Politics Tariffs/Trade Wars

[primer]

As I noted in a previous post, Vietnam was – and is – probably the single middle-income economy most endangered by the Trump Administration’s tariff policies. Vietnam has been running the third-largest trade surplus with the United States of any country in the world, and had been one of the key countries where companies had been assembling items made of Chinese components and then selling them to other markets, including the United States. This approach, even though encouraged by the prior U.S. administration, has earned the rage of President Trump and those working for him.
Even as Vietnam tried to appease the White House once reciprocal tariffs were imposed, senior White House officials continued to complain about Vietnam’s supposed law-breaking. When Vietnamese leaders offered to take Vietnam’s tariffs on U.S. goods down to zero, senior trade advisor Peter Navarro snapped: “Let’s take Vietnam. When they come to us and say ‘we’ll go to zero tariffs,’ that means nothing to us because it’s the nontariff cheating that matters,” Navarro said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

According to CNBC, the examples of nontariff “cheating” cited by Navarro included Chinese products being routed through Vietnam, intellectual property theft, and a value-added tax.

 

[primer]

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China vs Trump tarrifs

 

[Chazman]

Well, that's interesting.

https://twitter.com/LeadingReport/status/1923028653354483874

 

[PEMM]

That is interesting.

The Producer Price Index, a closely watched measurement of wholesale inflation, showed Thursday that the prices paid to US producers dropped 0.5% in April from the month before, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

driving force behind the downward monthly swing was a 1.7% plunge in trade services, a category that measures gross margins for wholesalers and retailers.

Although it’s a volatile category, the sharp downward swing in trade services indicates that companies’ margins are being eaten away by higher costs from President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US, told CNN on Thursday.

“We are beginning to see the impact of trade policy filtering into the hard data in such a way that it’s impossible to deny that it is now affecting revenues and profit margins for firms,” Brusuelas said.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/15/economy/us-ppi-inflation-april

 

[primer]

Why are you guys even bothering to quote when the tariffs have been imposed at negotiating levels and not even had time?
You know that that to re-onshore a factory and skill is not completed in a few weeks probably forgotten that wasn't that loong ago that job was done by an American even yet the economists of facebook think these are serious figures that need clicks.
Yes of course Americans are hopeless people and its trivial work.
It is imperative that the economy match that of Vietnam dammit.
Most of the work is automated, given a protective start Tesla bots will be perfoming Asian jobs at less cost than them.

 

[primer]

Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says the coalition backs her plan to pour $577 million into an international film and television subsidy, despite ACT leader David Seymour’s previous call for it to be scrapped altogether.

Willis, who on Friday unveiled the Government’s fifth and largest pre-Budget announcement - a lifeline for the film and television sector - said she “persuaded” Seymour to back the decision to pour new money into the international screen production rebate and bring its total funding to $1.09 billion.

“I persuaded him in the same way that I presented the case to you, which is, how can we be a government for economic growth if we allow a major industry to die? That would be inconsistent,” she said.

Willis announced the money would be injected over this year, and over the next four, in an announcement at Stone Street Studios in Miramar, where Hollywood blockbuster King Kong was filmed.

Cocktail time?
Those scum mill workers be damned. Couldn't simply ship in some more coal for the mill power instead shipped their jobs off to coal powered Indonesia
Further also absurd that the big fan of free enterprise ACT Seymour closed down free market competing school lunch providers and installed his own soviet class single state approved provider.

 

[Hiryu2.0]

Donald Trump says he’s willing to travel to China to meet Xi Jinping

He called the relationship between the US and China 'important'. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

www.straitstimes.com

 

[thelistener]

Chairman Trump's latest.
IF a democrat president said a private business should make less money. He would be called a pinko commie
funny since why should they eat the tariff if other countries pay for them. lol

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[primer]

Biden kept the tariffs so conversely he could have quelled the inflation of the previous years with the stroke of his pen, he did not. According to the economists and if Wall Mart cannot get them to eat another 10% they are lyin.
Finally Trump did something unlike the gas bags prior.

We have to remember they were all sucking on the wallstreet global straw with the same fervor that Lenin had for communism, instead of a bullet to the skull of citizens who had a different idea they did it to entire sectors of the economy.
Still are today with some extra green ideology thrown into the eulogy...idiots. Previous post on NZ as proof of the zealots.
Trumps simply reversign some 30 years of their efforts. getting a knee replacement without dying would be a nice surplus from a bigger economy and more revenue..

Local headline for this year and its turned entire valleys full of people into pine trees;

More than 95,000 hectares of farms sold to overseas buyers for forestry conversion​

Its same as them paying 20 mill for whale songs to sick Kauri trees.
Some have to decide, to wither away or not.

 

[Telmar]

Chairman Trump's latest.
IF a democrat president said a private business should make less money. He would be called a pinko commie
funny since why should they eat the tariff if other countries pay for them. lol

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This is the stuff the Chavistas say when there is inflation in Venezuela. It would all be fine if those shopowners would not try to make millions out of the working class.

 

[Chazman]

Chairman Trump's latest.
IF a democrat president said a private business should make less money. He would be called a pinko commie
funny since why should they eat the tariff if other countries pay for them. lol

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Surprise! Walmart says they will eat the tariffs on the Chinese junk they sell, or probably make the manufacturer eat them.

 

[thelistener]

Surprise! Walmart says they will eat the tariffs on the Chinese junk they sell, or probably make the manufacturer eat them.

Nothing like government pressure on private bizz. Even though other countries where supposed to pay for the tariffs?
Only sad thing is that other products use chinese parts or minerals etc. not only imported junk. Small business might not be able eat them but big f small

 

[Chazman]

Nothing like government pressure on private bizz. Even though other countries where supposed to pay for the tariffs?
Only sad thing is that other products use chinese parts or minerals etc. not only imported junk. Small business might not be able eat them but big f small

Do you have any idea how many hundreds of thousands or even millions of small, "mom and pop" businesses Walmart has destroyed? Those small businesses no longer exist.

 

[thelistener]

Do you have any idea how many hundreds of thousands or even millions of small, "mom and pop" businesses Walmart has destroyed? Those small businesses no longer exist.

Yes, but relevant to this how? The government should bring them a tad bit down by lowering their profit margin?
Im talking about the makers of products they sell at Walmart, but nevermind.

 

[Chazman]

Yes, but relevant to this how? The government should bring them a tad bit down by lowering their profit margin?
Im talking about the makers of products they sell at Walmart, but nevermind.

Walmart can buy their products from anywhere. Walmart's claim to fame is Chinese junk for cheap. Trump didn't force anyone to do anything. He simply posted a comment on social media. Walmart decided to not pass along any increases. Good for them. But they are also smart enough to know that no one will buy their Chinese junk if it's too expensive.

 

[Fluff]

Walmart can buy their products from anywhere. Walmart's claim to fame is Chinese junk for cheap. Trump didn't force anyone to do anything. He simply posted a comment on social media. Walmart decided to not pass along any increases. Good for them. But they are also smart enough to know that no one will buy their Chinese junk if it's too expensive.

Retail profit margins are usually slim, so I’d think this is the Chinese producers eating it.

 

[PEMM]

Surprise! Walmart says they will eat the tariffs on the Chinese junk they sell, or probably make the manufacturer eat them.

Logically it's the former.

Just compare what that junk costs when you buy it directly from Temu/alibaba. It's clear who has more margin.

(Which still means Americans mostly eat the tariffs, just like with every other country with tariffs)

 

[primer]

That would be crippled if they had to pay proper delivery costs....this is one thing Trump admin have missed. The developing country subsidy for posting the junk.

Yes, China, while a developing country in some contexts, does appear to receive preferential treatment in international postal arrangements, potentially leading to lower overseas post costs. The Universal Postal Union (UPU) allows China to ship packages to Europe and elsewhere at rates below real costs and those applied within or between EU member states.

Potentially?
Cost's less to recieve an item ftom China than to send to it from one town to another town.
Locally the deal includes low cost bulk delivery via their hub here.
Reverse on Alibaba for lots of goods they have a low unit cost but its in the hundreds instead of single on Aliexpress and exagerate the freight cost higher than what it is say from EU to NZ. They think we are stupid.

Am actually get better quality out of Ukraine flown in at a better price... getting Ukraine down bags and clothing this week that is what it says it is.

I do believe this is a slap around the face for the supply chain delivered by Trump. Imagine the shipment was midway and got the 125% tariff. You have to pay it and orders were cancelled and now renegotiated as there really is supply beyond China.
Under Armour is all over the globe. Ones that have done that already are feeling the affirmation and appreciation from their customers.

Its not all about the commerce either, the tete a tete. It can flare up like this it will happen again.

 

[Hiryu2.0]

 

[Hiryu2.0]

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/21/business/tariff-plan-trump