Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from new tariffs

[TobyOne]

Lol...liberals complain about tariffs....and then complain when there's less tariffs. The mind of a TDSer is a funny thing.

 

[phoenix2020]

I think the world is looking for more neutrality and hoping it can talk both the US and China out of a disastrous economic and diplomatic war, but we really should stop calling this a trade war - it is well beyond that where the US (MAGA, actually) and China are concerned. A trade war is typically fought to resolve differences over economics (i.e., economic cheating, dumping...that sort of thing). A trade war would be fought to resolve, say, some offense that we accused China of that couldn't otherwise be resolved to our satisfaction by entities like WTO.

At minimum, this is an attempt by the United States at economic *and* political containment. The United States is not just attempting to disrupt trade between the US and China (to the extent we can), it is really more of an attempt now to compel many other nations to work with us to isolate and economically injure China, to box them in, and even push them back out of Africa, out of South America, out of Europe and Asia. This is a full-on schoolyard lunge and attempted tackle by the United States.

The rest of the world is not going to just side with the United States. We've proven to them in just a matter of 3 months that we cannot be trusted with that kind of power. In the coming days and weeks, we'll hear a lot about how trading partners have no choice and that the US holds all the cards, and that they can either side with us or side with the enemy, and if they do the latter there will be hell to pay.

If the current administration follows through with threats to weaponize our current economic trade, our resources, and other forms of power - if we actually do it without hesitation or exemption, it would take what is now arguably a monumental folly and turn it into the worst foreign policy decision in the history of this country, and we've made quite a few of these the last 20 years.

I am not seeing any signs at all of grand macro-strategy no matter how his apologists frame what he's doing now. To be sure, there is grand macro-strategy to be had -- to the benefit of his legacy, no less. But we've seen his act in the first term and now even more so in this one. He is rash. He is impulsive. He doesn't listen. If you give him a menu of options, he will choose the worst one because it's the one that has the most shock value and is guaranteed to cause the most headlines and disruption. That is his alpha and omega. And he has surrounded himself within his administration and within Congress and in his own version of Sputnik that we call Fox News with people who refuse to challenge him or correct him.

We're supposedly 90 days away from countries having to make a difficult choice between the United States and the "DragonBear" (aka China and Russia). I would say it's more like we may have 90 days left before Trump pulls the levers of power in ways that erode US global power and prestige - not to mention domestic wealth - with shocking rapidity. I can only hope that markets shock some sense into those around him and members of Congress enough to force their hand. Otherwise, we're ****ed.

I agree with all of this. I’d add that Donald Trump appears to be acting as if we were in the 1960s with respect to percentage of global GDP, referencing:

The U.S. Share of the Global Economy Over Time

As of 2019, the U.S. made up almost a quarter of the global economy. This chart shows how the U.S. Share of the global GDP has changed over time.

www.visualcapitalist.com

I suppose at that point in time he might have successfully bullied the world into meeting his demands, but it’s not 1960 anymore even if he doesn’t realize it.

 

[phoenix2020]

Apple has direct lines to CBP, USTR, and White House staff. Tim Cook has met with Trump multiple times and helped shape policy conversations and Apple’s legal team has likely been involved in drafting the exemption itself. SEA, as a subsidiary of a South Korean company, has far less political access, even if it maintains a US presence.

It’s not about the written rules. It’s about who gets waved through at the gate.

Terrific, show your homework that the exemptions are not available to Apple’s competitors, Dell’s competitors, Google’s competitors. This should be easy for you.

 

[Paradoxical]

Hes constantly going back and forth, doing, then not doing, then doing a little bit.

He is constantly causing market volatility for and caueing mistrust from investors and businesses.

I lost no money. His magnanimity to others is on display here.

 

[ncguy]

Lol...liberals complain about tariffs....and then complain when there's less tariffs. The mind of a TDSer is a funny thing.

that's what you got from this..liberals complaining about taking away tariffs? lol.
how about they are mocking trump for his chaos? duh

the mind of a trump supporters is a funny thing.

 

[W_Heisenberg]

Right now small business owners across the country are struggling with the uncertainty caused by Trump’s tariff policies. Farms face bankruptcy. Workers in all industries face layoffs.

I hope Trump’s supporters understand that if he cared about them, he wouldn’t have given exemptions to our country’s most powerful and influential industry.

Trump supporters, understand this:

Trump doesn’t care about you.

 

[Paradoxical]

How did you so easily miss the thrust of that post? Without straw-manning?

He eliminated things from tariffs. Shows his negotiating skills. The other side thinks he’s being generous. How do you folks miss that?

 

[Deuce]

Lol...liberals complain about tariffs....and then complain when there's less tariffs. The mind of a TDSer is a funny thing.

No, it's your "interpretations" of what liberals believe that is hilarious.

 

[ncguy]

I lost no money. His magnanimity to others is on display here.

i go back and forth from you are sincerely posting to just mocking actual trump supporters, with posts like that.

 

[Deuce]

He eliminated things from tariffs. Shows his negotiating skills. The other side thinks he’s being generous. How do you folks miss that?

Nobody thinks he is being generous. The entire world just sees him backing down because big business interests told him to.

 

[Xilnik]

Trump is taking advantage of emergency powers which are statutory. Congress needs to revoke all acts and statutes that delegate emergency power to the president. Congress can assume this responsibility itself.

Emergency powers need to be more clearly defined. They're obviously too broad based on how they have been used by the President in recent administrations. I would be okay with them existing if they were only allowed under extremely limited situations where having a larger body deliberate on matters could cost lives. Deliberation on tariffs does not seem to fall under that caveat, and I would argue the opposite is more likely to occur in this instance.

 

[Chomsky]

33 billion has already been committed. the total is 52 billion..that's a lot of debt - the question is more spending needed?
And Trump didn't "kill it" -he downsized staff

For economic & national security? If the economic analysis works, dayem straight I want it a priority.

 

[ncguy]

He eliminated things from tariffs. Shows his negotiating skills. The other side thinks he’s being generous. How do you folks miss that?

what did his "negotiating" accomplish?
the other side thinks he is being "generous"? prove that. I would think the other side is thinking he is a chaotic economic moron who was convinced he made a mistake.

 

[phoenix2020]

that's what you got from this..liberals complaining about taking away tariffs? lol.
how mock they are mocking trump for his chaos? duh

the mind of a trump supporters is a funny thing.

@TobyOne has not yet received his talking points from the media so “but liberals!” is about the best we can hope to see until perhaps later this evening.

 

[anatta]

One of the U.S.' biggest mistakes was not pursuing IP protection early on. The genie should have been capped from the get-go.

we relied on the WTO. WTO does not have its own enforcement mechanisms. AI search:
~~
World Trade Organization (WTO) aims to prevent intellectual property theft. The WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) requires all member countries to establish basic laws that protect IP. The TRIPS agreement also sets up a dispute settlement system to address trade disputes, including those related to IP theft.
Members are left free to determine the appropriate method of implementing the provisions of the Agreement within their own legal system and practice.

 

[Chomsky]

aluminum steel, car manufacturing, chip manufacturing, AI (data centers), pharmaceuticals are all onshoring under Trump;
The China tariffs on the exemptions were simply not feasible

What are you talking about? PR brags, like Foxcon?

Did any of these brags result in even breaking ground, much-less reach production?

You present Trump's words as if they're certainty, and we know they're the farthest from.

 

[Jetboogieman]

I’ll take that as an admission that you cannot counter my logic about Trump…because it’s literally the same as your logic about Trump.

Or are you now arguing that he decided to randomly stop being a stubborn narcissist “just cuz?”

What did he get in return for “pausing” the retaliatory tariffs a few days ago?

 

[element94]

Long term, it’s the only model that works for a MAGA. Since they live in a different reality than the rest of the human population, where facts work differently (e.g. Haitian immigrants eat cats, windmills cause cancer and so forth) normal human beings cannot actually engage in debate with a MAGA because there is no common basis to start from. They’re destined to engage only with those who share their view of Donald Trump being their Truth.

Certain realities for them have to be denied, even unto insane nonsense, but they are willing to go there so they don't have to deal with that reality, because it is unconscionable even for them to deal with it truthfully. My big for instance is electing a convicted criminal fraud as your Chief Executive (I can't get any of them to bite on this without denying reality). It's beyond obvious that they are not only OK with a criminal president but it's required, and that just opens up the reality they have to avoid even more. For them, it's nothing more than putting their fingers in their ears and humming loudly when the ugly face of their reality is spit back at them.

 

[anatta]

For economic & national security? If the economic analysis works, dayem straight I want it a priority.

the only way the money isn't spent is if Commerce (whatever) has "too small a staff" to do so ( if i read that correct).

You guys dont want Medicade expansion touched -so what cut DO you want? DOGE has made some good ones and some questionable ones. all I hear is crazy talk like "Musk is doing it for billionaires"

The problem is Congress - even the House budget framework is what..150 billion a year over 10 years?
Our annual budget now is over 6 TRILLION. Interest on the debt is the #1 expense so what goes?

 

[Phys251]

 

[EnchantedMuggle]

what did his "negotiating" accomplish?
the other side thinks he is being "generous"? prove that. I would think the other side is thinking he is a chaotic economic moron who was convinced he made a mistake.

Exactly. And they're already getting him to back down.

He'll probably "exempt" other categories of goods next.

The Art of the Deal! And all it took for Donnie to publicly fail and back down from an obviously stupid plan was to throw the entire U.S. into chaos.

I don't know how MAGAs can stand all this winning.

 

[Chomsky]

Okay, guys, you're missing the point.
This is not Trump’s doing. This is the work of the legal departments at Apple, Google, Tesla, and so on. It is actually a "new oligarchy" being institutionalized through tariff policy. The HTSUS codes that are exempt cover:

• Smartphones, computers, components from Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft
• Semiconductors, chips, GPUs from Nvidia, AMD, Intel
• Communications equipment from Tesla, Amazon, SpaceX (satellite links)

Competitors are not covered by these codes. That means while the competition has to pay 145% in tariffs, Trump’s circle of multimillionaires doesn’t have to pay a damn thing.

Well, China has its own lawyers – and they’re significantly smarter than the Americans (obviously, they are still idiots, I mean, who the hell supports an idiot like Trump and if I can figure it out seconds after reading this thread, so can China...). We can expect measures that will stop this little "buddy deal" Trump is trying to pull off... To be continued.

I'll suggest Trump puts obstacles like tariffs up, to assure his ring gets kissed and he shares in the bounty.

 

[Carjosse]

Guess he only wants the lowest tech manufacturing to return to America?

 

[ncguy]

Guess he only wants the lowest tech manufacturing to return to America?

I, for one, welcome our new garment sewing factories!

 

[Chomsky]

Wow, Pacific Stereo was amazing. One of their longtime employees runs pacificstereo.net (and mostly runs tapeheads.net) focusing on vintage gear repair / restoration, and has done great work for me.

Thank you. I was not aware.