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Trump’s Reciprocal Tariff Calculations Are Nonsense, Will Punish Mutually Beneficial Trade.
(taxfoundation.org)
this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
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politics
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It's because he is not a businessman, he is a scammer and grifter.
The concept of a good deal where both parties leave the table satisfied is strange to him, he needs to have "the win" over the other side.
If he does not get "the win" he considers it a bad deal where he got ripped off, this is what he projects on the USA.
He will not consider WHY foreign trading partners do not want his inferior products. He is selling them and they must buy, and if they do not buy it is "how they rip off america".
This is the core of his thinking to strike back with his tariffs, he directly equates the unbalanced import/export lists as enemy tariffs on his goods.
Look at the list he showed, he gives Vietnam 54% tariffs "because they do it" ... but actually it's the 54% of import/export that is traded...
His whole reasoning makes no sense, it only does if you realize he has no knowledge of the workings of imports and exports and he plainly is not educated as a businessman at all.
I don’t know if he’s even a scammer or grifter. He seems like a tool being used entirely by those around him, and he’s oblivious because they make him think it’s all his idea and it’s always such a great idea. It’s like elder abuse. But the elder’s an asshole so nobody feels bad.
Oh yes, there definitely is someone feeding him broken information. But in all things Trump has done in his life it's always been about the grift and how he alone should get the win. This is also what is being abused by those behind him and they slur him on.
Your assessment of Trump's thinking is 100% correct, but I just want to pick up on this specific detail;
And point out that actually in many cases its not that the American made products are bad, it's that the countries in question can't afford them. No one in Cambodia or Vietnam is buying an American made car or phone. But Americans buy loads of products made with cheap Vietnamese and Cambodian labour. It's precisely because that labour is cheap that Americans want those products, and it's precisely because that labour is cheap that no one there can afford American products.
This is big part of the flawed thinking behind these tariffs. They're trying to eliminate trade imbalances that are a direct result of America exploiting other countries for cheap labour, but they're doing so by acting as if those countries are somehow exploiting America.
Of course you're right in that it's financially not an option in a lot of countries, and I think Trump has no regard for that at all.
But I am more speaking about the things that bother him, like Europe absolutely not wanting the chlorine washed chickens, nor beef treated with growth hormones and antibiotics. I vaguely recall an eastern country also not wanting US grown fish for some reason that eludes me now. Over the last few years Trump has mentioned these things like they are an annoying stone in his shoe and was considering forcing the other trade partners to buy them anyway through some wild trade agreement.
Also, are those the type of jobs the US wants domestically? Sweatshops? In that case I guess the recent changes to working restrictions for teens in FL totally makes sense /s
So, obviously, this part of the question gets more complicated.
Ideally, no one should want sweat shop jobs to exist anywhere. Ideally we should all be OK with paying more for clothes in order to have them produced by people who are getting paid a decent wage and have decent working conditions.
And tariffs, if used effectively and smartly, could be a part of solving that problem. A government might choose to carefully and thoughtfully apply tariffs on goods made with sweatshop labour in order to encourage companies to raise their employment standards in a way that that creates better employment opportunities both in their country and in the foreign nations where the manufacturing is currently being done.
But that has absolutely nothing to do with the bullshit spewing out of the white house.