Comment by _heimdall
7 days ago
I'm surprised by how many concerns there are here related to how the tariff amounts were calculated.
It seems like they used a pretty simple algorithm to do it. Isn't that a good thing? Countries were treated the same and the tariff was decided primarily by the trade imbalance (with a minimum of 10%). Would we rather them use a combination of completely incomprehensible calculations and backroom deals?
Its open season for debating whether tariffs will work, or even what the underlying motivations are. Attacking the use of a simple algorithm across the board just feels lazy and either emotionally or politically charged.
It's both simple and stupid algorithm, though.
Why is it stupid? They claim to be concerned with trade imbalances, and that those imbalances are a problem. Using those trade imbalances to calculate a tariff seems reasonable, assuming the concerns are right.
If tariffs are to be imposed, I'd at least rather be able to see how they were calculated and know it was done the same for every country.
It's stupid because trade imbalances aren't necessarily a problem, and are sometimes a good thing that you need.
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The "numbers" appear to:
* Punish Ecuador, who uses the US dollar, for being a "currency manipulator", which obviously makes zero sense
* Punish Lesotho, whose population is too poor to ever afford US goods, because they export a lot of resources that we use
* Punish countries like Columbia for being big coffee exporters where there is no hope of building up a domestic coffee industry because that's not how agriculture works
* Tariff an island inhabited only by Penguins
It's just dumb.
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