Tariffs Catch-All
- Thread starter BubbaOtis
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"Hunkering-down potential". I seem to recall that during the covid lockdowns, they had tremendous hunkering down stamina. Under Xi, it seems it takes a huge amount of pressure for him to do a U-turn.
Really, Trump is doing the same supply chain breakdown that he did last time with covid. He didn't fix it last time. It took a different President to do that. If Trump actually fixes it before his term runs out, then that's a pretty bad indicator how the next Presidential election will go.
EyeballKid
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From what I understand, Chinese state media have been prepping the country for economic war against the US, and so the populace (at least those who consume news media) look at it as a badge of honor to sacrifice for the good of the country.
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Ordinarily, it would be expected to somewhat weaken the Euro against the US Dollar and dampen interest in the EU bonds due to assumed downward pressure on those yields, increasing the relative strength of the dollar and driving more investors to buy US Treasuries, but things are so out of kilter at the moment and this rate cut was so widely anticipated/baked into expectations anyway, who knows?
ChapelHillSooner
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Trump is going about it in a stupid way but I will give him some credit in that we should have never allowed ourselves to be so reliant on China for these things.
The Consequences of China’s New Rare Earths Export Restrictions
China has imposed export restrictions on seven rare earth elements and magnets in retaliation for new U.S. tariffs. These materials are vital to defense technologies, but the United States is entirely dependent on China for their supply.www.csis.org
The solution would be subsidies to build up US capacity for security purposes or at least create a reserve.
The dumbest move is what Trump is doing.
lawtig02
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Seems to me the better strategy would have been a Marshall Plan-like initiative in Africa, where these rare earth minerals are in abundance. We didn't do that, though (I can't imagine why), and we've now essentially ceded Africa to China via its Belt and Road Project. I don't blame Africa for jumping on China's capital, but it puts the entire continent in the hands of a modern day King Leopold, when we could have been working closely with them for our mutual benefit.
ChapelHillSooner
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That too but it is my understanding that we have plenty of them just not the mining and infrastructure to do so. There is also the environmental impact.
lawtig02
Inconceivable Member
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No, you're right, and I was too broad and sarcastic with my initial post. One of the reasons this whole China thing is overblown is because of how many rare earth minerals we get from Africa rather than China. My son is doing a project on this right now and it astonished me how reliant we are on Africa. But my takeaway from that was:
(1) How incredibly stupid it is (across multiple administrations) that we haven't launched a corollary to China's BAR initiative, but focused on economic and environmental justice;
(2) How even more incredibly stupid it is (under Trump II) that we're cutting USAID and such a huge percentage of our humanitarian aid to Africa at a time when China is wooing them more and more every day; and
(3) How even MORE incredibly stupid it is that Trump II would be revoking green cards from people like South Sudanese, which is almost certain to drive these highly vulnerable countries into China's sphere of influence.
Now, we don't get may rare earth minerals from South Sudan right now. But we get tons of them from Botswana, Mozambique, DRC, Burundi, Gabon. If it's South Sudan now, why would it not be those countries next? And who knows what underlying resources could bring South Sudan from a state of existential war and calamity into a modern nation? One of my great frustrations with Trump and MAGA is they can't seem to think more than two minutes into the future. Their worldview is 90% past, 9.9% present, and 0.1% future. And we're not operating in a vacuum. The Marshall Plan was insanely expensive, but there's no doubt whatsoever it was the best investment in the history of the modern geopolitical world. Why would we not learn from the good parts of history as well as the bad?
heelslegup
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An even better solution would have been to use low-interest loans and subsidies to encourage US and foreogn companies to solvew raare earths and expand manuf in the US. As Biden was doing. Just expand those efforts and avoid the destrictive tariffs which were done mostly to subsidize a tax break for high net worth individuals and corps who would be fine with a 25% rather than 21% max tax rate.
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In other words he's too stupid to see that no one is kissing his ass and he needs to actually facilitate these conversations. Instead his fat ass plays gold while China is working. We can easily predict the end result here.
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America's struggling wine industry is getting crushed by global tariffs and Canada's retaliation to them
Even if the tariffs were to be reversed tomorrow, one wine business leader said, it'll take "at least a year, if not longer, for my industry to recover.”
www.nbcnews.com
Ficeli also said Napa has become less affordable to visit in recent years. “A lot of us had to raise prices, because after Covid, pricing was insane, for especially getting glass,” she said.
Most wineries import bottles from China, she said, because U.S.-made bottles are substandard. The price of shipping them out of China also increased by “double or triple” the amount pre-Covid. “So most of us made price increases just to cover our cost increases,” she said.
But with Trump’s 145% tariffs on China having initiated a 125% tariff on products made in China coming into the United States, getting bottles from Asia has become cost-prohibitive. Throw in the 10% tariffs on European imports — under which American wineries buy French oak barrels to cultivate wine and bottle corks from Spain — and a financial quagmire has emerged.
heelslegup
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Trump thinks people from Japan and Francer are screwing US by not buying F-150 trucks to bnavigate narrow streets in Tokyo and Paris.
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China’s Strategic Pivot from US to Canadian Oil Imports
Discover how China's pivot from US to Canadian oil imports reshapes global energy trade patterns and strengthens economic ties.
discoveryalert.com.au
The deterioration in US-China relations has fundamentally reshaped global oil trade flows. US crude exports to China plummeted from 450,000 bpd in 2022 to a mere 45,000 bpd by April 2025, representing a staggering 90% reduction as Beijing implemented its diversification strategy.
"The 2024 National Defense Authorization Act's port restrictions made US crude politically untenable," explains geopolitical strategist Li Wei, referring to congressional actions limiting Chinese vessels' access to certain US terminals.
Beyond pure politics, the shift reflects China's strategic calculation to reduce economic vulnerability. With tensions showing no signs of abating, Chinese refiners have accelerated their pivot to Canadian suppliers, viewing the northern route as more insulated from geopolitical investor strategies.
Canada's Expanded Export Capacity
The timely completion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion has revolutionized Canada's export potential. The $21.4 billion infrastructure project added 590,000 bpd of capacity, enabling direct shipments to Asian markets without dependence on US Gulf Coast terminals.The 980-kilometer pipeline network, incorporating 12 sophisticated pump stations, overcame formidable coastal mountain terrain to connect Alberta's landlocked resources with tidewater access at British Columbia's ports.
Cenovus CEO Alex Pourbaix underscored the economic transformation: "Our netback to Asia improved by $8.50 per barrel post-TMX, creating irreversible market momentum." This price advantage has catalyzed long-term supply agreements, including PetroChina's 10-year offtake contract with Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNRL) for 100,000 bpd starting July 2024.
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Jolted by Trump, EU woos new partners from Asia to Latin America
Shaken by Donald Trump's tariff blitz, the EU has embarked on a charm offensive to diversify its alliances in Asia and beyond, with summits lined up back-to-back and trade talks launched in all directions.
www.france24.com