Tariffs: Why Is It Fine When Others Use Them, But Not the US?

[Swirlythingy2025]

Lots of countries use tariffs to protect their own industries like China, India, even the EU. But when the US does it, especially under someone like Trump, people act like it’s a global crisis. Why?

True. And Falklands was uninhabited until 1690/1760. But then op suggest countries could move manufacturing to Heard and McDonald to escape tariffs. Just how many countries and industries can fit there? Even if artificially extended? And how long would that take - Trump would be out as president by then (of course he could be serving a third term as an octapresident or another president could uphold the tariffs).

Agree hoping China stand up to US is an interesting one. It depends how strong and militarised they are as they grow access across the world, and what their long term plans are.

None of this is good for the rest of the world, but Trump may well have brought a knife to a gun fight with China - they are ruthless and willing to play the long game.

@EasternStandard@hehehesorry
China is the only country that on its own is large enough to make an impact on the US. Trump will just carry on doing what he wants to smaller countries both politically and economically. He is the POTUS and therefore is entitled to act within that role, but his interference and threatening to other countries is my view beyond that. China is entitled to respond to his tariffs and by doing this it sends a clear message to Trump that his actions have consequences.

USA already had lots of tariffs. There wasn't a problem with USA imposing tariffs.

There is a problem with imposing tariffs almost overnight, and based on bizarre logic where the tariffs are justified by trade surplus/trade debt/drugs/terrorism/immigration etc. Demanding open markets to tiny and poor countries where few people can afford to buy American goods is bizarre. Ignoring that a large part of USA economy is exporting services is bizarre, too.

The even bigger problem is that Trump will keep changing his mind & threatening more tariffs. He'll make "a deal" like he did in first term (China, North America) & repeatedly threaten to rip it up at a moment's notice to demand "better" terms for USA and new deals. The rollercoaster won't stop at all when the Administration makes any deal... the rollercoaster will continue constantly until at least January 2029.

I am baffled at any country trying to make trade deals with the US fed. govt right now. Such a "deal" will be worthless and highly temporary the moment it's written down. The bully will very soon clamour for "more". Remember that Trump says that the USA is a downtrodden poor country abused by other nations. He says it's fine and fact that USA can only get richer by making everyone else much poorer.

@lljkkI agree , Trumps volatility causes uncertainty in the markets. His unpredictability makes everything risky

Has the USA put tariffs on imports such as coffee, bananas and other items that they need but can't produce in the USA?

If I need something that another person makes, then I can buy it from that person. If that person hasn't got much money, then should they be obligated to buy the expensive stuff make - or is it ok if that person just buys the stuff they need instead of the expensive stuff I make?

Poorer countries sell their stuff to the USA but - for some reason - don't necessarily buy expensive stuff from the USA

Oh - and why were services left off that list? People buy a lot of US services. Maybe they won't in the future - and will look elsewhere?

In the extremely unlikely event that Australia tried to avoid tariffs by moving production to remote islands (even though the cost of doing so would probably far exceed the tariffs avoided, and the amount that could be produced would be a tiny sliver of the Australian export economy), Trump or whoever could just as easily impose tariffs on those islands when that actually happens. There's no reason for him to do this preemptively.

He does seem to have a thing against penguins 🐧

But it's a convenient story that he's tarrifing penguins because he's dumb

If it quacks like a duck (or a penguin)

Companies can avoid tariffs by moving manufacturing to the US. Why would anyone think that moving manufacturing to an uninhabited remote penguin island is a tempting loophole that needs closing? They're just trying to cover up the mistake they made. We can see the data and know exactly why they imposed tariffs on the island. It's because they had a blunt formula applied with zero thought.

I'm also not convinced that 'tarrifing' is a word.

If it is a word - I think it is spelled incorrectly. HTH

@Ilovetowander I think you've wandered onto the wrong thread

I was in America last year. They have entire huge stores (Target, Walmart, Dollar Tree etc) stocked floor to ceiling with 'cheap' goods made in China. I can't believe Trump wants his voting base to be priced out of Walmart and to buy locally made goods. None of it makes any sense to me at all but I find global economics quite hard to understand.

Just listening to their response. They are strong but will be more so in a few decades, their military power is fairly out of discussion but growing too. Idk what they will do but if the US is weaker now we all will be even more so as China strengthen. In fact the west generally if others combine.

Because no one else's tariffs have caused my pension to plunge by over 10% in a week, just as I was contemplating retirement... 🤬

It's also stupid because countries have ways of responding beyond retaliatory tariffs.

China has already paused exports of critical minerals which is a massive problem, this explains it well: https://cleantechnica.com/2025/04/05/china-just-turned-off-u-s-supplies-of-minerals-critical-for-defense-cleantech/

The Republican Senators are gonna turn on Trump, just need a few brave ones to raise their voices. Elon is already voicing alternative solutions to the tariffs mess.

China and the USA are like a married couple, completely intertwined and they can’t live without each other. They have to make a deal whether they like it or not, although, there will be endless threats and protestations along the way.

USA is entitled to impose tariffs (they always did), but massive jumps causes global havoc, that's the problem. Americans really had become so arrogant and isolationist, they need a reality hit, and they are getting it.

Its like the boomers can't understand why life didn't continue booming indefinitely, and it's all some foreigners fault. Wake up USA, economics change, the world has changed dramatically, we need scientists and economists to carefully guide the way forward, not some hotelier and a 3rd generation Natzi sympathiser technocrat.

Yes, I think so - blanket tariffs based on trade surpluses (with a minimum of 10% even if there is no surplus as with the U.K.).

So he’s put iirc 90% tariffs on Lesotho - this country mainly exports diamonds which the US doesn’t produce. It’s too poor to import many US goods. The tariffs will make it poorer as their sales will drop - and aid has of course been cut off. This is going to cost lives as well as pensions.

Tariffs may be a useful tool in very specific situations but this illiterate blunderbuss approach is destructive all round.

Trump is an insane old man stuck in the 70s. He is trying to tariff away trade deficits BUT the USA is a wealthy, advanced economy. These types of economies often have trade deficits, especially for primary and manufactured goods as they buy a lot more and it makes sense to manufacture goods in countries with cheaper costs. Furthermore he has ignkred the fact the USA produces a lot of services which everyone buys - tech, culture, finacial services etc...

He obviously missed the basic economics lecture on comparative advantage.

Agreed - those penguins had some pretty significant exports to the US according to the BBC!

I've often wondered how much 'stuff' would cost if everyone in the supply chain was paid a living wage & reasonable environmental & health & safety standards were met. Farm shop & British made clothing prices for everything. More tariffs may push us closer to this - no comment on whether this is good or bad but it's an interesting question.

All those saying Trump's unpredictability is causing instability are wrong.

Trump is not unpredictable, he has been talking about imposing tariffs for years. All his MAGA rallies were focused on him saying he was going to impose tariffs. His project 2025 detailed how he was going to impose tariffs. Not sure how else he could have made it clearer what his intentions were.

It's literally been there in glowing neon signs for a long time now. The problem is people didn't take him seriously. People weren't really listening or bent themselves out of shape trying to explain what he actually meant. They were wrong.

There was no sub text, he meant what he said. The mistake was to not take him seriously and others should shoulder some of that responsibility.

Also, the Democrats did gaslight a lot of MAGA voters instead of actually listening to them. They were patronising and dismissive to the extreme.

There's responsibility all round for this but ironically Trump is the only one who is actually doing what he said he would.

I am not a Trump supporter but I think the hysteria about his unpredictability is hypocrisy.