Ya gotta love Trump with his wacky ideas .......    if anyone can stuff up a good relationship it's him  

 

how did all his Trump businesses go ?      oh' never mind .....  

How can you trust any of TRUMPS figures? This is the man who quoted $8 Million as $8 Billion to suit his narrative.
He is an abject failure in business and this cock-a-many tariff idea will only hurt the USA. Trouble is when the USA is hurting fiscally so is much of the world.

  

6 minutes ago, realfunster said:

Thailand for example, a healthy trade surplus with US. They can either walk away from that or negotiate a slightly less favourable US trade surplus.

 

Again, look at why there is a surplus. You cannot "negotiate less" of it, a country would simply have to import more.

 

What are the goods that Thailand could import more, specifically? What is the US producing that it could sell in Thailand better than before?

36% on cheap Thai goods into the USA will have the Thailigarchs thinking.

1 minute ago, jts-khorat said:

 

Again, look at why there is a surplus. You cannot "negotiate less" of it, a country would simply have to import more.

 

What are the goods that Thailand could import more, specifically? What is the US producing that it could sell in Thailand better than before?

Anti americans take - americans will suffer

rational take - people relying on americans to buy their <deleted> will suffer

Trump just gave the American consumer the Abner Louima treatment. (Haitian immigrant brutalized by NYC cops with a toilet plunger). Higher prices of imported goods into the US will mean buying anything online from the US just got more expensive. It's also probably not going to have a positive effect on the USD and all the currencies tied to the dollar. Enjoy, MAGA expats.

“U.S. goods exports to Australia in 2024 were $34.6 billion, up 3.1 percent ($1 billion) from 2023. U.S. goods imports from Australia totaled $16.7 billion in 2024, up 4.7 percent ($745.7 million) from 2023.”  US Trade Representative to Australia.

 

So even though the USA has a trade surplus with Australia, Australia is hit with a 10% tariff.  

Australia, a nation that has supported the USA in many efforts when called upon -from teams flown across the pacific to help fight forest fires to serving beside US troops in Korea, Vietnam (when most nations turned their backs on the US) Iraq 1 and 2 and Afghanistan.    We house highly secret US bases in Australia that help keep Americans safe.  
 

Yet our faithfulness and open trade with the USA (which works in America’s favour) is rewarded with a 10% tariff.
 

Apparently Big Pharma is cranky at Australias subsided Medicine System.    It’s a “barrier” to the rape and pillage approach in the American Health System.
 

I know and have served with many decent and Honourable Americans.  They are my friends.   The sadness in me stems from this.   Friends don’t treat friends like this.   

 

 

2 minutes ago, wozzlegummich said:

How can you trust any of TRUMPS figures? This is the man who quoted $8 Million as $8 Billion to suit his narrative.
He is an abject failure in business and this cock-a-many tariff idea will only hurt the USA. Trouble is when the USA is hurting fiscally so is much of the world.

  

Absolutely. He lies about everything and when called on it, he doubles down with much bigger lies. In a way this is a failure of American democracy. The voters let him get away with that, indeed rewarded him for it. 

1 minute ago, hotsun said:

Anti americans take - americans will suffer

rational take - people relying on americans to buy their <deleted> will suffer

Trump take - people relying on americans to buy their stuff will suffer, but not as much as American consumers

4 minutes ago, SHA 2 BKK said:

“U.S. goods exports to Australia in 2024 were $34.6 billion, up 3.1 percent ($1 billion) from 2023. U.S. goods imports from Australia totaled $16.7 billion in 2024, up 4.7 percent ($745.7 million) from 2023.”  US Trade Representative to Australia.

 

So even though the USA has a trade surplus with Australia, Australia is hit with a 10% tariff.  

Australia, a nation that has supported the USA in many efforts when called upon -from teams flown across the pacific to help fight forest fires to serving beside US troops in Korea, Vietnam (when most nations turned their backs on the US) Iraq 1 and 2 and Afghanistan.    We house highly secret US bases in Australia that help keep Americans safe.  
 

Yet our faithfulness and open trade with the USA (which works in America’s favour) is rewarded with a 10% tariff.
 

Apparently Big Pharma is cranky at Australias subsided Medicine System.    It’s a “barrier” to the rape and pillage approach in the American Health System.
 

I know and have served with many decent and Honourable Americans.  They are my friends.   The sadness in me stems from this.   Friends don’t treat friends like this.   

 

 

Australians should be more upset with their own government considering none of them can buy a house anymore

4 minutes ago, SHA 2 BKK said:

“U.S. goods exports to Australia in 2024 were $34.6 billion, up 3.1 percent ($1 billion) from 2023. U.S. goods imports from Australia totaled $16.7 billion in 2024, up 4.7 percent ($745.7 million) from 2023.”  US Trade Representative to Australia.

 

So even though the USA has a trade surplus with Australia, Australia is hit with a 10% tariff.  

Australia, a nation that has supported the USA in many efforts when called upon -from teams flown across the pacific to help fight forest fires to serving beside US troops in Korea, Vietnam (when most nations turned their backs on the US) Iraq 1 and 2 and Afghanistan.    We house highly secret US bases in Australia that help keep Americans safe.  
 

Yet our faithfulness and open trade with the USA (which works in America’s favour) is rewarded with a 10% tariff.
 

Apparently Big Pharma is cranky at Australias subsided Medicine System.    It’s a “barrier” to the rape and pillage approach in the American Health System.
 

I know and have served with many decent and Honourable Americans.  They are my friends.   The sadness in me stems from this.   Friends don’t treat friends like this.   

 

 

FFS - fix the font size or Mods delete it.

3 minutes ago, wozzlegummich said:

FFS - fix the font size or Mods delete it.

 

Done 🙂 Fixed the quotes too.

 

Too stupid I sent my monthly transfer yesterday 😁

 

 

33 minutes ago, jts-khorat said:

Just getting planning permission for a factory takes years, developing a single production line and building it until it produces the first widget several more (I know, I work in Industrial Automation).

 

Trump has said that much of the ridiculous red tape is being dismantled.

15 minutes ago, realfunster said:

All very true - but I cling to the hope this is all bluster and a negotiating tactic 🙂

 

This might even be worse than keeping to the crazy tariffs.

 

Imagine you are a multinational company, maybe a large car manufacturer.

 

You start the horrendous investment to relocate a car factory from the Thai Eastern Seaboard to the US, start building, start hiring.

 

Then, from one minute to the next, the tariffs are gone again. You are out of pocket by the billions of dollars.

 

The time frames needed to make a policy like that of Trump work is counted in years, maybe decades. A guy changing his opinion with every social media post he makes will simply wreck everything, because nobody can trust his word.

47 minutes ago, hotsun said:

You people vastly underestimate the power of american consumerism. Thailand is toast

But it's not just Thailand though is it? 

 

It's the entire world who america and trump has placed tariffs on. Thailand has plenty of friends in the world....while America's friendship pool is getting smaller by the day. 

 

United we stand divided we fall. Ever heard that saying?

 

The world will be forced t unit economically against tariffs ..so who is going to fall I wonder? 

Obscure benefits of trade tariffs.

 

Tariffs incentivise exporting countries to improve internal productivity to potentially offset the tariff. Side effect is that their economy improves, and their currency becomes stronger and has greater international buying power.

 

Presents an opportunity for an exporting country to find new trade with other countries also impacted, cutting the USA out of the equation and leaving them more isolationalist to make their own stuff internally.

 

Prices of USA exported goods will increase in cost due to the inflated cost of imported components, thus creating new trade opportunities on price differential.

 

Trump is doing what he believes is best for the USA, but the world should see this as an opportunity, not a problem. There will be some grief while it all settles down, but by and large, this is a wake up and smell the coffee moment for the entire world.

 

 

1 minute ago, jonclark said:

But it's not just Thailand though is it? 

 

It's the entire world who america and trump has placed tariffs on. Thailand has plenty of friends in the world....while America's friendship pool is getting smaller by the day. 

 

United we stand divided we fall. Ever heard that saying?

 

The world will be forced t unit economically against tariffs ..so who is going to fall I wonder? 

Our friends were worse than our enemies in that regard. Thailand can have all the friends they want if they depend on China they will get burned 100%

4 minutes ago, hotsun said:

Our friends were worse than our enemies in that regard. Thailand can have all the friends they want if they depend on China they will get burned 100%

 

You are talking about China in the future tense, and you might just be rihgt. But what Trump does is in the present tense, so this leaves a country like Thailand absolutely no alternative than moving closer to China as the only other available market with potential.

 

I find it incongruous that there are so many Americans that cannot see, that if you piss off literally the whole world at the same time, that this can only alienate everybody and make the US weaker.

 

I would have thought that its actual citizens might wanted to have preserved their way of life instead of sabotaging it themselves. But hey, we all know the state of education in the US.

Are tariffs considered a tax? 

Maybe Thailand will reduce their 300% tariff on Californian wine.

how about 300% 

 

try importing pretty much anything into Thailand and it will cost big

 

this country needs to wake up - Trump is 100% right - 

2 minutes ago, nick supreme said:

Are tariffs considered a tax? 

Consumers end up paying for them, so do the math. 

Just now, Jingthing said:

Consumers end up paying for them, so do the math. 

 

It's a tax? 

2 minutes ago, henryford1958 said:

Maybe Thailand will reduce their 300% tariff on Californian wine.

 

How will that change the trade imbalance that Thailand has because the US imports all kinds of cheap electronics? How much wine do you think the Thais drink?

 

And do you truly believe that Trump will reduce tariffs because of such a tiny, minor gesture?

 

I do believe that many Americans are thinking much too simplistic to even grasp the size proportions this problem has, worldwide.

3 minutes ago, nick supreme said:

Are tariffs considered a tax? 

call it a tarrif or a tax it matters not a jot

1 minute ago, smedly said:

call it a tarrif or a tax it matters not a jot

Us proud Democrats love high taxes.  

2 minutes ago, jts-khorat said:

 

How will that change the trade imbalance that Thailand has because the US imports all kinds of cheap electronics? How much wine do you think the Thais drink?

 

And do you truly believe that Trump will reduce tariffs because of such a tiny, minor gesture?

 

I do believe that many Americans are thinking much too simplistic to even grasp the size proportions this problem has, worldwide.

The US can survive worldwide recession. The rest of the world, not so sure..

Umm

 

American Liberation Day.

 

Or

 

American Suicide Day.

4 minutes ago, nick supreme said:

 

It's a tax? 

Not literally. In effect, yes.