Deep confusion as Trump signals new tariffs on #smartphones and computers

> #Donald Trump’s tariff war has dived deeper into chaos after a cabinet official telegraphed new levies on #semiconductors – a crucial component in electronic goods – just days after the Trump administration exempted computers and smartphones from reciprocal #tariffs. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/14/trump-news-at-a-glance-deep-confusion-as-trump-signals-new-tariffs-on-smartphones-and-computers #TradeWar

China's Xi courts Southeast Asia as Trump tariffs bite

> Xi’s three-country tour of Southeast Asia comes amid an escalated trade war with the United States. Xi pledged this week to strengthen strategic bonds with neighbouring nations by “appropriately” managing differences and enhancing supply chain ties. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/china-xi-jinping-asean-trump-tariffs-5062956 #China #TradeWar #SouthEastAsia

LoL 🤡😁

"Donald Trump’s presidential administration has exempted smartphones and computers from the 125% levies imposed on imports from China as well as other “reciprocal” tariffs, which experts had cautioned might cause electronic consumer prices to spike dramatically in the US.

The announcement was made late on Friday in a US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) notice that said the devices would be excluded from the 10% global tariff that Trump recently imposed on most countries, along with the much heftier import tax on China.

The CBP’s notice follows concerns from tech companies that the price of electronics for US consumers might surge with many of them manufactured in China. The notice also contained exemptions for additional electronics and components, such as memory cards, solar cells and semiconductors."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/12/trump-administration-smartphones-computers-china-tariffs

#USA #Trump #Tariffs #TradeWar #China #Protectionism

Mitsubishi Motors has halted shipments of finished automobiles to #US dealerships as it waits to see what comes next after the Trump administration imposed an additional 25% #tariff on imported autos.

> The Japanese automaker has not stopped exporting vehicles from Japan, but has decided to suspend deliveries of new vehicles to its 330 American sales companies.
https://archive.fo/2025.04.12-200737/https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Trade-war/Trump-tariffs/Mitsubishi-Motors-freezes-shipments-to-U.S.-dealerships #tariffs #TradeWar #MitsubishiMotors

The NDP is proposing Victory Bond style measures.

What do you think?

"The plan would see the federal government offer five- and 10-year bonds that Canadians can buy through a payroll deduction.

"Money from Victory Bonds will be dedicated entirely to getting Canadians to work building public infrastructure like: roads, rail, housing, waterworks, ports, that we will own for generations," the party said in a statement.

"We are in a trade war, and just like other wars, we will use victory bonds to support the trade war effort."

#Canada #CanPoli #CdnPoli #Elxn45 #TradeWar
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ndp-victory-bond-program-1.7500789

"Faith in US dollar RATTLED (RATTLED I SAY!) as investor confidence drops" — Axios

Bloomberg on that https://archive.ph/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-04-11/trump-tariffs-are-the-us-dollar-s-days-of-dominance-numbered #USEconomy #Tariffs #TradeWar

"In short, the U.S. economy will suffer enormously in a large-scale trade war with China, which the current levels of Trump-imposed tariffs, at more than 100 percent, surely constitute if left in place. In fact, the U.S. economy will suffer more than the Chinese economy will, and the suffering will only increase if the United States escalates. The Trump administration may think it’s acting tough, but it’s in fact putting the U.S. economy at the mercy of Chinese escalation.

The United States will face shortages of critical inputs ranging from basic ingredients of most pharmaceuticals to inexpensive semiconductors used in cars and home appliances to critical minerals for industrial processes including weapons production. The supply shock from drastically reducing or zeroing out imports from China, as Trump purports to want to achieve, would mean stagflation, the macroeconomic nightmare seen in the 1970s and during the COVID pandemic, when the economy shrank and inflation rose simultaneously. In such a situation, which may be closer at hand than many think, the Federal Reserve and fiscal policymakers are left with only terrible options and little chance of staving off unemployment except by further raising inflation."

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/trade-wars-are-easy-lose

#USA #Trump #Tariffs #TradeWar #China #Protectionism #PoliticalEconomy

"#China will increase #tariffs on U.S. products to 125% as trade war escalates"; and you will learn to wear tatterd clothing, use obsolete cellies, prole. #TradeWar ... it makes the billionaires wealthier, while YOU eat bugs and forage the outskirts of cities for food
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/china-will-increase-tariffs-on-u-s-products-to-125-as-trade-war-escalates

🐧📢 #Democratic #Penguins Republic - #TradeWar 🫡 🐧🐧🐧 #satire #yt

https://youtu.be/HJ8qGOe2K0o

🤣 🤣 🤣 #aww ✊ ❤️ #notrump

China is poised to exploit the gaps left by Trump's tariffs

> For more than a decade, American leaders, including Trump, have tried to reorient U.S. economic policy, security strategy and alliances to confront #China’s rise. Yet nearly three months into his second term, Trump’s “America First” #tariffs and budget cutbacks may have provided Beijing its clearest opening yet to escape years of U.S. pressure. https://apnews.com/article/china-united-states-tariffs-influence-d0bd2de680a04f0e1cbbc42a8bba1c8f #TradeWar

"The debate over whether to take Trump literally or seriously is over. He has now learnt how to be the tyrant he always wished to be. That took a while. But, with the help he has received, he is there. His administration is engaged in a comprehensive assault on the American republic and the global order it created. Under attack domestically are the state, the rule of law, the role of the legislature, the role of the courts, the commitment to science and the independence of the universities. All these were the pillars on which US freedom and prosperity rested. Now, he is destroying the liberal international order. Soon, I presume, Trump will be invading countries, as he proceeds to restore the age of empires.
(...)
It seems inevitable that these tariffs, plus the uncertainty created by the unanchored, and so unpredictable, new policy environment, will damage the world and US both now and in the longer term. Our economies are far more open than ever before. Sudden and huge increases in protection will have correspondingly bigger economic effects than before. Stock markets are surely right to guess that a good part of today’s productive capital stock will turn out to be scrap: continued market turmoil is likely.

This offers a perverse kind of hope. The attempt by Trump and his associates to undermine the republic would take time. It is now more likely that he will run out of it. Imagine that as a result of all this turmoil, the economy indeed falters and so the Republicans are hammered in the midterms. This would make the Maga project far more difficult to carry out. Who knows? US institutions might begin to show a little backbone. Above all, the next presidential election might actually be a fair one.

So long as Maga dominates the American right, the US potential for unpredictable, irrational and pernicious behaviour will remain. That is, alas, a huge gift to China."

https://www.ft.com/content/d96d4a44-2b75-4222-b77a-afe72c1b9174

#USA #Trump #Tariffs #TradeWar #Economy #PoliticalEconomy #China

Trump explains dramatic reversal on #tariffs: People getting 'a little bit afraid'

> Shortly after President #DonaldTrump on Wednesday suddenly backtracked on his destabilizing "reciprocal" tariffs, instituting a 90-day pause for most affected nations except #China, reporters asked him what led him to the change in course.

> "I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy. You know, they were getting a little bit yippy, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-explains-dramatic-reversal-tariffs-people-bit-afraid/story?id=120651386 #tradewar

The Canadians and Danes boycotting American products

> Todd Brayman is no longer buying his favourite red wine, which is from California.

> A veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, he is one of a growing number of people in #Canada, Europe, and other parts of the world, who are avoiding buying #US products due to President Trump's #tariffs and treatment of #US allies. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0el8ed21w9o #Canada #Denmark #Danmark #DKpolitik #CDNpoli #TradeWar #DKpol

Congress can end this trade war any time they want.

Every day this economic collapse continues is a choice they made.

#TradeWar #Imports #Tariffs #MikeJohnson #Thune #Senate #HouseOfReps #RaiseTheBar #PrimaryThemAll #DemandMore #uspol #USPolitics #journalism #news #analysis #Resist #media #socialmedia #Resistance #Tesla #FascistTakeover #MakeThemFight #EconomicCollapse

"Trump’s erratic tariff actions, alongside his reversal of the former bipartisan policy on Ukraine, has already had indirect results. In alleged defense against the American turn, Europe and Canada have both donned the nationalist mantle of sovereignty and given Trump one of the main changes he has called for: an increase in their military expenditures so as to correct America’s disproportionate share of NATO’s military costs. Since American firms will also get a good share of the increased military expenditures abroad, the bloated US military-industrial complex will get a further boost.

As well, it may be that the uncertainty created over access to the US market likewise has method in its madness: corporations may now bias future global investments and supply chains to locate in the US “just-in-case.” This is of general concern but hits home especially in Canada since it is so close, so already integrated, and with costs relatively comparable.

Underlying all this lies the primary question at the core of Trump’s agenda. Paraphrased, it asks: “Why, if America is the world’s dominant power, does it accept such a disproportionate share of globalization’s burdens and receive such an unfair share of the benefits?” The framing of America’s status in these over-wrought terms adds a further method-in-madness: misdirection."

https://socialistproject.ca/2025/04/man-who-would-be-king/

#USA #Trump #Tariffs #TradeWar #PoliticalEconomy #Capitalism #Neoliberalism #Protectionism

"When Covid hit in 2020, the diversification efforts sped up. The global pandemic — and manufacturing line shutdowns — made it painfully obvious that building everything in one place wasn’t the best idea. Then there was the toll from US inflation, but Apple held firm to its pricing strategy.

The latest tariffs promise to be the biggest test yet — especially because they go beyond China and extend to the very countries Apple has been shifting toward. As I detailed in a story this past week, these production hubs are all getting hit by the new tariffs:

- India, where Apple is increasingly building iPhones and AirPods, will have a 26% tariff.
- Vietnam, where the company now makes some AirPods, iPads, Apple Watches and Macs, will be hit with a 46% levy.
- Malaysia, where Apple is increasingly producing Macs, will have a 24% tariff.
- Thailand, where the company also makes some Macs, will get a 37% levy.
- Ireland, within the European Union, gets a 20% tariff. Apple produces some iMacs there.
- Indonesia, which will soon begin making AirTags and mesh for the AirPods Max headphones, gets a 32% tariff.

The latest tariffs will be 34% for China, bringing its total level to 54%. But the overall picture suggests Apple isn’t going to get as much benefit as hoped from diversifying away from that country. Apple will still be taking a hit on iPhones made in India, AirPods made in Vietnam and Macs made elsewhere in Asia.

There is still a chance that Cook can secure some sort of exemption or that the countries themselves will negotiate better terms. But assuming the levies are fully in place by April 9 as planned, Apple will have a big decision to make: Will it eat the costs of the tariffs, push suppliers to reduce prices, pass on the expense to customers or make further supply chain adjustments? My bet is that Apple will do a combination of all four."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-04-06/will-apple-raise-iphone-prices-in-the-us-after-trump-tariffs-iphone-17-details

#USA #Trump #Tariffs #Apple #TradeWar #SupplyChain #iPhone

China Wanted to Negotiate With Trump. Now It’s Arming for Another Trade War.

> On Friday, Beijing matched Trump’s 34% additional tariffs and for the first time it hit all #US products, no exceptions.

> Trump’s response to its retaliation suggested things would only get worse. In a social-media post, Trump wrote, “#CHINA PLAYED IT WRONG, THEY PANICKED—THE ONE THING THEY CANNOT AFFORD TO DO!” https://archive.fo/2025.04.06-020746/https://www.wsj.com/world/china/china-trump-tariff-foreign-policy-6934e493 #TradeWar

"Take a look at this iPhone 16 Pro. Your cost, for the 256GB version, is $1,100. The cost of all the hardware inside—aka the bill of materials—was about $550 to Apple when the phone was introduced, says Wayne Lam, research analyst at TechInsights, which breaks down major products. Throw in assembly and testing and Apple’s cost rises to around $580. Even when you account for Apple’s advertising budget and all the included services—iMessage, iCloud, etc.—there’s still a healthy profit margin.

Now factor in the newly announced tariff for goods from China, which currently totals 54%. The cost rises to around $850. That profit margin would shrink dramatically if Apple didn’t up the price. And you don’t become a trillion-dollar gadget company by charging for things at cost."

https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/iphone-apple-tariffs-china-bb20c7a3?st=uZeNUf&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

#USA #Trump #Tariffs #TradeWar #Protectionism #China #Apple #iPhone

That's what you get when you put a total stooge as the leader of the (soon to be former) most powerful country in the world.

"Not long after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the administration’s economic staff went to work on a daunting task: determining tariff rates for dozens of countries to fulfill the president’s campaign pledge of imposing “reciprocal” trade barriers.

After weeks of work, aides from several government agencies produced a menu of options meant to account for a wide range of trading practices, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Instead, Trump personally selected a formula that was based on two simple variables — the trade deficit with each country and the total value of its U.S. exports, said two of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to recount internal talks. While precisely who proposed that option remains unclear, it bears some striking similarities to a methodology published during Trump’s first administration by Peter Navarro, now the president’s hard-charging economic adviser. After its debut in the Rose Garden on Wednesday, the crude math drew mockery from economists as Trump’s new global trade war prompted a sharp drop in markets."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/04/04/trump-tariffs-reason-advisers/

#USA #Trump #Tariffs #Protectionism #TradeWar #PoliticalEconomy

"Mr Trump called it one of the most important days in American history. He is almost right. His “Liberation Day” heralds America’s total abandonment of the world trading order and embrace of protectionism. The question for countries reeling from the president’s mindless vandalism is how to limit the damage.

Almost everything Mr Trump said this week—on history, economics and the technicalities of trade—was utterly deluded. His reading of history is upside down. He has long glorified the high-tariff, low-income-tax era of the late-19th century. In fact, the best scholarship shows that tariffs impeded the economy back then. He has now added the bizarre claim that lifting tariffs caused the Depression of the 1930s and that the Smoot-Hawley tariffs were too late to rescue the situation. The reality is that tariffs made the Depression much worse, just as they will harm all economies today. It was the painstaking rounds of trade talks in the subsequent 80 years that lowered tariffs and helped increase prosperity.

On economics Mr Trump’s assertions are flat-out nonsense. The president says tariffs are needed to close America’s trade deficit, which he sees as a transfer of wealth to foreigners. Yet as any of the president’s economists could have told him, this overall deficit arises because Americans choose to save less than their country invests—and, crucially, this long-running reality has not stopped its economy from outpacing the rest of the G7 for over three decades. There is no reason why his extra tariffs should eliminate the deficit. Insisting on balanced trade with every trading partner individually is bonkers—like suggesting that Texas would be richer if it insisted on balanced trade with each of the other 49 states, or asking a company to ensure that each of its suppliers is also a customer."

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2025/04/03/president-trumps-mindless-tariffs-will-cause-economic-havoc

#USA #Trump #Tariffs #TradeWar #Protectionism #Economy #PoliticalEconomy

"Now, just because some tariffs are beneficial, it doesn't follow that all tariffs are beneficial. When the "Asian Tiger" countries were undergoing rapid industrialization and lifting billions of people out of poverty, they did so with tariffs – but also with extensive industrial policy and direct investment in critical state industries (Biden was the first president in generations to pursue industrial policy, albeit a modest and small one, which Trump nevertheless dismantled).

Trump is doing mirror-world tariffs: tariffs without industrial policy, tariffs without social safety nets, tariffs without retraining, tariffs without any strategic underpinning. These tariffs will crash the US economy and will create calamitous effects around the world:
(...)
But the fact that Trump's tariffs are terrible doesn't mean tariffs themselves are always and forever bad. Resist the schizmogenic urge to say, "Trump likes tariffs, so I hate them." Not all tariffs are created equal, and tariffs can be a useful tool that benefits working people.

And also: the fact that tariffs can be useful doesn't imply that only tariffs are useful. The digital age – in which US-based multinational firms rely on digital technology to loot the economies of America's trading partners – offers countries facing US tariffs a powerful retaliatory tactic that has never before been seen on this planet. America's (former) trading partners can retaliate against US tariffs by abolishing the legal measures they have instituted to protect the products of US companies from reverse-engineering and modification. Countries facing US tariffs can welcome US imports – of printers, Teslas, iPhones, games consoles, insulin pumps, ventilators and tractors – but then legalize jailbreaking these devices:"

https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/02/me-or-your-lying-eyes/#spherical-cows-on-frictionless-surfaces

#USA #Trump #Tariffs #TradeWar #Protectionism #FreeTrade

"Trump is therefore not the first President to seek the controlled disintegration of the world economy by means of a devastating blow. Nor is he the first to purposely damage America’s allies to renew and prolong US hegemony. Nor the first who was prepared to hurt Wall Street in the short run in the process of strengthening US capital accumulation in the long term. Nixon had done all that half a century earlier.

And the irony is that the world the Western liberal establishment is grieving over today came into being as a result of the Nixon Shock. While admonishing the idea of a US President delivering a rude shock to the world economy, they are lamenting the passing of what only came into being because of another President’s readiness to deliver an even ruder shock. That is, the Nixon Shock gave birth to the darlings of today’s liberal establishment: neoliberalism, financialisation and globalisation."

https://unherd.com/2025/04/will-liberation-day-transform-the-world/

#USA #Trump #TradeWar #PoliticalEconomy #Tariffs #Protectionism #Nixon #Dollar

🇨🇦 Amid U.S. threats Canada’s national security plans must include training in non-violent resistance
https://theconversation.com/amid-u-s-threats-canadas-national-security-plans-must-include-training-in-non-violent-resistance-252451

#USpol #Trump #fascism #tariffs #TradeWar #neocolonialism
#Canada #sovereignty #never51 #ElbowsUp #resistance #solidarity

CAVE: collaborate, advocate, vote, educate

Horrible.

“Global Affairs Canada is condemning China after the country executed an unspecified number of Canadian citizens earlier this year in an act that violates "basic human dignity.””

I thought maybe the tension with the USA might provide an opening for rapprochement with China out of necessity, but this certainly sends the opposite signal.

#Canada #TradeWar #China
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/china-executes-canadians-drug-related-crime-1.7487764

Canada is back in fashion:

"Canada is the second-largest country by land mass, with the world’s longest coastline. It is bookended by the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, making it ideally situated for global trade.

Marko Papic, chief strategist at BCA Research, also reckons Canada could be better off in a warmer world. “Global warming could increase agricultural yields, open up large swaths of the country to mineral exploration, and allow for new trade routes through the Arctic,” he said.

The country is energy independent, with the world’s largest deposits of high-grade uranium and the third-largest proven oil reserves. It is also the fifth-largest producer of natural gas.

Canada boasts a huge supply of other commodities too, including the largest potash reserves (used to make fertiliser), over one-third of the world’s certified forests and a fifth of the planet’s surface freshwater. Plus, it has an abundance of cobalt, graphite, lithium and other rare earth elements, which are used in renewable technologies.

“Canada absolutely has potential to be a global superpower,” added Papic. But the nation has lacked the visionary leadership and policy framework to capitalise on its advantages.

US President Donald Trump’s tariff threat has, however, shifted the Overton window. There is now a growing political consensus to unlock Canada’s economic potential and reduce its dependence on exports to its southern neighbour. That task will fall to either Prime Minister Mark Carney or opposition leader Pierre Poilievre following an election this year.

Canada’s GDP has long trailed its G7 peers, ranking 16th globally in purchasing power parity terms. A country with its geography could clearly generate higher output. To do so, the Canadian economy needs to become more efficient, raise investment and attract more high-skilled workers. Here’s how."

https://www.ft.com/content/d4813838-66b2-4823-8361-11d467142fd2

#Canada #USA #Trump #Tariffs #TradeWar #PoliticalEconomy #Geopolitics

2/2 "We must blame them and cause a fuss before somebody thinks of blaming us" ...
"They're not even a real country anyway."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYB6ZSwdrvM #Trump #JDVance 🛋️ #Canada #tradewar #tariffs #GOCanada ✊ 🇨🇦

Timothy Snyder: "This is the magic of the big lie, as Hitler explained in Mein Kampf. Tell a lie so big, advised Hitler, that people will not believe that you would deceive them on such a scale. [...] Big lies today? That #Canada attacked the United StateS first by sending masses of fentanyl across the border. And also that Canada also does not really exist."

https://substack.com/home/post/p-158841639 #Trump #JDVance #project2025 #politics #tradewar #tariffs #BlameCanada
#GOCanada ✊ 🇨🇦

Not worried about Trump invading Canada?
You should be.
Because American Congresspeople are at least trying to prevent him doing it all on his own.

#CanPoli #CdnPoli #USPoli #TrumpWar #TradeWar #TrumpTariffs
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1936/all-actions

“British Columbia’s health minister says “now is the time” for American doctors and nurses to move to the province as it fast tracks recognition of their credentials during an escalating trade war between Canada and the United States”

#Tradewar #ComeAndSeeCanada

https://cfjctoday.com/2025/03/11/b-c-takes-advantage-of-u-s-chaos-trade-war-to-attract-more-doctors-and-nurses-2/

@mcnado

Onya Albo, no reciprocal tariffs in Australia, although there’s definitely a strong argument for whacking a tariff on gold 😂.

“Tariffs and escalating trade tensions are a form of economic self-harm and a recipe for slower growth and higher inflation. They are paid by the consumers. This is why Australia will not be imposing reciprocal tariffs on the United States. Such a course of action would only push up prices for Australian consumers and increase inflation.”

…
“… in January 2025, for the first time since the US census bureau published records, Australia recorded a trade surplus with the US. This was driven, almost wholly, by a run on gold in the US. Australia shipped a record amount of gold to the US in January – worth US$2.9bn – according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, the highest figure in records dating back to 1995.”

#TradeWar #Tarriffs #Gold #USPol #Auspol #Steel #Aluminium #PutinsPuppet #TrumpFlation

"For a president who was criticized early in her campaign as being “uncharismatic” (in large part an unsubtle attempt to play her off against her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador), she has, in barely six months in office, become an international example for how to deal with a volatile, capricious Trump. Her poise and the famous cabeza fría in the face of tariff and invasion threats, Trump’s designation of cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and a series of sloppy, adolescently antagonistic communiqués from the American president have won her plaudits from world leaders as disparate as Gustavo Petro and Olaf Scholz. Finessing the art of statesmanship in the face of crass belligerence, the presidenta has walked a fine line between firmness and flexibility, tossing Trump something he can use to declare a “win” without compromising her position in future negotiations. This has gained her repeated praise from Trump personally, who has openly cribbed her idea for carrying out a national anti-fentanyl campaign. Where Justin Trudeau went to grovel at Mar-a-Lago, or Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, and Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to the White House only to get snapped at, Sheinbaum has remained in Mexico, negotiating, governing, and refusing to play Trump’s game on his terms. And as it turned out, delaying the announcement of reciprocal tariffs for a few days to allow both space for last-minute dialogue and time for the organization of a public rally turned out to be the right move on both counts. It is the kind of strategic thinking Sheinbaum will need in spades in the days and weeks ahead."

https://jacobin.com/2025/03/mexico-sheinbaum-trump-tariffs-popularity

#Mexico #USA #Tariffs #Trump #Sheinbaum #Tariffs #TradeWar

I am told that american customs officials are now seeing more egg smuggling than fentanyl smuggling.

UPDATE : I thought it was a joke but it is seems to be true! : https://www.tvanouvelles.ca/2025/03/10/plus-doeufs-que-de-fentanyl-confisques-aux-frontiere-americaines

#tradewar #fentanyl #inflation #tarrifs

Canada's new prime minister. Today's cartoon by Stellina Chen. More cartoons: https://www.cartoonmovement.com/search?query=&sort=created&order=desc

#Canada #Trump #tradewar #Carney