I mean at some point the number doesn't matter anymore as most trade will just stop.
this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2025
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Which is exactly what China said when they stopped at 125% and said they're done playing stupid chicken and we can knock ourselves out raising them to eleventy bazillion percent.
The Chinese government has their own sins, behaving like petulant children isn't one of them.
Make no mistake that China does act like a petulant child. Just not about this issue
I’m an Australian who’s terrified of Trump giving us an “them or us” ultimatum.
I’m starting to think it’s likely, and soon.
For what it’s worth: choose the 3rd path; pick the EU and/or the commonwealth countries
Giving in to bullies just leads to more bullying.
At least you will finally be free from the US yoke.
We have magnitudes more trade with China than the USA. We are one of the few countries that buy more USA stuff than we sell to them. The only reason to stick with the USA would be if we trust them for defence reasons. What’s happening in Ukraine means we can’t. So it would likely be an own goal for Trump as we’d have to choose China over USA. The libs would go nuts, due to racism. We’d be objectively worse off, as an unreliable defence partner is still a partner, but if we ditched trade with China, our economy would collapse overnight.
America desperately needs us as a base in the South Pacific.
America also desperately needs us to not side with China in terms of Iron and Coal should an actual war happen.
Trump’s willingness to abandon their allies in the face of foreign aggression means we should seriously think before siding with the US.
They are burning bridges worldwide. They may reduce their overseas bases as part of their policy as they move more isolationist. They need troops in Germany and Taiwan and Korea too, but they are burning those bridges.
America may want us to not trade our iron and coal with China, but if it comes to an ultimatum, we likely will. America has less cards to play as a reliable partner as they become less reliable.
Doesn’t seem to be a difficult choice. The US is preying on its closest allies, threatening to annex Canada, and Greenland. China is not.
Taiwan would like a word.
This week, China imposed more export controls on rare earths, which include materials used in high-tech products, aerospace manufacturing, and the defense sector.
And then Trump,
executive order signed by President Donald Trump that launched an investigation into the "national security risks posed by U.S. reliance on imported processed critical minerals and their derivative products."
"There is no winner in tariff wars and trade wars, and China does not want to fight, but it is by no means afraid to fight."
They are also selling things direct to consumer on Tiktok, and it's hilarious. They can't name prices or brands... But you can communicate via their WhatsApp they list and buy almost any luxury bag for $100 and Nikes for $10-$15. Laundry pods for a few cents a pod.
They are even giving directions for how to order from manufacturers and avoid tariffs with personal shopping services.
Well shit, anywhere other than tiktok this is being done?
Not that I am aware of, maybe they are also marketing on the English side of Rednote... But I doubt that's preferable lol.
It's just the marketing that's done on Tiktok, they have some websites that look like they were slapped together as fast as possible and WhatsApp and similar ways they conduct the actual orders.
I was, and am still a little bit skeptical. But some of these guys aren't new apparently as they have happy past customers, they just weren't selling stuff like Nike that would normally flow through the contracted distribution chain until recently.
They are also trying to link everyday Americans up with industry specific manufacturing markets. A lot of companies on these have also dropped their min qty thresolds as a way to allow everyday Americans to buy stuff directly, skipping all the middlemen, assuming they meet minimum purchase thresholds for shipping, or have a Chinese shopper.
If you want a list of marketplaces that don't have middlemen, I can compile that. If your trying to get a pair of Nikes or something for cheap I suggest you find one of the sellers on tiktok.
China already said they wouldn't raise tariffs anymore since they're so high already it wouldn't matter. That means the next step might be dumping US bonds now, which is a nuclear option.
In response to that, Trump, who is incapable of thinking of anything else just does this moronic tariff raise.
It's not "China faces 245% tariff."
It is, "America faces 245% tax increase."
Tariffs aren't paid by China. They are a tax on Americans.
Why don't they just ban imports from China? Then China can ban imports from the U.S. Then the trade imbalance "problem" will be solved.
For the us; it would end the US economy overnight. There isn't a product manufactured in the US or service done in the US that does not involve something from china. Even at ridiculously high tariff prices there's simply no alternative infrastructure for replacing those imports. Even the trump regime are slaves to capital given that's the only thing backing the legitimacy of the US.
For china; the only thing imported from the US are luxury/private sector items. It genuinely does not affect the core industries (60% of Chinas gdp is in the public sector) of china, and with China's welfare system, private industries can fail without the employees ever becoming homeless or starving. There simply isn't a reason to go that far and needlessly escalate.
Tl;Dr nothing the US can do economically can realistically hurt china, just small parts of its private sector. China, however could cripple the US since the US allowed its companies to offload so much core industrial work to china. None of the actual adults in the US will allow trump to piss off china to the point of cutting off trade entirely, and china isn't petty.
Yeah, I know it wouldn't be a good thing for the U.S., but they want to destroy everything anyway so they can create their fascist paradise. I'd prefer if they just get it over with already.
If the end is coming, I'd prefer it to get here already.
Please, please let China retaliate.
There is a lot of us investment in Chinese industrial manufacturing. Remember that China is a nominally communist country. I imagine that it would require a single signature to nationalize all of it.
Trump's and the Republicans are financial dumbasses and well American who voted for trump and didn't vote because of reasons, well have the day you voted for you bunch of dicks.
Master Negotiator at work, folks.
Let's just call it what it is: An embargo. It's been an embargo for the last 200%.
Give him a few days, he'll either pause the tariffs or declare an exemption for 99% of the goods they sell us. And has the US government or port authorities actually collected any of Pig Boy's brainfart tariffs yet?
I suggest both countries adopt a tariff strategy of other country +10%.
Seems like this is just setting up the potential for someone in Australia to act as a middleman for Chinese products to the US and make a healthy profit while doing so.
This is not how this work. You need to actually had value in the country, you can't just act as a middle man.