Credit Trump for the irony of the year in a pair of comments on Truth Social. 
Comments of the Day
- CHINA SHOULD OPEN UP ITS MARKET TO USA — WOULD BE SO GOOD FOR THEM!!! CLOSED MARKETS DON’T WORK ANYMORE!!!
- 80% Tariff on China seems right! Up to Scott B.
Irony of the Year
CLOSED MARKETS DON’T WORK ANYMORE!!!
No one has tried harder than Trump to make the US an island.
He wants production here, massive tariffs to stop imports, tariffs to balance the budget, and now he says an “80 percent tariff on China seems right”.
Nearly as Stupid
An 80 percent tariff is nearly as stupid as a 145 percent tariff because most trade with China would still stop. Trade might stop at 50 percent.
And it is US consumers who pay that tariff, not China.
Open Market
The US had a beautifully, nearly open market with Canada and Mexico until Trump came along and ruined it.
Reader: “Tariffs are reciprocal. All Canada has to do is to lower the tariffs they charge the US to what they want the US to charge them.”
Me: USMCA IS reciprocal right now. In extremely minor instances where it isn’t, TRUMP negotiated the deal.
Please read over and over Cheese Was a “Key Achievement” of Trump’s USMCA Trade Agreement
The above post contains over a dozen instances in which Trump bragged what a great deal.
It was such a great deal that Trump thanked Mexico and Canada. Notably USMCA is “Good for everybody – Farmers, Manufacturers, Energy, Unions – tremendous support. Importantly, we will finally end our Country’s worst Trade Deal, NAFTA!”
Good deal or not (and I think it was a very good deal for the US), the fact of the matter is Trump has no legitimate right to unilaterally break a deal ratified by the Senate 89-10.
Total Trade (Imports and Exports)
- Mexico: 1.423 Trillion
- Canada: 762 Billion
- China: 583 Billion
Canada Fact Check
Yesterday, I did a Fact Check on Trump’s Claim “We Don’t Do Much Business with Canada”
“We don’t do much business with Canada from our standpoint, they do a lot of business with us.”
Canada is the second largest US trading partner after Mexico.
And the US exports more to Canada than any other nation in the world. Indeed, the US exports more to Canada than the entirety of the EU!
And Trump still does not understand who pays tariffs.
Today, Trump lectures the world on “open markets” what a hoot.
Negotiating tactic. Apparently, at 150%, China quietly approached the U.S. about negotiations, due to concerns about economic collapse in China, due to factory layoffs.
This will be the largest tax increase in American history. Trump needs to fund his grandiose plans to dominate the world. The world has other ideas, not every country is a lapdog like Britain.
You have to pay for that trillion dollar defense budget somewhere and then there is that multi million dollar parade. Lots of bills to pay…
ZH:
Fear Of Economic Collapse Forced China To Negotiate With Trump, Quietly Reach Out First: Reuters Report
======
reprint from Reuters.
if Tyler posts this ju11nk, YOU KNOW HOW THINGS ARE BAD IN WHITE HOUSE.
no wonder ZH got first reporter in White house
O tempora, o mores
Fear Of Economic Collapse Forced China To Negotiate With Trump, Quietly Reach Out First: Reuters Report
======
Zh posted huge, and i mean huge article how China is weak, and just begging Trump a about negotiations.
reprint from Reuters.
each and every day , 2-3 times per day. same bs
if Tyler posts this ju11nk, YOU KNOW HOW THINGS ARE BAD IN WHITE HOUSE.
Fear Of Economic Collapse Forced China To Negotiate With Trump, Quietly Reach Out First: Reuters Report
Zero Hedge
#Winning
Ah, that bastion of fine journalism and accurate reporting, ZeroHedge.
only if you are mo1ron who believes anything posted BY Reuters!
I BET YOU WATCH CNN=BBC
Geez….Trump, this Trump that. America is the largest consumer in the world, nobody is close. China built modern China on America’s consumerism and cheapness. That is, if their buildings continue to stand.
Let’s talk about costs, yeah, trade with China lowers product costs, but does it really? Buy some items made in China, and they’re ruined in a year. Buy quality at a higher price, and it lasts ten years. So, which is a better deal? Americans will trip over a dollar bill to pick up a dime.
All Americans think about is how much it costs today. What’s my monthly payment? We are not schooled about what it costs over a year or ten years.
You keep bashing Trump but never American habits. Maybe if we Americans had been better educated in finance, China would never have happened.
China is an opportunistic country that steals tech and copies ideas, but never improves them. They only cheapen stolen products that massively inflate America’s landfills.
Why don’t you talk about value, Mish? Look into auto parts, for instance. You’ll learn that a considerable percentage is worthless. Auto repair is constantly having to rework auto repair because of faulty parts. This is a massive cost in efficiency.
There’s far more to consider about China tariffs than cost. We must rebuild our product infrastructure, or America is in big trouble. We can’t rely on foreign countries to make everything.
Its our corrupt and incompetent political class responsible for the rise of China.
=America is the largest consumer in the world, nobody is close.
Actually it is just false!
car market in china is 2x as big.
CHINE BUILDS HOUSING PER YEAR MORE THAN USA BUILDS FOR LAST 20*30 YEARS. combined
YOU ARE MO11RON who never travelled outside local county
Yearly new car sales
China: 31.4 million
US: 15.9 million
Yearly used car sales
China: 26.1 million
US: 37.4 million
I have a friend who lived in china and eleswhere for years. Says most of us are brainwashed and have zero clue.
=China is an opportunistic country that steals tech and copies ideas, but never improves them.
another moronic post!
moron CHINA OPERATES HIGH SPEED TRAINS! a lot
REMIND ME – how many trains run in USA??
Jesus. you are uneducated american moro11ns are beyond pathetic!
“We must rebuild our product infrastructure, or America is in big trouble.”
Well, in order to do that, the state should be able to dictate to, and regulate, capital. Which is what China did from their Eighth Five Year Plan to their Fourteenth Five Year Plan.
But US won’t do that because, you know, that would be {{{{SoCiALiSm}}}} In the US, it is capital that OWNS – lock, stock and barrel – those who are in charge of the state. About as opposite to the successful model that you can get.
China has been a bonanza for many American corporations, from fast food to automotive corporations. Apple and Tesla were some of the biggest winners.
Why does anyone even listen to or encourage his nonsense? I think all media should black him out for a month and see what happens. Most things he does are so he can watch himself in the news cycles.
Ah, right on que the Pushover in Chief is backtracking, tail between his legs but trying bravoure nonethess. Xi’s team will have a field day in switzerland. The only interesting thing to watch is how little trump will get to keep and how much noise he’ll make to cry VICTORY.
Negotiating against yourself never ends well. Trump was the one who raised the tariffs, now he wants to lower them. I’m sure that will really impress Chairman Xi.
The thing is that at this point everyone knows Trump’s negotiating playbook. That hostage taking/break something and then only be willing to fix it if you get your way only works when the person that you are negotiating with does not understand your game. When the other side knows this game, they also understand that it is mutual assured economic destruction and thus can call the bully’s bluff.
Bessent it going to tell the Chinese in Switzerland that the tariff now is 1000%. Right?
Y’all have some serious TDS. Show us on the doll.
This has some good data on duties charged by US and China over the past decade. The diffrence was quite small between US and China. Of course, that does not address any issues of market access but that is, and always has been, an entirely different problem than the rate charged and should have been negotiated as such. The same could be said about some of the “problems” with the EU
https://www.piie.com/research/piie-charts/2019/us-china-trade-war-tariffs-date-chart
Obama was the first to not reappoint WTO judges because of trade issues with China. So today we have a WTO that cannot hear any appeals because there are no judges.
146%, 80%,, or 1000% does not matter because these tariff levels render most current business models that must rely upon Chinese imports unprofitable.
I agree 80% with this point, but suggest that for some products which are both (a) necessary and (b) more expensive if produced elsewhere despite tariff difference, the drop to 80% may be acceptable.
For instance, the cost of styrofoam packaging for 3 pounds of grocery store beef may only add 1 penny to the per-sale cost. If it rises to 1.8 pennies per 3 pounds of beef, will anybody notice? At 2.45 pennies per package maybe some customers will notice? At ten cents per package grocery stores will bump up the price.
To clarify my point, by “acceptable” I mean acceptable to US customers and producers of specific goods. 80% tariffs are still not happy news for PRC leadership.
The Media is overdosing us in Tariff Talk. Everyone should also remember it is Lost Sock Day? Socks are still waiting for their parners and that is quite concerning.
The sock puppets in media should be able to help.
Rising rate of stocking-divorce across the West is horrifying. Footulism being propagated in colleges and throughout MSM is driving the left and right socks further apart. Populist uprising of the unwashed leftist stocking masses threatens social decay, as gentrified right support hose protests in vain. Bobby-sockers nostalgically picket on Pennsylvania Avenue.
I had such high hopes, but he’s just an ignorant school yard bully whose father handed him a real estate empire that he nearly bankrupted. He doesn’t bother reading, he just makes things up as he goes along based on information his lackeys tell him, only because they think it’s what he wants to hear. 5D chess, hilarious.
If only people had learned this the FIRST time he was president.
It looks like his mental illness is getting worse.
All of of what you say has been well known for nearly ten years.
I would bet the tariffs will be lower as trump will do his typical capitulation. Those on the other side of the US on these tariffs are no fools. UK was desperate but don’t believe the other countries are so. Today’s editorial page in the WSJ had a good article on this subject and trump’s position.
Capitulate and backtrack he will
And now you understand the scale of MAGA dumb. No one can contradict themselves better than MAGA.
This post gets a two star Mishelin™ rating for being funny and informative.