Tariffs Catch-All

[finesse]

I

Was responding to how you stated it. "On the backs of the rich" is far different than what you are saying here.

You have to remember that debt and this country contribute to creating a place where the rich people can get as rich as they are. They didn't do it in a vacuum.

Nor with equal recognition under the law.

 

[BlueSmoke]

There is a reason most of the world gave uo using high tariffs 90 years ago: The Great Depression.
Take a looks at the countries with the highest tariff rates in say 2023 or 24. Generally IIRC, small island countries and very poor landlocked African amd cemtral Asian countries who have no choice.

The world still blames the US for the 2007-08 world economic downturn and will righly blame the US again when the economic fetticome hits the fan in late 2026 and 2027. The US will be (at least temporarily) shunned for the chaos these tafiffs will create worldwide.

Yep. I looked at this data around Trump's liberation date. It seemed every major economy had very low tariffs and the bad economies had high tariffs. There was one glaring exception.........India. So I looked into it. After their independence in 1947, they were very anti colonialism and not to mention a little bit socialist so they thought high tariffs were the ticket. By the early 1990's they saw their error and have been reducing tariffs ever since.

 

[superrific]

Yep. I looked at this data around Trump's liberation date. It seemed every major economy had very low tariffs and the bad economies had high tariffs. There was one glaring exception.........India. So I looked into it. After their independence in 1947, they were very anti colonialism and not to mention a little bit socialist so they thought high tariffs were the ticket. By the early 1990's they saw their error and have been reducing tariffs ever since.

When India had tariffs it was extremely poor and had a bad economy. In the 1950s and 60s there was a movement in Latin America and other parts of the decolonizing world to strive for "import substitution" -- i.e. stop buying stuff from abroad (i.e. the colonialists) and make everything in house. It went very badly. Study after study showed that the import substitution scheme wasn't working; and worse, countries like South Korea and Japan and even Thailand were prospering with export-oriented economies.

That's when India began tearing down the old economic system colloquially (and disparagingly) known as the "License Raj." Thing to remember about India: it is one of the more corrupt countries in the world and the most corrupt, I think, of all major economies.

I'm not sure that the tariffs are causative of "good" economies or "bad economies." They are not good for any economy, but remember how tariff levels have seen set: through massive multilateral negotiations under GATT and then the WTO. All the GATT signatories (almost everyone) would get together and negotiate "concessions" -- i.e. tariff lowering -- from everyone. That was one reason that most-favored-nation status was a core part of GATT (there are others): it would be impossible to do that negotiating if every country had to negotiate every tariff for every product.

But anyway, the tiny little countries had nothing really to offer or gain. The US doesn't and never will export anything but a trivial amount to Fiji, and Fiji has no domestic industry to speak of. So who cares what Fiji's tariffs are?

 

[BlueSmoke]

I'm not sure that the tariffs are causative of "good" economies or "bad economies." They are not good for any economy,

Thanks. I agree and didn't mean to imply that tariffs were the primary cause of a bad economy. They are not good for an economy and when high tariffs are present, might be more indicative of other things the country is getting wrong.

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

“… Ryosei Akazawa was due to fly to Washington to craft a written confirmation of the terms of the package, such as the split of investment returns between the U.S. and Japan, a government source previously told Reuters.

… "It was found that there are points that need to be discussed at the administrative level during coordination with the American side. Therefore, the trip has been cancelled," Japan's government spokesperson Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters on Thursday.

… While Trump has touted the package as "our money to invest" and said the U.S. would retain 90% of the profits earned, Japanese officials have stressed that the investments will be determined based on whether they will also benefit Japan.

Japanese officials have repeatedly said they would rather have an amended presidential executive order first to remove overlapping tariffs on Japanese goods before releasing a joint document on the investment details.…”