Comment by grey-area
15 days ago
No, they do not.
Vietnam for example: US 46% tariff, Vietnam average 15% tariffs.
This will hurt the US far more than it hurts other countries, as other countries will just start to bypass the US and trade with other nations.
Who would trust goods from the US or having them as part of your supply chain after this?
The tariff’s aren’t entirely based on the trade deficit. Vietnam artificially keeps its currency undervalued to boost exports.
Trade with other nations?
These are exports to the US, which is 25% of the world’s GDP.
Who is going to replace that demand?
You think Vietnam, where 30% of GDP are US exports, is going to be hurt less than the US where Vietnam makes up 3.9% of imports?
Does every country in the world maliciously connive to keep their currency low vs the dollar? Currency valuations are not tariffs and it is absurd to compare them to a tariff.
These tariffs are a huge mistake according to almost every mainstream economist, I hope instead of parroting the party line you’ll be able to admit their failure in a few years.
Vietnam does manipulate its currency. It’s not something that hasn’t been widely discussed for the past decade or more.
And if you artificially keep your exchange rate 10% higher, that’s an effective 10% tariff on US imports.
I have no idea if the tariffs will work but I don’t fault a country for saying “we’re matching the tariffs you apply to our exports”
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