this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2025
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Among the reciprocal tariff levels Trump announced:

China: 34%

European Union: 20%

South Korea: 25%

India: 26%

Vietnam: 46%

Taiwan: 32%

Japan: 24%

Thailand: 36%

Switzerland: 31%

Indonesia: 32%

Malaysia: 24%

Cambodia: 49%

United Kingdom: 10%

Rest of the world: 10%

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[–] selkiesidhe@lemm.ee 3 points 15 minutes ago

Putin's bitch trying to further destabilize the world for daddy.

[–] elatedCatfish@lemm.ee 9 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (2 children)

Trump clearly has some feelings about Vietnam. He used his “bone spurs” excuse to avoid being sent over there back in the day. Lmao

What a pussy

[–] cute_noker@feddit.dk 1 points 24 minutes ago

I think it is something to do with China using it as a proxy for their export.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 1 points 39 minutes ago

He just saw that they have a massive tariff against the US going back decades and I guess he took it personally.

[–] FortyTwo@lemmy.world 7 points 1 hour ago

Me, checking what the damage is: oh good, my European defence stocks went up 2 to 4 percent today while the American stocks are tanking, happy days!

Me, after thinking on it a bit longer: oh God, my European defence stocks went up while the world economy is taking a hit, better get ready for whatever's coming

[–] Gates9@sh.itjust.works 19 points 2 hours ago
[–] houseofleft@slrpnk.net 52 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (4 children)

In case anyones looking at this and asking question like "Why has Cambodia been dunked with 49% when they're clearly not a competitor to the US" or "Why is Trump claiming that the European Union has a 40% tariff on the US when the actual mean tariff on US goods into the EU is less than 5%", here's your answer to how these figures have been calculated.

  • Take the US trade deficit with a given country (eg. China is $292bn)
  • Take the total good imported by US (for China that's $439bn)
  • Divide the first figure by the second! Why? Who knows! It's a number! Less talk more first grade arithmetic (if you're still following that gives us 67%)
  • That gives us a random number which we'll pretend is that country's tariff of US goods even though it's completely unrelated in every way. We'll divide it by two to get the new tariff rate for imports from that country. Why? Honestly if you're still expecting there to be an answer to that question I'm wondering if you've been following. (that gives us 34%, well actually it gives us 33.5% but I'm not sure the Trump administration understands the idea of fractions so we'll just round it up from there)

The "reason" behind this is that Trump seems to think trade deficits are really bad, which is bad news for the US because it's had a trade deficit for the last 50 years. We'll ignore the fact that based on per capita GDP it's been the wealthiest country in the world for that time though.

Anyway, just to give everyone an idea of how completely, utterly unrelated to anything meaningful that figure is, let's take Cambodia. The country is very poor compared to the US so can't afford to buy anything that the US manufacters (Cambodians aren't driving round in Teslas or IMessaging each other). Some US companies use it for clothing manufacture because labour is cheap in Cambodia (see the previous bit about Cambodia being much poorer than the US). This means that Cambodia imports close to nothing from the US compared to what it exports, giving it a close to 100% trade deficit, so we wind up with a 49% tariff on Cambodia.

I genuinely don't understand the mindset that looks at the US's explotation of cheap labour in Cambodia and interprets the US as the victim in that relationship, but hey-ho maybe I'm just not biggly-smart enough to understand the 4d chess moves at play here. . .

Reference (because unfortunately none of what I said was made up and that geniunely is the calculation): https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/03/trumps-idiotic-and-flawed-tariff-calculations-stun-economists

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 2 points 1 hour ago

Why does he think tariffs are equal to trade deficits?

[–] bishbosh@lemm.ee 3 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

Putting on my best swiss cheese brain, maybe they are treating it 'like a business' and trying to do debt to income ratio? So our deficit is the debt then they look at tariffs on the imported goods as the income.

Do you know if this holds for other countries too?

[–] houseofleft@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I honestly have no idea, maybe? Deficit isn't really debt though, it just means you bought more than you sold. The US isn't in debt to Cambodia any more than you're in debt with McDonald's. They just have a one way buy/sell relationship.

[–] spicehoarder@lemm.ee 2 points 51 minutes ago

That's a really good explanation, there's no realistic way to make your money back from McDonald's

[–] Poop@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 hours ago

Thanks for the explanation! It is unbelievable that these are the folks with nuclear codes.

[–] ericatty@infosec.pub 3 points 3 hours ago

Thank you for the reference, I scrolled to the bottom to check if you were copypasta-ing us before going back and reading it. We just all live in Crazytown now I guess.

[–] superglue@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 3 hours ago (5 children)

Been browsing the conservative subreddit this morning just to see what they all are thinking. There is a surprising number of "This is a terrible idea" comments but its also funny seeing a whole bunch of republicans who now suddenly like higher taxes, inflation and stock crashes.

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[–] Subverb@lemmy.world 7 points 3 hours ago

Trump announces "Things aren't expensive enough."

[–] Casteyes@lemmy.world 30 points 4 hours ago
[–] orcrist@lemm.ee 23 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I don't think these are reciprocal. I think these are unilateral, and when countries respond, their tariffs will be reciprocal. The distinction is very important. This is a problem created by Trump, not by other countries. You don't get to choose false language to describe it that shifts the blame.

[–] MathiasTCK@lemmy.world 1 points 59 minutes ago

Wait so if the admin is in favor of reciprocal tariffs does that mean they are asking other countries to raise tariffs against the US?

I'm gonna check this newly needed wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariffs_in_the_second_Trump_administration#Reciprocal_tariffs

[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 30 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Pls 100% world wide tax.

I like to go straight to the "Find Out" phase.

👀

(Remember, when the great depression happens, its our duty to eliminate nazis)

[–] C45513@lemm.ee 2 points 1 hour ago

With Nazis, it's always the right time.

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[–] AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee 20 points 5 hours ago (10 children)

Curious that Russia is missing

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[–] OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee 32 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I don't have a ton of "the court is wrong" opinions, but Article 1 section 8 of the Constitution flatly gives Congress the responsibility of regulating trade and imposing tariffs. The President just doesn't (shouldn't) have the authority to change rates. The executive needs to execute the will of the Legislative branch.

[–] TheFonz@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago

Congress is pretty much dead. Repubs have lost whatever was the last vertebrae they had in their spine

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 13 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Well well well, we finally fell off the cliff, didn't we?

Starting a trade war with the entire world, easy to win, right?

If the entire world reciprocates, which they will, you will literally wish you had just a recession to worry about. I wonder how Trump's approval ratings will be about a month from now

[–] gamer@lemm.ee 12 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Trump doesn't care about approval ratings. He has a "golden parachute" waiting for him and his buddies in Russia after he destroys America.

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