Thoughts on Trump's tariffs?

Thoughts on Trump's tariffs?

  • Strongly support

    Votes: 24 11.6%

  • Somewhat support

    Votes: 21 10.1%

  • Neutral

    Votes: 41 19.8%

  • Somewhat oppose

    Votes: 20 9.7%

  • Strongly oppose

    Votes: 101 48.8%
  • Total voters
    207
On one hand this is all very good entertainment. On the other once the entertainment value has worn off, we all be finding ourselves hurting from it in one way or another.

I personally think Trump and his cronies worked out some cockeyed formula and gave it to Grok to apply to every country/territory it can locate and put the results on a poster. It is the only explanation to why some penguins who have never heard of Trump suddenly find themselves being penalized by him with trade that doesn't exist.

In other words I don't believe any real thought has been put into this and I very much disagree. I can not fathom how he thinks that this will help equalize trade. Take Lesotho (a country he seems to have never heard of before) From what I can gather Lesotho exports textiles/clothing and diamonds to the USA. Yes they have a 99% tariff on USA goods but lets look at it logically, how many people can buy USA goods and export it into the country with or without a big tariff? They are most likely doing what RSA does and imports all they want or need from China and other countries offering cheap goods. With a minority rich class going to other places to buy their goods from (which has most likely been produced in China under a certain label.) Also lets say Lesotho decides to drop the tariffs or negotiates with Trump to lower it. He sounds like he wants an equal monetary trade going on. If the USA is importing say $1 billion worth of goods in from Lesotho, he wants Lesotho to match it. How he thinks Lesotho has the population or wealth to do that I don't know.

I admit I don't know much about this stuff so I may not be understanding the situation properly but that is my general thoughts on it.

Otherwise I've been enjoying Trumps 2nd term immensely. Lots of drama this season.
 
dontcryforme said:
I don't think many South Africans support it from the view of a South African. However, from Trump's view to advance US production industry, it is one that Western nations can learn from.

And from a social point of view - US companies should not be allowed to exploit cheap foreign labour - something which will no doubt come to bite them in the arse in 1-400 years when those that benefited from scam indian call centres cry victim.

Is Trump hard on SA? No. Imagine an oil embargo on SA like the one imposed on SA in the 1970's. Then we can talk.
Click to expand...
How much manufacturing industry do they have left? I'm under the impression everyone incl the US has given over to China and other cheap places.
 
Bill Clitnon said:
Sure, let's start there.

A quick Google search shows (from the US Dep of Agri website) SA's poultry tariffs on the US to be 62% for bone-in chicken and 42% for boneless portions, so don't know where you got 80% from. SA's average tariff on US goods is 7.6% and obviously not 60% as claimed by Trump.

So his 30% tariffs on SA are 4x higher. Probably a similar story for every other country. Is this a good idea and/or justifiable? Any other examples you want to bring up? And keep the figures accurate please.
Click to expand...
I personally refuse to buy goods with a high carbon foot print. I'm also suspicious of the quality been flown or shipped here. So he won't win with this household.
 
JabiRider said:
On insignificant countries and islands that are inhabited by only penguins, it is most likely that they were ensuring any loopholes were closed.
Click to expand...
Mmm I dunno. Their dumb rushed formula for calculating the tariffs gives me the idea that they didn't even think as far as loopholes. Also, if it's just to cover loopholes, why did they change the percentages so much for all those places?
 
1744045895514.png

South African Rand to United States Dollar

We have bigger problems and this has nothing to do with trump. The world bank warned our government. I suspect if you want something buy it now because you will not be able to afford it real soon. Even if Trump calls the Tariffs of we will continue to fall because our government are making big mistakes and it seems they will continue to do so.
 
dontcryforme said:
And thus the appropriate steps taken by Trump
Click to expand...
But it will take years to get the factories set up and running, the infrastructure isn't there or the know how. And it isn't like back in Henry Ford days where it was just people doing the manufacturing, the majority of the work is now done by machines over seen by a limited work force.

Meanwhile how many people are going to be put out of work and have their pensions/savings tanked? That is assuming this doesn't isolate the USA all together and they don't have anybody trade with.
 
Trump has to do what he said he would do, bring manufacturing jobs and other industries back to america,
do I agree with it? well difficult to say, as many things are globalized and spread all over the world.

will they build new FAB's for chips, no, as they take years and decades to start generating an income
will they find REE and use them to build batteries? probably not,

so again, many things I agree with, but many things will upset the apple cart of global trade that relies on so many components from all over the world,

so remains to be seen how this will work out in the end.
 
Jet-Fighter7700 said:
Trump has to do what he said he would do, bring manufacturing jobs and other industries back to america,
do I agree with it? well difficult to say, as many things are globalized and spread all over the world.

will they build new FAB's for chips, no, as they take years and decades to start generating an income
will they find REE and use them to build batteries? probably not,

so again, many things I agree with, but many things will upset the apple cart of global trade that relies on so many components from all over the world,

so remains to be seen how this will work out in the end.
Click to expand...
My big thing is: If Trump just wanted to bring manufacturing back he could have achieved the desired effect with some subsidies and perhaps some strategic tariffs on a number of goods. But no, everything gets a blanket tariff, including the raw materials required for said manufacturing. Why tariff goods from tiny nations so much? That tariff table makes no sense to my brain.

As you say, we will see how this works out.
 
Here is our not yet, new US Ambassador to SA's view:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1908656410398753176

I have lost a bundle in the market this week. But I support the president’s tariffs 100%. I don’t want my children and grandchildren saddled by the mistakes my generation made by being so reckless and irresponsible. I want them to see growth and the American economy explode. And it will with a new manufacturing base.
Click to expand...
 
JabiRider said:
If you are a South African citizen, and you support Trump's tarrifs, then I would surely like to know your reason.

The company I work for(heavy engineering) exports a lot of our products across the world, US included. Where we sell local, some of those products are processed further and also exported across the world.

These tarrifs will hurt our business. Why? Because the company that imports it, now has to pay a 30% tarrif (tax) on it. This makes it more expensive for our customers, forcing them to look locally (in the US, which is what Trump wants), or forcing them to look to another country for products.

We normally export to the end user, but where companies export consumer products, the cost of these tarrifs will most probably be passed on the the consumer down the value chain. So, consumers will look at other products, hurting the business of importers, hurting companies that export.

Yes, South African products are less than 1% of US imports, and I'm not sure how big our exports to the US is, but on a micro level, these tarrifs will hurt people, like me. It will cost jobs all over the world, even in the US as importers lose business.

My question is, and I aint a genius, will these tarrifs really bolster the US economy? Will it create jobs, or will jobs just shift? The higher cost of imported goods will be passed on to the consumer, so they will need better jobs to afford it.

I get what Trump wants to do. He wants to keep and grow manufactuing, etc in the US. And he wants to lure the US's big trade partners to the table for talks.

So, I don't support the tarrifs, as it will affect my own life negatively, but it will also affect many lives around the world negatively. Economies around the world are already under emmense pressure, and the tarrifs are not helping anyone. I mean, just look at what is happening to world markets these last weeks.
Click to expand...

You are a what I would call a "man with interests"....

Those in support of sanctions/tariffs on SA are spiteful and narrow-sighted and would love to see destruction just so that they stick it to the ANC. What it is essentially is brandstigting of their own houses just so hoping that neighbour's house catches fire as well.
 
I strongly support this, and believe another doubling down on all tariffs, across the board, will MAGA.

100% tariff should be the lowest.
 
DarkStarMonday said:
The anti christ driven by greed.
Click to expand...
Considering how many christians are entranced by him despite all his iniquities, he actually does fit the label of "anti-christ"

And no, the irony isn't lost on me that the very same generation that drilled "beware the anti-christ" into our brains pretty much daily over the 80's and 90's is the same generation that is 100% enamoured by him...
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X