25% Copier/ Printers Tariffs in the USA begin Friday May 10 2019 12:01 AM.

[SalesServiceGuy]

... regardless of dealer costs going up or down, fundamental long term changes have now been started for copier/printer manufacturers to diversify their manufacturing facilities out of China into other Asian countries to minimize the risk of future tariffs.

China will have lost this part of their economy forever. The USA will not see any big benefit.

China now has the world's highest Debt to Gross Domestic Product ratio in the world at 303%. China now owes 3x more money than every man, women and child in China produces in a year! China claims the debt risks are manageable but future growth and spending could very well soon hit a wall as their economy slows during the trade war.

China's debt tops 300% of GDP, now 15% of global total: IIF - Reuters

It is also well documented that official Chinese economic statistics are falsely overstated by upwards of 2% per year.

[bsm2]

Trump’s farmer bailout is now twice as big as the auto bailout as Trump begs rural America not to leave him


When the president’s trade war began to hurt rural America, he used a huge chunk of his budget to issue a $28 billion bailout, which is twice of what the government loaned to the big three automakers. In the case of the automakers, the funds were paid back with interest and they did it earlier than expected. Farmers are not expected to pay back the government.




Bloomberg reported Monday that farmers caught up in Trump’s trade war have come to rely on the government’s bailouts to keep their farms alive when China isn’t purchasing their crop.




U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue has been the face of the Trump administration traveling from state to state and apologizing to farmers for the trade war.




“I sometimes see where these horrible dishonest reporters will say that ‘oh jeez, the farmers are upset.’ Well, they can’t be too upset, because I gave them $12 billion and I gave them $16 billion this year,” said Trump, who then added, “I hope you like me even better than you did in ’16,” Trump told a room of farmers over Perdue’s cell phone pressed to a microphone.




In August, Perdue was in Minnesota where he met Brian Thalmann, who serves as the president of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association. He lamented that Trump’s claim that farmers are doing “great,” was a lie.




“We are not starting to do great again,” he said. “We are starting to go down very quickly.”

[bsm2]

U.S. Slaps Higher Tariffs on French Wine, Italian Cheese, and Scotch Whiskey
Import duties of 25 percent will be added to over 100 European products later this month.

The Trump administration's use of tariffs has been—strictly objective speaking—an erratic mix of threats and action. So Americans probably shouldn't be surprised that only about a month after the president threatened to place tariffs on French wine—shortly after which France said they believed the issue had been resolved—the administration has announced that, yes, tariffs on French wine—and a laundry list of other delicious products—are definitely coming on October 18, 2019.


Related: Imported European Cheese Prices Could Skyrocket Under New Tariff Proposals


Over 100 different categories of products will be affected in all, but for food and drink enthusiasts, here are some of items you'll probably be most concerned about: most wines from France, Germany, Spain or the United Kingdom; single-malt Irish and Scotch whiskies; liqueurs and cordials from Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom; Spanish olive oil and olives; and a laundry list of meats and cheeses from across Europe including everything from Cheddar to Parmesan Reggiano. Plenty of other less heralded foods made the list as well like cherry juice and German coffee. (You can find the entire list on the Office of the United States Trade Representative's website.)


All of these products will be subject to additional import duties of 25 percent on top of any tariffs that already exist—assuming we make it to the 18th without any additional waffling. On the bright side(?) for lovers of imported wine and cheeses, that percentage is lower than the whopping 100 percent tariff that Trump had floated in the past.


But while consumers are likely to be hit in their pocketbook, the National Association of Beverage Importers speculated that these new wine and booze import duties could potentially put some of its members out of work. "These tariffs will devastate, perhaps destroy, many small and medium sized family businesses importing these products into the United States," Robert Tobiassen, the organization's president, said according to Reuters.


But again, this depends on whether the tariffs stick. The United States Trade Representative (USTR) wrote that they would "continually re-evaluate these tariffs based on our discussions with the EU," with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer stating, "We expect to enter into negotiations with the European Union aimed at resolving this issue in a way that will benefit American workers." These additional tariffs are being levied in direct response to a ruling by the World Trade Organization that found European Union countries had broken WTO rules with subsidies provided to the European aircraft manufacture Airbus.

[lazymangr]

imho i dont think that cheap products made in china for big companies are a china problem. they tell to the chineese factories what to build in what quality. they can make the same crap even if the factories are in the U.S. just the cost of labor is cheaper. if you tell the factory to build something good they will make it good. if you tell them to make it crap they will make it crap.that total cost of tariffs will be paid by us customers.
they will still drink scotch and eat parmesan because america cant make scotch and parmesan but you just pay for it higher.

[Hansen88]

imho i dont think that cheap products made in china for big companies are a china problem. they tell to the chineese factories what to build in what quality. they can make the same crap even if the factories are in the U.S. just the cost of labor is cheaper. if you tell the factory to build something good they will make it good. if you tell them to make it crap they will make it crap.that total cost of tariffs will be paid by us customers.
they will still drink scotch and eat parmesan because america cant make scotch and parmesan but you just pay for it higher.

I agree it is the American companies fault mainly for having their products made in china. They dont care anything about the american worker but they keep getting bigger and bigger paychecks and bonus checks. Then they complain they cant pay the workers any more money. Then that is all lots of people can afford is junk from china.

[SalesServiceGuy]

imho i dont think that cheap products made in china for big companies are a china problem. they tell to the chineese factories what to build in what quality. they can make the same crap even if the factories are in the U.S. just the cost of labor is cheaper. if you tell the factory to build something good they will make it good. if you tell them to make it crap they will make it crap.that total cost of tariffs will be paid by us customers.
they will still drink scotch and eat parmesan because america cant make scotch and parmesan but you just pay for it higher.

Actually, the US has announced a new 25% tariff on a wide selection of European including goods like Scotch and Parmesan effective Oct 18th.

Trump administration to put tariffs on EU products after WTO victory

[SalesServiceGuy]

A new report describes that the US will never recover the trade lost in the current trade war with China.

While President Trump has claimed that Phase One trade deal with China has been achieved the constant bluster has blurred the reality of what a deal would accomplish if anything.

Trump'''s China trade war losses will never be recovered, shipping data tells us

With 90% of all items transported over water into the USA, the best way to fact check the claims is by measuring the volume of shipping containers entering US ports.

US exports to China from the Port of Los Angeles has decreased every month for the last 12 months, totaling a 19% decrease.

Data have shown China is expanding its LNG relationships with Qatar and Australia while essentially shutting off the United States.
Before the trade war, U.S. LNG volumes comprised 4.3% of Chinese imports and China accounted for 16% trailing twelve-month basis (TTM) of U.S. LNG exports.
In August 2019, China’s LNG volumes had slipped precipitously to 1% (TTM). Crude has also suffered a similar fate, accounting for 20% (TTM) of U.S. crude exports in Jan. 2018 to only 1.2% (TTM) in August 2019.

The flow of trade proves that China is moving away from the USA and turning towards Europe.

According to the National Retail Federation, consumers and businesses have paid an additional $38 billion from the start of the trade war in February 2018 through September 2019. The Consumer Technology Association says the September tariffs added about $15.5 billion in extra tariffs.

With impeachment proceeding going on in the USA against President Trump, the Chinese are content to just wait it out regardless of cost to their economy and see if President Trump survives in office for another year.

[bsm2]

Fed study finds Trump tariffs backfired
President Donald Trump’s strategy to use import tariffs to protect and boost U.S. manufacturers backfired and led to job losses and higher prices, according to a Federal Reserve study released this week.


“We find that the 2018 tariffs are associated with relative reductions in manufacturing employment and relative increases in producer prices,” concluded Fed economists Aaron Flaaen and Justin Pierce, in an academic paper.


While the tariffs did reduce competition for some industries in the domestic U.S. market, this was more than offset by the effects of rising input costs and retaliatory tariffs, the study found.


“While the longer-term effects of the tariffs may differ from those that we estimate here, the results indicate that the tariffs, thus far, have not led to increased activity in the U.S. manufacturing sector,” the study said.


Tit-for-tat trade retaliation is an idea best relegated to the past, given the presence of globally interconnected supply chains, the Fed researchers found.


The top ten manufacturing industries hit by foreign retaliatory tariffs were producers of: magnetic and optical media, leather goods, aluminum sheet, iron and steel, motor vehicles, household appliances, sawmills, audio and video equipment, pesticide, and computer equipment.


The top ten industries hit by higher prices were: aluminum sheet, steel product, boilers, forging, primary aluminum production, secondary aluminum smelting, architectural metals, transportation equipment, general purpose machinery and household appliances.


The researchers don’t measure the effects on business confidence resulting from the uncertainty regarding U.S. international trade policy. Many economists see this doubt about future government policy as a primary driver in the decline in business investment this year.


While the Federal Reserve did not specify companies affected by the U.S - China trade dispute of the past 18 months, semi-conductor and electronics manufacturers that depend on China for sales, like NVIDIA Corp. NVDA, -0.12%, Micron Technology MU, -0.02% and Intel Corp. INTC, -0.13% are seen as especially vulnerable in a trade war scenario.


Apple Inc. AAPL, -0.04% has been able to escape tariffs on its China-assembled phones to date.


While Chinese consumers mostly buy locally made automobiles, U.S. manufacturers like Tesla Inc. TSLA, -0.11% have been at risk. The electric vehicle maker first raised the price of its Model S and Model X cars by $20,000 after a new round of trade tariffs but then cut and decided to absorb the difference. However, together with its Chinese partners, General Motors GM, +0.03% sold 3.6 million vehicles in China in 2018, more than in the United States.


Some executives have blamed import tariffs for higher costs including heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar CAT,

Trump has 1.4 million fewer jobs than Obama's last 34 months


GDP is 2% (he promised 6%)


Deficit is 53% higher then when he took office


Debt is record high, he's added $3 trillion after promising to eliminate all US debt in 8 years (who fell for that one?)

[bsm2]

Americans Still Paying 100% of Trump’s Tariffs
As you may recall, economists who have studied Donald Trump’s tariffs have concluded that American consumers and firms are basically paying all of them. It’s just a big ol’ sales tax hidden slightly under the surface of products from China and elsewhere.


But that should change over time as importers adjust their supply chains and switch to other sources. By now, we should be seeing the effect of that and the prices borne by US consumers should be decreasing.

As you may recall, economists who have studied Donald Trump’s tariffs have concluded that American consumers and firms are basically paying all of them. It’s just a big ol’ sales tax hidden slightly under the surface of products from China and elsewhere.


But that should change over time as importers adjust their supply chains and switch to other sources. By now, we should be seeing the effect of that and the prices borne by US consumers should be decreasing.


There’s been no change at all. American firms and consumers are still paying nearly 100 percent of the cost of the tariffs. The only exception, it turns out, is steel, where foreign manufacturers have lowered their prices in the face of increased competition.


So that’s that. Previous estimates that American households are paying nearly $1,000 per year in hidden tariff costs are still in effect.

[FrohnB]

Americans Still Paying 100% of TrumpÂ’s Tariffs
As you may recall, economists who have studied Donald TrumpÂ’s tariffs have concluded that American consumers and firms are basically paying all of them. ItÂ’s just a big olÂ’ sales tax hidden slightly under the surface of products from China and elsewhere.


But that should change over time as importers adjust their supply chains and switch to other sources. By now, we should be seeing the effect of that and the prices borne by US consumers should be decreasing.

As you may recall, economists who have studied Donald TrumpÂ’s tariffs have concluded that American consumers and firms are basically paying all of them. ItÂ’s just a big olÂ’ sales tax hidden slightly under the surface of products from China and elsewhere.


But that should change over time as importers adjust their supply chains and switch to other sources. By now, we should be seeing the effect of that and the prices borne by US consumers should be decreasing.


ThereÂ’s been no change at all. American firms and consumers are still paying nearly 100 percent of the cost of the tariffs. The only exception, it turns out, is steel, where foreign manufacturers have lowered their prices in the face of increased competition.


So thatÂ’s that. Previous estimates that American households are paying nearly $1,000 per year in hidden tariff costs are still in effect.

Well Duuuuuuhh! The word tariff literally means tax! If I remember correctly from my 6th or 7th grade history/ civics class, a tariff is Always borne by the consumer, and what’s collected goes to the government. It’s a “strategy” that is intended to make it less appealing to buy products from overseas and boost local/ American made sales. Let’s say someone is considering buying a $500.00 TV from China with the 25% tariff, now its a $625.00 TV, then they look locally and find the same size TV for $580 - 600.00 and it is manufactured here in the states. Even though it’s “only a $25 - 45.00 savings”, people will be more apt to buy the “now slightly cheaper in comparison” American made television.

Americans are “paying for the tariff” because of people and businesses who are still choosing to buy their goods from China. Plain and simple.