Tariffs--Beneficial or not?

[just_abc]

On 4/8/2025 at 5:49 AM, WilliamL said:

With all due respect, your understanding of fairness, and other countries' understanding of fairness, is entirely self-centered.

Ok

 

On 4/8/2025 at 5:49 AM, WilliamL said:

No one, other than the United States government, has any right to set trade policy for the United States. 

I hope nobody has misunderstood what I meant..  (my apologies if my earlier posts were not very clear....)

I am not disputing the right of the Usa (or other countries) to charge whatever tariffs they wish (as long as it is not against any laws etc)..

What I am questioning is the reason/s that was used for it.. as well as the data and/methodology used to calculate..

 

um..  If I may use a hypothetical example to explain.... (sorry it is a bit long)  

A hypothetical example :

If two weeks ago.. a foreign country held a news conference.. and told the whole world (including their own citizens)  that the Usa was charging a tariff etc. of 30 percent on goods from that country....  And that in return that foreign country would reciprocate with a tariff of half that amount (i.e. 15 percent) on Usa goods....  I think many people might find that action quite reasonable.. or even a bit kind (since that country would be charging the Usa just half of what it said the Usa was charging it..) 

But.....

If it turned out that the Usa was actually charging that country a tariff of say just 5 percent.. or even no tariff at all..  but that foreign country kept on claiming the Usa was charging it a 30 percent tariff etc..

And if journalists then asked that foreign country how they came up with the figure of 30 percent..  and they replied that they had basically just taken the goods trade imbalance between the Usa and their country.. and divided that with the goods imported from the Usa.. and 'made' that figure a percentage....  and then just assumed /claimed that figure was the tariff etc charged by the Usa (even though it wasn't!)....     

(The math /methodology used is wrong....)

If they had put that incorrect figure into a chart /table..  and showed it to the world..  claiming the Usa was charging it 30 percent in tariffs etc (even though this claim was untrue).. and then used this untrue claim as the basis for hitting Usa made goods with a 15 percent tariff....

If this had happened to the Usa.. how would americans feel?  

Wouldn't many americans be at least a bit miffed.. that a false claim was being made against the Usa.. or that incorrect data was being used as the basis for punishing the Usa?

 

That hypothetical foreign country might have the right to impose tariffs against the Usa..  but shouldn't it be made on the basis of something that is true..  and not something that is false?

And especially shouldn't that foreign country stop misleading its own citizens by claiming something about the Usa that was not true.. (i.e  claiming the Usa was imposing a 30 percent tariff etc on goods..?)

 

How would americans feel if this had happened to their country?

Surely many americans would be at least a little upset?

 

Sorry.. just my personal thoughts.  Truly truly no offence intended to anyone.

Thank you for listening / reading.

 

Edited April 9 by just_abc

[warrior12]

In the early days of China development, they spied and copied a lot of interllectual rights from other nations and then they began to manufacture their own goods, modified with cheaper materials ect.  I use to wonder or give thought to as why would the US adminiatration allow this to happen, by allowing their corporations to go into a socialist country to manufacture goods and trade. It is still a question that warrants an answer, but the well known answer is profits.

Globalism was supposed to bring poorer countries out of poverty and or at least help them to help themselves and their population.  To some level, this has been achived or in the works and the world now is flooded with cheap goods, that other struggling nations buy to sustain their population.   Poor countries trading with rich countries will have trade imbalance as they cannot buy the quantity of better quality goods which are more expensive which their population cannot purchase.

It is going to be real turmoil in the world as nations scramble to find means to sustain themselves as tarrifs would decimate their economies.  The rich countries can withstand better the choas that will ensue and the poorer ones would be left to fend for themselves and most likely go back into abject poverty.

The world we live in now has nations and  peoples going into survival mode.  Fear for defence and protection from others that would want their resources paint a dystopian future that can come about quickly.  Is is fearmongering, no, just the facts that is before us today.  Agreed, the USA has to make moves to stop the credit and decline into the huge  debts that it has accumulated over the decades. How all this affects the world is left to be seen, but believers has to know that we were told of these types of situation that would come about and how we are to behave.

Matthew 16:26

New American Standard Bible
For what good will it do a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what will a person give in exchange for his soul?

[angels4u]

23 hours ago, missmuffet said:

I live in the State of Washington and several things have gotten very expensive. One is gas. We are in the very end times and I am anxiously awaiting the rapture of the Church. It will not be long.

I saw the riots and protest in Washington in the news last week,they happened around the same time they had something happen in England..

[unworthyservant]

On 4/4/2025 at 7:11 AM, BibleStudent100 said:

On the one hand, I understand Trump's concerns about the trade imbalances between the US and most other countries.  Additionally, other countries have tariff like measures in place that block or reduce the importation of US goods and services.  Bottom line: we Americans buy more goods and services than we sell to other countries.

Still, most economists decry these newly imposed tariffs as they will penalize the average American consumer.  Yes, we should manufacture more goods here like we used to, but how many of us are willing to work in mindless manufacturing jobs, as important as they are?  How long would it take to gain permits for and build the large factories necessary to bring back jobs to America.

I could go on and on, but I am in the middle of the tariffs debate and I scratch my head about which view is correct.  Any insight would be helpful

I don't claim to know all there is to know about tariffs. I know they vary widely across the globe. I don't believe anyone can accurately predict how well they will work or if they will backfire unless one can also predict the trends of all the related factors that will ultimately come into play, including but not limited to how other countries react and how the markets react, not to mention all the Geo-political factors that are so unpredictable in this moment.

[Desopixi Seilynam]

A measure of wheat for a days wages,
and three measures of barley for a days wages,
but keep the oil and the wine affordable.
Revelation 6:6

That is and has been happening, prices will continue to increase.

1933 and 2033 will likely have many similarities.

[WilliamL]

On 4/8/2025 at 2:24 AM, just_abc said:

That hypothetical foreign country might have the right to impose tariffs against the Usa..  but shouldn't it be made on the basis of something that is true..  and not something that is false?

The big thing you miss in your argument is that most countries have trade barriers against many US products, in particular agricultural ones. This skews the whole equation you present. The United States has had the most open import markets in the world; whereas many nations, China being at the top of that list by a long shot, impose barriers to the open imports from the US. Likewise China and other nations heavily restrict the operation of US companies that are in their country, with all sorts of expensive regulations and limitations.

So your equation of tariff against tariff is only a single part of the trade picture.

[just_abc]

5 hours ago, WilliamL said:

The big thing you miss in your argument is that most countries have trade barriers against many US products, in particular agricultural ones. 

 

5 hours ago, WilliamL said:

So your equation of tariff against tariff is only a single part of the trade picture.

 

Some /many countries do have barriers etc in the import of certain agriculture products.. 

Some of the barriers might be quite understandable  (For example to  try to protect their country from plant /animal diseases which the exporting country might be experiencing outbreaks of)..

Some other barriers however perhaps might not seem as fair in terms of having free trade etc..

 

Regardless.. even if one is taking into account other things beside tariffs..  one still needs to calculate / estimate it accurately....

 

The method the Usa used to calculate things..  does not appear to be correct.... ? 

 

Edited April 12 by just_abc

[TheBlade]

:) I was born in the State of Washington... home. 

Tariffs.. I know about them and what they do good and bad yet I like most am sitting on the outside looking in. Like many others here you just can't post everything here. Not really a simple answer. In some cases this is gambling. My best option is to pray. I have my Fathers ear. 

I have hope here because that man in that office has said more then once he is not the savoir of the USA there is one and He is Jesus Christ whom Trump believes in. 

But I have to look at the word of God and what is coming is not a new great wonderful day. Its a time that has never been before nor will be again. But I think just before that something wonderful will happen. Something He told me.. me.  What that is? He never said nor do I try to guess. 

So we need to be praying for our government. All things are possible with Him.. Did He not tell Sarah.. what is do hard for the lord? It is odd..well I am at peace.. great peace when I ever start to think about this. Just take our eyes off this and look at Him.. ok ok yeah . 

[1to3]

On 4/4/2025 at 12:38 PM, missmuffet said:

Have we seen the results of those tariffs yet?

Here the title of a you tube video that explains by a professor what Tariffs and trade is all about. Dr. Sachs , nicely explained the trade issues

'I’d Fail Him as a Student’: Sachs Publicly Grades Trump’s Trade Illiteracy