Stop buying American goods after Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico

I agree. But a lot of the manufacturing raw materials that fuelled the Industrial Revolution came from the Empire. The cotton, sugar, even grain etc. Now India has overtaken us as the 5th largest economy. It was also made possible by exploitation of the British working class. People who were stopped from keeping slaves in the Caribbean didnt suddenly turn into nice people, they starved Welsh miners for example, to near death instead. The world is different now.
I agree fast fashion is disgusting, and people could buy clothes from charity shops ( I do this. Some of my favourite outfits came from charity shops) or just make do with what they have. Not enough people do, otherwise Temu and Shein wouldn't be making so much money here. The whole environment is different and it will take an astronomical shift to get us back to where we were, and huge amounts of hardship that people just aren't prepared to endure.

Yep. And this is why, whatever you may think of extremist interpretations of his thoughts, Marx was bang on the button.

Despite the crap pushed by our neoliberalist elites, the ownership of resources and the means of production ALWAYS matters.

God it’s horrible to watch when I’ve been right for 30 years.

Don't forget Heinz

There are quite a few companies that are perceived as UK based but that are part of huge US conglomerates. You might be surprised.

Google Mondelez International, for example, and you'll find loads of "British" brand names among their brands, inc Cadburys and Bassetts; also Johnson & Johnson, who "own" loads of other brands, inc Neutrogena, for example, which I thought was a European company. And it's very tricky when it comes to pharmaceuticals.

I bet most of the batteries you buy are either Ever Ready or Duracell, both US owned. I knew Duracell were, but I thought Ever Ready was a British company.

I'm hoping some enterprising soul produces a decent guide to how to boycott US stuff.

This is a fascinating book, relevant to this discussion. There's a case study that runs through it of someone trying to have a novelty good manufactured in the US instead of China.

https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/how-the-world-ran-out-of-everything-inside-the-global-supply-chain-peter-goodman?variant=41314384216142

One of the most heartening things about the current situation is hearing Democratic senators and members of Congress from blue states speaking up loudly and bravely to oppose Trump. In stark contrast to certain foreign leaders (looking at you, British government 👀)

I won't watch Super bowl. That's my contribution.

Trudeau resigned (ran away) and suspended parliament, leaving Canada without a prime minister.. The Canadian dollar has already collapsed, if tariffs continue countless jobs will go and the country will be pushed into a recession.

There may be chaos on both sides, but chaos demands strong leadership. I'd expect Trump to use that to further increase his power grab and Canadians to turn to a populist hard man to fight their corner.

Mexico will go the same way, as will the EU.

It's almost like Trump knows what he's doing.

It's a gamble, but Trump, and more importantly his backers, stand to gain everything.

Internally, large areas of the US are economically desolate. Whole towns abandoned due to industrial collapse and decrease in manufacturing. This is the base that voted in Trump, those with no job and no hope. Nothing to lose.

Same problem as right here in the U.K., and the inheriting middle classes tend to despise those suffering identical problems internally while lauding the identical foreigners. Have done on and off since 1066.

@Rainingalldayonmyhead No not really. You can’t just magic things out of the ground if they aren’t there.

How do you think we manufactured things before then?

Do you think the UK workforce always sat on their fat arses in offices or what?

I would be inclined to boycott Boeing planes based on their occasional tendency to fall out of the sky myself 😬. Watching the "Downfall" documentary about Boeing (available on American owned Netflix, ironically) was an eye opener.

Weren't they known to be fronts for money laundering? There was a hideous bright pink ‘American Candy Store’ in our town centre for a while, so I was delighted to see it eventually closed. I’d like to think it closed because nobody was buying all that sugary crap, but perhaps it’d be even better if it had been found to be legally Up To No Good.

That's true - I had forgotten the wine! I tend to drink European anyway, because I prefer it, and it has less far to travel, so a bit better environmentally.

But perhaps we should be supporting California after the dreadful fires? In some ways CA is an economy in itself, and politically of course it's very different, and most people there will be against the tariffs.

(I am against tariffs too, btw, in case that wasn't clear - very much in favour of free trade. Just not a big fan of boycotts.)

@Tomatotater If Trump wants things made in the US, Americans are going to have to do the work, at the same speed as they do in China and India, and their employers are going to have to pay them more. Just as we will have to if we want more manufacturing in this country. Less stuff, made better that lasts for longer, but much, much more expensive.

Sounds good to me. It is somewhat tragic that the UK was the first industrialised nation, and used to be the world leader in science and engineering. We were a nation that made material goods which actually improved people's lives. Yet, we gave that up and now most of the UK workforce sits in offices manipulating a fake digital world.

The proliferation of people who don't care that a child has made their piece of crap top from Shein that they bought for £2 suggests that won't be happening anytime soon.

Or indeed, an adult that has to work from 06:00 to 22:00 for 7 days a week. But this is why we need more regulations and tariffs in these areas; fast fashion is truly disgusting, and also contributes massively to pollution. No one needs to buy clothes every single month. Clothes should only be replaced once they have holes or become worn out.

Are you South African by any chance 😂 I'm married to one - a South African not a chop 😂

How exactly is he going to stop that with adding trade tariffs? 25% tariff when Canada apparently is the origin of only 1% of illegal immigrants? Just what on earth will these tariffs achieve?

All that's going to happen is that it's going to accelerate the US's decline and countries are going to look to China. BRICS is already expanding notably. Why would countries look to the US when they're likely to be faced with a seriously unstable leader and even if someone better gets in next time, the damage is done. The US isn't reliable and that really puts other countries and organisations off.

The UK will have access to a cheese quota under CPTPP as soon as it comes into effect. At the minute it cannot be accessed but steps have been taken to try to resolve the issue for dairy exporters

That may very well be the case.
But when someone speaks, people should listen.

Trump was very clear before the election that he would impose tariffs on countries he [didn’t like / didn’t comply with his agenda].

Therefore, a vote for Trump was a vote in favour of these tariffs. The American people are living the promises (and more) that they voted for.

Give up my Hershey bars?

Interesting analysis, thanks for sharing

Ah.....😷

And that is a big problem, Trump is inevitably pushing companies and countries to buy Chinese rather than US, as the other obvious (and usually already cheaper) source for most consumables. Great job!

Re the imports, in particular

Aircraft: In 2023, the UK imported £3.1 billion of aircraft

Ryanair mostly uses Boeing aircraft, so we could boycott Ryanair. Mind you, I already do, based on experience of the airline's crapitude.

I think the mistake that was made by the left is being repeated again.

The left didn't listen to the concerns of the right and went down the MAGA morons route, myself included. We were too quick to write off Trump supporters as whackos instead of actually listening to what their concerns were.

Internally, large areas of the US are economically desolate. Whole towns abandoned due to industrial collapse and decrease in manufacturing. This is the base that voted in Trump, those with no job and no hope. Nothing to lose.

These are the people that are pushing for protectionism and tariffs. I suspect they don't care about immediate price rises and more about actually having a job and a house.

The US needs to fix this problem or it won't have a future. It does need to bring manufacturing back to the US and away from China to survive. It cannot be a service based economy, its just too big. Regan pushed the US in the wrong direction.

So a trade war was inevitable in real terms. Free trade and overseas competition for too long has created this situation.

Will it work? who knows. It will certainly cause pain globally, but who knows how it will play out.

Boycotting is knee jerk and ineffective. Also naive due to the inconnectivity of manufacturing supply chains.

There is no trade deficit with the UK, unlike the EU, so the UK won't necessarily be a target. But who knows.

We will see how this unfolds but the world is moving more towards a more protectionist stance. We did it with Brexit. Other countries are following suit.

Interesting times we live in.