Tit for Tat Tariffs - The US versus the World

7thKeeper said:

I thought it was zero deals. The UK one literally says it's not a deal nor legally binding on the paper itself, the China was one was just "let's drop the tariffs down from what we've raised them to as a precondition to start talking" and.. well I have to admit I don't remember what the last one is. So 0-1 deals?

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Trump clinched a trade deal with Vietnam, our 7th largest trading partner. Vietnam will pay a 20% tariff on goods and a 40% tariff on any transshipping. Best of all they are opening their markets to all U.S. products.

Valletta said:

Trump clinched a trade deal with Vietnam, our 7th largest trading partner.

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It seems that the only significant change compared to "before Trump" is that Vietnam dropped tariffs on US cars. However, I would not expect Vietnamese to suddenly start buying the US large expensive vehicles.

The infrastructure is different from the US and also the GDP per capita (nominal) in Vietnam is $ 4,623. It is $90,000 in the USA.

trophy33 said:

It seems that the only significant change compared to "before Trump" is that Vietnam dropped tariffs on US cars. However, I would not expect Vietnamese to suddenly start buying the US large expensive vehicles.

The infrastructure is different from the US and also the GDP per capita (nominal) in Vietnam is $ 4,623. It is $90,000 in the USA.

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Yeah, it's the type of car exported that's really the cause why they aren't selling. There's a reason why Ford does just fine in Europe but GM doesnt, and it's not that Ford manufactures in Europe.

7thKeeper said:

Yeah, it's the type of car exported that's really the cause why they aren't selling. There's a reason why Ford does just fine in Europe but GM doesnt, and it's not that Ford manufactures in Europe.

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I think that Asian car manufacturers (Japanese, Korean and now more and more Chinese) are offering better deals to Vietnam, regarding cost effectiveness and even technological superiority over the US cars.

Even the leading managers of the US car companies are saying they cannot compete with the cars produced in China. They lack innovations and the sells in the USA are based almost entirely on American patriotism.

trophy33 said:

I think that Asian car manufacturers (Japanese, Korean and now more and more Chinese) are offering better deals to Vietnam, regarding cost effectiveness and even technological superiority over the US cars.

Even the leading managers of the US car companies are saying they cannot compete with the cars produced in China. They lack innovations and the sells in the USA are based almost entirely on American patriotism.

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Cost effectiveness I can definitely see, USA built cars tend to lose in that regard, sometimes quite a bit.
This just reminded me from a while back while I still worked in the car industry, we were talking about a peculiarity regarding Ford, specifically the Ford Focus. It was built in both US and Europe for their markets, but the European one was just plain superior. There's always a bit of difference in the chassis work so they aren't identical outside, but the thing was that while Ford had developed a whole new platform for the Focus, it wasn't being used in US. The Focus' being built there were being built on the older platform and iirc, were still being built on it a few years after the European ones began to use the new platform. And that made a big difference, the new platform was just that much better.

Valletta said:

Trump clinched a trade deal with Vietnam, our 7th largest trading partner. Vietnam will pay a 20% tariff on goods and a 40% tariff on any transshipping. Best of all they are opening their markets to all U.S. products.

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Let me help you with that.

Keep in mind Vietnam offered zero for zero tariffs earlier.

After the shock and outrage, many of my Australian friends have come to terms with the end of the American empire and era of global leadership in freedom loving, democratic nations. It's now a corporatocracy run by and for billionaires - and has stopped even pretending to uphold international norms like law and order and trade.

"America first" is now starting to put America LAST in terms of trade and trust and 'normalised' international relations.

It's going to hurt a decent chunk of American arms sales as the EU gradually weans off their $60 bn in arms purchases a year from the USA, which is over 105 TIMES the American military input into NATO. So there's a loss.

Trump is SO erratic that the EU are talking about whether Trump has a 'kill switch' on all American tech giants that the EU relies on. Some European companies, local governments - and even some Federal government branches are starting to switch to Linux or Open Source software. It's a headache, and it might or might not work in terms of establishing a new EU IT norm. But the fact that the EU are even having this discussion about weaning off American Big Tech like Google or Microsoft is amazing, and reflects the nervousness with which the rest of the West are watching America's values and relationships with the outside world implode.

On a personal level, hundreds of mental health experts have warned for well over a decade that in their diagnosis from thousands of hours of public footage, Trump has malignant narcissistic personality disorder. It makes him unfit for office - and someone should get this diagnosed and use the 25th. Trump is older than Biden was when Biden started office, is mentally unfit for office, and is ill-advised on basic economics and international relations. America's not been in such a dangerous situation - and is placing the world in a geopolitically dangerous position. He's old, unfit for office, AND it's his last term. He has nothing to lose. And he HATES the rule of law.

EG:
REPORTER: "Should the American President defend the constitution?"
DT: "I don't know..."

Be prepared for anything.