#45 is destroying American farmers, the one sector US dominates now threatened with ruin.

The tariffs have been announced but not enacted. Let us hope that sanity reigns before they are. However, if this trade war does start in earnest, and the PRC targets Trump's base, then I will have no sympathy. And neither will the GOP, who will no doubt cut yet again anything that looks like a social safety net in the current budget wrangling. It's not like voters weren't repeatedly warned about Trump's and the GOP's policies.

I do think Trump has a point regarding unfair PRC trade practices. Also, I do not think that the PRC will abandon them without pressure, and there is a chance that Trump's gamble will work. However, perhaps pressure on the PRC could have been applied in a more coordinated way, like getting the EU and and other trading blocs to act in unison. As it stands know, all of this is creating uncertainty, which has an economic, and, ultimately, a human price.

 

China has taken advantage of the US with lopsided trade agreements for years. This won't be negotiable when China grows even more powerful.

 

Trump is a moron who was born rich and ripped people off for decades. He was never in the military, never farmed, he's a NYC liberal racist elite. When he opens his mouth, he is 1) Lying and 2) Saying something moronic.

What did they expect? A NYC real estate conman would save them? By ripping off world leaders, congress, etc. like he did to build his "empire?" A guy who's brother died from alcoholism, who doesn't drink, launches a Vodka brand.

Seriously, you get what you vote for.

 

So much winning.

 

Well. US has take advantage of lots of things from the world.

It doesn’t matter much, China won’t just waive white flag and surrender, they know what exactly to do and inject most pain to US and Trump’s base. Trump is not going to stay in power forever. He only can do maximum 8 years. The Chinese president Xinhas no term limit. They can impose their policy as long as they want, they have the patient.

It is the idiotic Trump start the trade war, you can blame China all you want for its “unfair” practices, it seems to me only US complaining about China, where other US’s allies are happen to take over US and trade with China. China will not back down, you can just wait and see how China plays.

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It is funny to see how Trump contradicts himself. He want to help American auto industry, but he ignored fact of 15% of American cars were exported to China, 25% of US commiefal Aircraft were exported to China. Whe. China start to impose high tariffs on US cars and aircraft, who do you think stand to loss? Chia can easily replace US car with its domestic, Japanese, German and Korea car and replace Boeing with Air Bus.

 

Anyone who still needs evidence Trump is a moron for this circumstance listen to his statement that trade wars are easy to win. The problem is he either means it, or it’s another of his wreckless bluffs and it demeans the office of which he has temporary custody.

--- Post Merged, Apr 5, 2018 ---

Regarding coal he says that for his West Va suckers.* We should be demanding no funds for a wall until he personally negotiates a deal with Mexico where they pay for it. You know, a campaign promise. I’d be loling all over the place, if he was not in the middle of his scam to fool some of us, apparantly enough to keep him in office.

* Not bad mouthing West Virginians in general. My Mom’s Family is from West Va, via Pittsburg.

 

Those who have supported him the most are getting screwed the hardest. Working middle class Americans who are seeing their healthcare skyrocket and jobs getting slashed while paying more for everything from cars to consumer electronics, and soon food products thanks to Chinese retaliations. All at the expense of the people because Trump has a personal beef with these countries. All I can say is they asked for it and now they got it, the rest of us are just stuck with it.

 

China will find other trade partners and keep growing. The rest of the world will move on, the US will get sidelined by its protectionism.

 

This would be a good time for Trump to take out that map of the states he won. Maybe one of his illustrious advisers could show him a map of the states he is screwing with his stupid tariffs. In a few years Stable Genius may be able to connect the dots if they give him a big bright colored crayon.

 

Nah.

 

My guess is if Trump keeps acting recklessly and doesn't come back to reality the GOP base is going to throw Trump under the bus and say to the Democrats "Have Fun!".

 

So far you're describing the midterms pretty much exactly.

 

That's what China said while they worked out their response to US tariff provocations (after one of their spokesmen commented "it's only polite to reciprocate"). The FT ran a map of the potential jobs impact by US county. "No state left behind..."

Even my rural upstate NY county with its 50k residents (and 14k jobs) would lose about 2% of those jobs. Those voters went for Donald Trump 60-33 with Johnson taking 3%.

​

 

You reap what you sow.

Don't forget the hefty tariff on cars and SUVs. China is a burgeoning market for American automobile manufacturers, especially GM.

 

Another "Trump is ending the world" thread based on an endless pit of leftist outrage. Gotta hit the subscribe button on this one.

I've been to the future:

Spoiler

He unleashes the tariffs and farming still happens.

You know what screws up farming? Lack of water. California Democrats love not building dams because "muh environment must never change or else some bird might have to change trees". California Democrats love directing the little water we have away from farmers and into a river that flushes into the ocean to sustain a non-native fish. Farming will become a problem when droughts and decades of water and infrastructure mis-management make it one.

If we have to re-allocate resources in an one field to correct trade deficits in others, so be it; the trade deficit is overwhelmingly one way. At this point I just want to see what happens and if all "the experts" will ever be right. They've been wrong up to and since the election.

 

Start in earnest? This Trade War has not only started, it's already ESCALATED. Trump does not back down on fights he started. He doubles down and ramps up the tension even more. Every. Single. Time.

Here is the proof:

Trump proposes $100 billion MORE in new tariffs on China (April 5, 2018)

 

Endless pit of leftist outrage? The thoroughly Republican Speaker of the House publicly reprimanded Trump more than a month ago about the dangers of a trade war.

Our trade deficits were already dropping vis a vis China because of the burgeoning middle class over there. "Don't fix what's not seriously broken" is not a concept that rings any bells with Donald Trump, I guess. It's not just impact of tariffs on farming. It's the reciprocity, the tit for tat, the ongoing "oh yeah? watch this!" and pretty soon the guy who was doing light electronics assembly here with 10 employees has no job orders because China no longer feels compelled to balance off those imports with something they exported to us until we said on no you're not dumping that over here any more. So we shift gears figuring ok nm we'll trade in Latin America but China's already there farming and buying the crops for export to back home, and furthermore Mexico's busy making bilateral agreements with Latin American countries in case the US is suicidal enough to ditch NAFTA.

The Chinese just took us to the WTO over the original tariffs, by the way... stay tuned.

Trump says trade wars are easy to win. Then he says "but we're negotiating". In other words he just realized he stirred a pot the wrong way at the wrong time. He walked away from TPP, where China is not a member. He abdicated a chance to be a regional player in the East quite independently from the supplier-buyer relationship we still do have with China which could have stood some renegotiations but now there's at least an undercurrent of anger on both sides. The guy is so incompetent it's sickening.

 

But but but trade wars are good, and easy to win! Said a moron in the White House.

 

China charges 30% on some cars before the "trade war" even started. Trade war was already being won on China's side, Trump is just throwing a hat into the ring.

 

Sorry, this post is off topic. This is the first time I have seen the 'spoiler' tag used. Didn't even know this had been implemented! Cool.

 

Of course farmers will still farm. Their biggest buyer just looked elsewhere. With China shaping Africa, we'll probably see certain African countries morphed into farm land, gas and oil fields, refineries, etc.

At a price loss to farmers, nut prices will hopefully come down. We tend to go through 5-6 lb of almonds a month.

That doesn't take away from the fact that vehicles just became harder to move than before. The Chinese don't like their own country's vehicles. They prefer foreign vehicles. Big cars with smart emissions.

 

To be fair, I think that the trade imbalance did exist to a good degree, and that it had to be addressed. But addressing it through a "trade war" not only harms both USA and China unnecessarily, it also harms the USA in many other ways…. like everyone's 401k just losing thousands in the last couple weeks. You so-called fiscal Republicans should know this, since nothing tanks Wall Street more than a trade war.

So back to "addressing the issue". Yes, the trade deficit really was a problem, I don't deny that POTUS has a point about that. But he could have done so many other things before jumping to an outright "declaration of (trade) war". He could have used hard-ball negotiating tactics to put pressure on China. This could have been done quietly, by sending his Economic secretaries or Pence to Beijing. Many strategists have even said that this economic pressure on China could also have been applied to buy us leverage in the NK issue. Remember that your beloved Trump claims to be such a Great Negotiator. If true, then why didn't he use his fabulous negotiating tactics to pressure China to tamp down its unfair trade behavior, instead of jumping to an all-out trade war?

Like real military (shooting) wars, there really are no winners in a trade war. Everyone just suffers casualties and damages all around, some more than others. That's why countries use diplomacy, threats, negotiations, bluffs, and even threats of embargo…. to avoid resorting to actual shooting wars. Because everyone knows that a military war should be the last resort. The same thing with trade wars. It should have been the last resort.