Countries Targeted by Trump’s Tariffs May Strike Back at U.S. Services

[Jim Blue]

11 hours ago, JonnyF said:

Trump is only charging half the amount of tariffs that these countries are putting on US goods in many  cases.

 

I wonder what  the Pakistan, India S/Lanka +Cambodia  people can buy from the US ? Bicycle bells ?

[Jim Blue]

6 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

 Other times, it is because they are in the local  service provider's network. Trump didn't mind using a small shopping mall accounting firm for his multi billion dollar empire did he?

 

 

Is that the same 'fine firm ' ENRON used ?

[Serenity_Now]

AGAIN with the Disparity Trump has faied to take into account services 
thus his tariffswill ultimately fail because as each nation comes to the bargaining table 
they actually have a stronger hand.
Malaysia
 

The 24% reciprocal tariff, part of a broader US trade policy targeting countries with which it has large trade deficits, will take effect on April 9. Some goods, such as semiconductors, will be exempted.(oh we need those dont tax them) PRICE INCREASE ON THE CARDS

In 2024, trade with the US, Malaysia’s third largest trading partner since year 2015, rebounded by 29.9% to RM324.91 billion compared with 2023. Trade with the country accounted for 11.3% of Malaysia's total trade, underscoring its importance to the nation's economy. (Just as Tourism is to Thailand 11% approx but we all know thats equalled by the black economy of tourism)

Malaysia maintains a trade surplus with the US, primarily exporting electronics, palm oil(worlds 2nd largest producer now in just about every Processed food and Cosmetics toiletries a price increase to offset tariffs its a closed market, ) and machinery to the world’s largest economy. However, the US enjoys a trade surplus in services with Malaysia, with many American firms operating in Malaysia for decades. 

HE REALLY DOES NOT SEE THE BIGGER PICTURE anyone with brains would have done this gradually if he wants a return of manufacturing in one fell swoop you devalue global ecomies and the poor yanks maybe still propping up the bar in pattaya but they aint paying any bar fines this weekend 401 sinking baby
 

The majority of these triffs will fail or be dramatically reduced in what will be another embarrassing reversall

Meanwhile those billionaire buddies probably allegedly, knowing what was coming were trading their little hearts out yesterday making millions of the backs of the working man 
Billionaire corruption.

As for the Penguins they are screwed 

[Yagoda]

hahahahahahahahahahahaha

Lets see who blinked first

https://www.ft.com/content/0431ef42-7386-4e19-935e-a06ae40f474c?segmentId=b385c2ad-87ed-d8ff-aaec-0f8435cd42d9

[harada]

My advice to the penguins of Heard Island who have been hit with this cruel tariff is relocate your colony to Mar a Lago Florida. 🏝🏝

[rough diamond]

1 hour ago, harada said:

My advice to the penguins of Heard Island who have been hit with this cruel tariff is relocate your colony to Mar a Lago Florida. 🏝🏝

Why subject the poor penguins to having that idiot as a neighbor.

[MicroB]

On 4/3/2025 at 5:13 AM, spidermike007 said:

While I agree that conceptually the idea is good and makes sense, the implementation is an entirely different story. Many of these companies as you stated simply cannot afford to manufacture in the US.

 

So many aspects of Trump's policies are just an abstract dream, and a talking point, turned into a nightmare reality, and so far detached from real life, and so ignorant of international manufacturing ecosystems, that it truly boggles the rational mind. 

 

Many of us thought that Trump was ignorant and quite dim, these policies will bear that out in a disastrous manner. 

 

The world is about to isolate America like never before, and show them that they are becoming less relevant by the day. Which is probably a good thing in the long run. 

 

Its not just about cost of manufacturter. Something might be made elsewhere, wholly, or in part, due to IP (know how).

 

The younger Trump wanted a Lamborghini sports car. he obviously couldn;t find an American made Lamborghini, so he settled for an Italian one. I doubt he considered cross shopping for a Firebird.

 

 

He alsom wanted an American Rolls Royce. There actually used to be American Rolls Royces in the 1930s; they were made from kits. But now, he has to buy those blasted British ones. I doubt a Towncar was considered.

 

 

 

I've looked at about 5000 US companies selling into the US. 1000 of these have product that are wholly US made. 800 have products wholly or partly made in APAC. 600 have products wholly or partly made in Europe.

 

When the price of medical devices shot up in Russia, Putin challenged his best scientists and engineers to come up with Russian replacements. After all, they are a nuclear power, put a man into space etc. Should be able to make an ultrasound machine. The response was, no boss, we can't do it.

 

I expect imaginative ways around the tariffs for manufacturers. Tariffs are being charged on car spare parts for instance. When does a car become spare parts? When you take the wheels off? The engine out, d oors off. Its a tactic to get around import tariffs in Thailand (BMW, Mercedes, Toyota etc). You import the cars as SKD, CKDs, pay a bit of tariff on whatever value you assign a pile of bits. Employ some low skill grunts to screw the thing together. If you are lucky, local government might even build the factory for you because you are bringing in "jobs". Of course, all the profits will continue to come to you.

 

India and Thailand use huge tariffs to protect their workforce. The results of Indian and Thai ingenuity:

 

 

Tariffs are a brilliant way to deliver a coup de grace to a car industry. Ask the UK or Russia. Take away competition, force people to buy cars merely on patriotic grounds, which is a blank cheque for manufacturers to make crap. Encourage transplant factories, who don't make crap. And you'll end up with the Australian car industry. Factories that shutter as soon as the exhange rate becomes unfavourable.

 

[MicroB]

14 hours ago, Banana7 said:

Maybe Trump's end objective is eliminate tariffs with all trading partners - Thailand should remove all tariffs for US goods and services and US will remove all tariffs for Thai goods and services.

 

 

So US mechanised and genetically enhanced rice puts the Thai rice growers out of business. US cannibis already dominates the Thai market.

 

His objective is to line his own pockets. His personal horizon is probably 5 years, because he knows either in 5 years he;s dead anyhow, and not in jail, or he'll be like his daddy, drooling, and not knowing when to go to the toilet, so who cares. He'll make sure, as the Mooch said, that the penguins are no longer ripping off America.

 

The paranoid though will think of Dark MAGA, which fits in with Musk's Technocracy ideology. Tariffs replace Taxes, right?  The US was founded on No Taxation without Representation. But if you don't have any taxes, then you don't need Representation, right? You don't need elections. Trust the bosses, they know best. And eventually that's trust AI. AI will make correct, infallible decisions for us, with zero payroll costs.

 

This is going to end in war. Just like the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act set us up for WW2.

[LosLobo]

On 4/3/2025 at 2:51 PM, JonnyF said:

Au contraire. 

I wasn't talking about trade deficit, I was talking about the disparity in tariff percentages.

Ah, I see your confusion now.
 

You're saying you were talking about tariff percentage disparities, not trade deficits. Fair enough—except Trump wasn’t.

When he set his tariffs, he used numbers that didn’t come from any official tariff schedule, but from dividing the U.S. trade deficit by US total imports——as if idiocracy, from an unstable self-declared stable genius, could moonlight as geopolitics.
 

 

[candide]

And, of course, there is no tariff on Rusdian cars.... that's unfair! 🙂

[placeholder]

On 4/3/2025 at 1:08 PM, Screaming said:

Ha, Ha what a joke you post. Actually Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra just announced that "Thailand will negotiate with the United States on tariffs." 

 

https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/general/2994532/thailand-will-negotiate-with-us-on-tariffs-says-paetongtarn

 

So the left wing is losing again to a real winner, Trump. MAGA

Excellent point!! After all, even though China has imposed a 34% tariff on all US imports and taken several other retaliatory measures, what does that matter when compared to the possible acquiescence of Thailand

[still kicking]

On 4/3/2025 at 2:12 PM, JonnyF said:

Trump is only charging half the amount of tariffs that these countries are putting on US goods in many cases.

 

They should be careful, he has left plenty of wriggle room to increase them further if any of these little tinpot countries start getting chopsy. 

 

If they've got any sense they will dramatically and immediately reduce the tariffs on US goods and thank America for being gullible enough to allow them to take advantage of the US for so long.  

 

Nice move Donald me old son, nice move.

Drank too much Kool-Aid?  

[tomazbodner]

On 4/3/2025 at 1:12 PM, JonnyF said:

Trump is only charging half the amount of tariffs that these countries are putting on US goods in many cases.

 

They should be careful, he has left plenty of wriggle room to increase them further if any of these little tinpot countries start getting chopsy. 

 

If they've got any sense they will dramatically and immediately reduce the tariffs on US goods and thank America for being gullible enough to allow them to take advantage of the US for so long.  

 

Nice move Donald me old son, nice move.

Actually, here's the problem. Trump has no idea what the other countries are charging the US. The formula that they used was something made up to amplify the figures, but isn't actually even related to any tariffs. It is pretty clear from the press conference that Trump himself had no idea what was on the chart, and started reading out the top words on the chart, completely unaware of anything below it.

 

Thailand doesn't impose 72% tariffs on US imports. That is the TRADE SURPLUS, or rather how much more Thailand exports to US than it imports. And why is that? Well, because US (and much of the West) moved nearly all of its manufacturing to low cost countries like China over the past 3-4 decades, so basically nothing other than agriculture products and services are there to be exported.

 

Also, the tariffs that were just posted are ADDITIONAL tariffs. So if someone already had 50% tariffs, and got 30% tariffs, then they now don't have 30% but 80% tariffs.

 

While, obviously trying to address short time shock, everyone is visiting Trump to negotiate, and probably hoping for some 30 days postponement or alike, but you have seen China, South Korea and Japan meeting to discuss trade between them. EU delegation is in Asia discussing the same, including with Thailand. I'm sure within days and weeks you'll see new connections between Latin America, Asia and Europe. Last time Trump tried trade war with China, he has destroyed soybean farmers in US. And even though China even promised (I remember that news) that they would buy umpteen thousand tons of soybeans from US... that never happened. In fact, before that US was the single biggest soybean supplier to China, where nearly everything produced in US went to China. Now? US exports of soy to China are 0, and the entire market is supplied by Brazil. 

 

And that's exactly how it'll end for US companies the World over. New suppliers will be found. US will drift into the shadows. Ordinary Americans will suffer the most. Recession is probably only weeks, at most a few months away. And that's my concern as I have many friends in US, and they did not deserve to get their lives turned upside down because of one illiterate fool in the White House hell bent on making everything he does a televised spectacle.

[jimmybcool]

So will 7/11 get canceled in Thailand?  🤣

[tomazbodner]

5 minutes ago, jimmybcool said:

So will 7/11 get canceled in Thailand?  🤣

Why? 7/11 is Japanese.

[Phulublub]

On 4/3/2025 at 2:51 PM, JonnyF said:

But yes, dirt cheap imports encourages people to buy foreign made products. Trump is addressing that. Buy American. Support American businesses. 

Like he does with his merchandise, you mean?

 

PH