Tariff is Trump's way of collecting easy money. He does not care if it works or not

There is a world of difference between thinking decades ahead and just thinking no further than the nose. Trump's tariff on the world is a short-term thinking just no further than his nose. To make the tariffs really telling, Trump should have attracted manufacturing back to the USA first before trying his luck without planning and just and hoping to succeed with hoaxes and blackmailing. No sane investor is going to move manufacturing back to the USA now, knowing the costs of production is going to escalate with tariffs on imported raw materials, such as aluminum and steel. Now semiconductor giants like Samsung are having cold feet by investing further citing lack of demand. If Samsung is saying the inevitable, what do the others have to say.

On the contrary, true blue USA entities like John Deere, are moving out of the USA for cheaper destinations, primarily to Mexico. John Deere probably realizes the agricultural sector in the USA has little future to hang on to. Farmers left in USA are crying foul, but they should blame Trump for starting the trade war during his first term against China. The retaliation was hard-hitting against USA's agricultural sector, which is now floundering. China's hope to return to buying soya beans and corn from USA farmers are a foregone conclusion. Instead, China has already found alternative supplies from Brazil, Argentina and Russia. These are friendly countries that China can trust, save for Argentina with its clownish leader veering from one side to the other, depending on which direction the wind blows.

The USA is still looking for rare earth opportunities to hang on to, hoping to start the ball rolling, already years behind schedule. USA tried to source rare earth raw materials from Mongolia but failed at the first hurdle of trying to use China's Tianjin Port to ship them to Japan for refining. Now, there is a tariff deal with Vietnam, with rare earth in abundance in Vietnam for the taking but setting up mining and refining logistics take years. Let us forget about rare earth reserves in Ukraine, which was probably a scam to keep the USA engaged in the Ukraine War.


Anonymous