Trump is caught in a trap that he set up on his own, or should I say in a trap set by China. In an effort to destroy China's manufacturing dominance and Chinese investments in other countries, Trump's tariffs are turning friends and allies that have Chinese investments against the USA.
Well and good, if Trump has already put in place a manufacturing base to welcome back investments to set up factories under his plan. But nothing of the gloating has been translated in action. No raw materials secured, no supply chains set up, no plans to train skilled workers and instead chasing away scientists, engineers and academics, and just hoping for investors to fly in blind under his con-job.
Instead of creating jobs, Trump is doing the opposite, with thousands of jobs now lost among port workers, truckers, retail outlets, agricultural sector, aid workers, Federal jobs and even propaganda generation related workers in USAID and Voice of America. The loss of jobs is right before our eyes; but the job creation is still a myth.
Trump has no solution to the empty shelves in retail outlets, just asking USA citizens to buy less, which is in reality creating a panic buying spree now spreading across the states. Can USA citizens be expected to 'hang tough' in the face of shortage of consumer products mainly from China, and particularly food from its own agricultural sector now crippled by lack of undocumented workers to do the harvesting. What about replanting that has to be done for next season? Farmers will have to pay an arm and a leg to employ mainstream USA workers, backed by Unions that will not settle for cheap wages unlike undocumented workers.
It is going to take a massive effort now to roll back the damage done by Trump's tariff. The ships carrying manufactured products are not leaving Chinese ports for the USA. The ships on the high seas are turning around for other destinations in the Global South and renegotiated contracts have to be made with Chinese manufacturers to return to the status quo. How long will that take?
Anonymous
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It may be still several months away before Christmas, but the reality is that replenishing the empty shelves may not be coming that early, as supplies have to be made under new contracts that should have been struck as of now, today. But such contracts are still hanging in the air, waiting for someone to wake up and blink.
Chinese manufacturers need to prepare raw materials, prepare logistics and production schedules to make products that are required as far down the road as Christmas. It is not a case of resorting to magic or at the snap of a finger as what Trump had in mind. Everything sounds so easy for conman Trump, as easy as asking Mexico to pay for the wall, as easy as winning trade wars, as easy as settling the Ukraine War within 24 hours and as easy as imposing tariffs that is the most beautiful word discovered by Trump. The mind of a kindergarten kid, no less.
Trump thinks getting back deported migrant workers is going to be a piece of cake, in particular for the agricultural and F & B sector when the shit really hits the fan and when food shortages get really serious. Doing so means walking back on his earlier gloating of giving such jobs back to the voters, who are not interested in doing such back breaking jobs. It will be the same with manufacturing jobs, or sweatshop jobs that the voters are not conditioned to take up.
We have not yet seen the worst yet with stockpiling over the months, and by mid or end of May, all hell will break lose in the USA. That record deficit indicates how much stockpiling had been going on in March to tide over the present crisis, but not for long.
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