugely because if Americans want imported goods they are the people who will pay the tariffs not the exporting countries. Trump is so stupid he can’t distinguish between tariffs and balance of trade, as an individual living in London I can’t think of anything American I want to buy, the alternatives are way way better.

 

Trump can build a wall with Canada can’t he?

 

Actually, no. The Treaty of Ghent prohibits it.


https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2025/01/28/delta-us-fence-violates-1812-treaty/

 

U.S. Economy Finished the Year on Strong Note, but Faces Hurdles
Gross domestic product grew by 2.3 percent in the fourth quarter, capping a more robust year than expected. Policy uncertainty clouds the outlook.

The whirlwind start to President Trump’s second term — including sweeping changes to immigration policy, a spending freeze that was announced and then rescinded, and steep tariffs that could begin to take effect as early as this weekend — has increased uncertainty for both households and businesses. And while the full scope of Mr. Trump’s plans remains unclear, economists warn that his proposals on trade and immigration, in particular, could lead to faster inflation, slower growth, or both.


https://archive.ph/20250130134447/h...25/01/30/business/economy/economy-gdp-q4.html

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/po...canada-mexico-tariffs-live-updates-rcna190371


He’s waffling.

The stock market plummet must have him rethinking his life decisions.

 

Speaking of the trump tariffs, today he raved about how the trade deal in force never should have been established. He said it was horrible and a crime to America and was the product of the twisted thinking of a president who betrayed us.

FLASH BACK: It was Trump, himself, who hammered out the deal and signed it into law in his first term.

 

Not sure if that's actually true. Was Trump really specifically talking about the deal that he signed, or was what he said a little ambiguous and the media is trying to interpret it that way?