His threat was directed at countries in the so-called BRIC alliance, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

  • @[email protected]
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    101 day ago

    The thing is, they have no real reason to care about the threat of a tariff. It makes domestic US prices increase. For a lot of things, there isn’t the ability to start making it domestically in a timely fashion, so either demand drops for a bit or if it’s something vital, then the producer never even notices.

    It’s threatening the shoe store by waving a chainsaw at your legs. Sure they’ll have some reduced sales, but you’re mostly hurting yourself.

    • @[email protected]
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      223 hours ago

      Why do you suggest foreign trade partners have no reason to care? The US market will reduce. All trade partners care about that.

      • @[email protected]
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        122 hours ago

        Sure it’s not ideal, but it’s a much bigger blow to the US market than to the other markets. We’re not the only buyer, just a big one.

        Punishing your electorate for buying imported products only makes sense on paper if you have a domestic supply of the product.
        For a lot of what’s going to be tarifed, prices will just go up and no domestic supply can scale during the life of the tariff, with politicians having to gauge how much they can punish the people who elect them to pressure other nations into doing things they’re not going to do regardless.

        • @[email protected]
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          120 hours ago

          Sure it’s not ideal, but it’s a much bigger blow to the US market than to the other markets. We’re not the only buyer, just a big one.

          No issues with that more nuanced phrasing.

    • @[email protected]
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      41 day ago

      “It’s threatening the shoe store by waving a chainsaw at your legs” I don’t know if you personally made this up, but this cracked me up.