Tariffs Catch-All

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ZenMode said:
This isn't about just Japanese cars. It's about other countries generally imposing high tariffs on US goods while we generally don't impose tariffs on their goods.
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We’ve had tariffs on “light trucks” since the ‘80’s. SUV’s, minivans, pick-up trucks.

Those tariffs are why “light trucks” are so profitable for Detroit AND help explain why the quality of those American-made vehicles is so low.
 
farce© said:
That’s for goods only and exclude services which we export everywhere. The balance of trade looks very different when you include everything.
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Ok, but that's still what he's presumably looking to fix, right?
 
ChileG said:
What In this chart is he trying to fix?
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Season 4 Andy GIF by The Office
ChileG said:
I may be wrong because there isn’t any explanation of what these numbers represent, but it looks like in black it is tariffs we imposed on goods from other countries on 4/2 compared to the new tariff levels.
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The tariffs on the right are Trump's new tariffs. The left is what are imposed on the US.
 
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ZenMode said:
The tariffs on the right are Trump's new tariffs. The left is what are imposed on the US.
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Incorrect.

Here is the graph pulled back out, which states the tariffs on the right are the revised US tariffs announced as of 4/9, and the tariffs on the left are the original US tariffs announced as of 4/2.

Screenshot 2025-05-12 at 1.53.04 PM.png
 
ZenMode said:
Ok, but that's still what he's presumably looking to fix, right?
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So we're back to square one, huh? Didn't pay any attention to what's been going on?

The trade deficit is not something to "fix." It is a consequence of American choices, mainly the political choice as to deficit spending but also the personal choices about savings rates.

There are two ways to address the overconsumption. First is to make consumption more expensive. Tariffing foreign goods will create a one-time jump in price level, and then consumption will fall. If the consumption can be replaced by domestic production, then consumption will rebound somewhat due to import substitution. But to the extent that domestic production cannot fill the void, what happens is a forced reduction in consumption by Americans. That could come in the form of inflation, or unemployment, or both.

So that's the tariff strategy: make everyone poorer to make imports decline, and hope to make it up through domestic supply.

Another strategy to reduce the trade deficit would be to lower the federal deficit. If we have to borrow less from abroad to finance our public spending, then our trade deficit will also shrink (as they are mirror images of each other). And one way to do that would be to not cut taxes for the rich people yet again. We need more tax revenues, period. If they were serious about the trade deficit, they wouldn't basically be ending all tax enforcement. They would step it up, over and above Biden's increases, since it's a tremendously profitable investment. More taxes paid by Americans to the government = fewer dollars need borrowing from abroad.
 
Duke Mu said:
IF trillions of $ (a lie) were pouring into the US, then that would be incredibly inflationary.
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Was just recently reading about this.


The Price Revolution, sometimes known as the Spanish Price Revolution, was a series of economic events that occurred between the second half of the 16th century and the first half of the 17th century, and most specifically linked to the high rate of inflation that occurred during this period across Western Europe. Prices rose on average roughly sixfold over 150 years. This level of inflation amounts to 1.2% per year compounded, a relatively low inflation rate for modern-day standards, but rather high given the monetary policy in place in the 16th century.<a href="Price revolution - Wikipedia"><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a>

Generally it is thought that this high inflation was caused by the large influx of gold and silver from the Spanish treasure fleet from the New World; including Mexico, Peru, Bolivia and the rest of the Spanish Empire.<a href="Price revolution - Wikipedia"><span>[</span>2<span>]</span></a><span title="Page: 70">: 70 </span>

Specie flowed through Spain increasing its prices and those of allied European countries (e.g., the imperial territories of Charles V). Wealth then spread to the rest of Western Europe as a result of the Spanish balance of payments deficit, or was directly introduced to countries like Great Britain and France, using piracy to attack the Spanish fleet. This enlarged the monetary supply and price levels of many European countries.
 
superrific said:
So we're back to square one, huh?
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Not that I know of.
superrific said:
Didn't pay any attention to what's been going on?
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What day is it??
superrific said:
The trade deficit is not something to "fix."
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I've said nothing about the trade deficit, only tariffs.
superrific said:
It is a consequence of American choices, mainly the political choice as to deficit spending but also the personal choices about savings rates.

There are two ways to address the overconsumption. First is to make consumption more expensive. Tariffing foreign goods will create a one-time jump in price level, and then consumption will fall. If the consumption can be replaced by domestic production, then consumption will rebound somewhat due to import substitution. But to the extent that domestic production cannot fill the void, what happens is a forced reduction in consumption by Americans. That could come in the form of inflation, or unemployment, or both.

So that's the tariff strategy: make everyone poorer to make imports decline, and hope to make it up through domestic supply.

Another strategy to reduce the trade deficit would be to lower the federal deficit. If we have to borrow less from abroad to finance our public spending, then our trade deficit will also shrink (as they are mirror images of each other). And one way to do that would be to not cut taxes for the rich people yet again. We need more tax revenues, period. If they were serious about the trade deficit, they wouldn't basically be ending all tax enforcement. They would step it up, over and above Biden's increases, since it's a tremendously profitable investment. More taxes paid by Americans to the government = fewer dollars need borrowing from abroad.
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The strategy, in general, should be to come to agreements with each country so we aren't getting hit with large tariffs while charging low tariffs.

China is a separate issue...
 
I'd ask again what we are to glean from the example of lots of Americans purchasing Japanese cars while few Japanese residents purchase American cars?

With zero tariffs in place, the imbalance is staggering...is the suggestion that we should tariff Japanese car purchases in America to nearly the point of not existing? If Japan isn't already purchasing American cars with no tariffs at all, how does any tariff policy induce them to do so?
 
politicalwire.com

U.S. and China Held First Trade Talks in Secret

"The first meeting to break the U.S.-China trade deadlock was held almost three weeks ago in the basement of the IMF headquarters, arranged under cover of secrecy," the Financial Times reports. "The previously unreported encounter
politicalwire.com politicalwire.com

“The first meeting to break the U.S.-China trade deadlock was held almost three weeks ago in the basement of the IMF headquarters, arranged under cover of secrecy,” the Financial Times reports.

“The previously unreported encounter was the first high-level meeting between U.S. and Chinese officials since Donald Trump’s inauguration and the launch of his tariff war.”
 
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“… Since the start of the fiscal year in October, the U.S. has collected $63.3 billion in customs duties, a $15.4 billion increase from the same period a year earlier.

Although positive for the government’s balance sheet, the deficit for the current fiscal year through April is still about $1.05 trillion—about 23% wider than the prior year.

New tariffs generally take about a month to show up as receipts in the government’s accounting. The April increase likely reflects a host of tariff increases levied by the Trump administration earlier this year, including tariffs on steel and aluminum, products from Mexico and Canada, and the rollout of the reciprocal tariffs during the month. …”

 
ZenMode said:
The strategy, in general, should be to come to agreements with each country so we aren't getting hit with large tariffs while charging low tariffs.
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We did that. Eight times actually, plus an attempt at a ninth.

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

The US is not subject to high tariffs abroad. That is just a mistake of fact. There are countries that have high tariffs on goods we don't make. In theory, Bangladesh has high tariffs relative to ours in textiles. But we don't sell textiles to Bangladesh and we don't want to. Those tariffs are insulating the Bangladeshi domestic market from, say, India or Burma. It doesn't affect the U.S.

Understand that, in all of those rounds of negotiating, the overriding US goal was a reduction in trade barriers around the world. For decades we worked with other countries to lower tariffs, and it worked very well as evidenced by the achievements of the negotiation rounds. It is not the case that those tens of thousands or people (or more) involved in those discussions were idiots. Trump is an idiot, and he's lying to you about the world economy. Or someone is lying to you.
 
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