Thaindrew

correct, how can the expectation be that the much smaller Thai population can buy as many imports as a much larger USA population, its an insane method of calculation that he has adopted, compare population size, average wage etc - many Thais on $10 a day how much would Trump like them to spend on American imports from that? If they spent all of it on imported US goods the trade would still not be in balance

its the importer that pays the duty and VAT, its not imposed on the US - so yes the importer pays the VAT, when he sells the car, he collect VAT on the sale, and sends the govt the difference so as to claim the original VAT back - its the same as sales tax, US has plenty of that right?

its ok the 2nd step is to reduce USA salaries to that of China and Thailand so that manufacturing can be competitive - oh where are all those migrant workers when you need them .....

its been shown the average Thai import tariff on US goods is less than 10%, the new rates are nothing to do with recprocal tariffs, he has calculated the trade gap as a % and levied half of that as a new tariff on top of existing tariffs - he hasn't called it that though of course but thats what the analysis of the figures show. So now Thai should actually increase tariff rates to make the tariffs reciprocal

well you need to put 10% on now as its all reciprocal apparently

thats why the announcement was made after the markets closed, to prevent CNBC showing the statement alongside a graph of the market, check now, its not up in the futures market and the USD is down,

yep its been presented as the US has been ripped off, look what we are paying in tariffs, but they are not tariff rates, they are trade gap rates, which occur for many reasons. The US wants China to reduce the trade gap but they cannot buy semi-conductors, military hardware etc (for good reasons) but they are US trade restrictions contributing to the trade imbalance and not factored in anywhere - he's created new and additional tariffs based purely on trade gaps.

whilst this might help, it won't close the trade gap, and from the percentages on Trumps chart thats how he's calculated the additional tariffs

from rough calcs its seems to go like this, take the EU, the trade deficit to the EU was 38.9% last year, rounded thats 39%, so thats the figure being used, the average duty PAID BY IMPORTERS (its not charged to the US) in the EU on USA goods is not 39%. Also it should be remember countries don't just send these goods unannounced to the US, US companies place orders and import the stuff.

A factory in Adıyaman, Türkiye, has produced 100,000 hats specifically for Donald Trump ahead of the U.S. presidential elections in November. The hats, featuring the slogan "Make America Great Again," were exported to the United States in support of Trump's election campaign. Labeled "Made in Türkiye," these hats were manufactured by Zirve Hat Factory, operating in the Gölbaşı Organized Industrial Zone in Adıyaman, after a production process that lasted about a week. The hats were then shipped to the U.S.

yep, do as I say not do as I do ......

possibly the other way around, USA will become so expensive that its population will look to migrate to lower cost countries,

take a look where your MAGA cap was made, still wearing it now?

thats not actually true, these are additional tariffs on top, so its not half at all, just not presented in full or truthfully - He claims China averages a 67% tariff, that may or may not be true for goods as he is including what he calls non tariff restrictions imposed by other countries so he can use any figure he wants ... Tariff on imported goods from China is now 15% (average from Trump 1.0) + 10% + 10% + 34% = 69% which is higher than the 67% he claims China changes on US imports - now add the extra 25% on steel, stainless steel and aluminium, now thats 92% - is that half?

Thailand is only part of the story, a small part so whatever, but are there any clothes manufactured in the USA for example? Whilst there are for sure well known US brands they are not made in the USA, many are in Vietnam and have just gone up 46% - happy to pay 46% more for a pair of sneakers? or happy for that sweatshop type production to return to the US and work for a few Dong a day, at current US labour and overhead rates how much would a pair of sneakers go up, 100%, 200% .... ?