What should other nations do? My strong recommendation to Canada, Mexico, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the European Union is to join together to create a free trade zone that excludes the United States, imposing at least a 10 percent tariff on all imports from America.
They should also threaten to limit American banks’ access to their public stock markets, put limits on what their citizens can invest in American companies annually, and increase taxes and regulations on American digital platforms.
They will be tempted to negotiate and do so individually. They should not. They need to negotiate from a position of strength. A non-U.S. free trade union will give them that strength.
Tax the rich.
I was having this thought myself but am not familiar enough with international trade to know. It seems to me that bringing down trade barriers outside the US allows coutries to more easily find alternative trade partners to fill the void left by abandoning us ones. It also strengthens the effect on America because they won’t be able to hold as many businesses hostage.
It took the EU many years to negotiate trade agreements with Canada, Brazil, etc., partly due to internal disagreements within the EU and complicated national ratification procedures. We don’t have kings who can just act on their whims.
Also - it’s easier to apply tariffs on physical goods, than on digital services which US exports - coordination is needed to avoid loopholes, but that’s complicated, slow.
So, the ideas seem good in theory, but how could this be done fast enough ?
Meanwhile only Russia is laughing, they got their multipolar world …Why just 10%? It should be the same tariff as imposed on them. Or target the same value of selected goods with higher tariffs, like the EU has done before (targeted republican states).
No. Tariffs set by one country primarily affect the people of that country. Americans are paying American tariffs, other countries tariffs would be paid by those other countries. We don’t need to have a pissing contest to see which country can punish its own citizens the most.
Tariffs set by one country primarily affect the people of that country.
You do know what the EU is, don’t you?
I think he does and it works the same way: Tarifs set by the EU primarily affect people living in EU countries.
All the EU is in effect subject to the same tariff as the trade between EU countries is frictionless.
The EU is not subject to American tariffs. American consumers are subject to American tariffs. EU consumers would be subject to EU tariffs.
EU businesses are affected by American tariffs because it means reduced sales. However, this primarily means a reduction in growth, ie less profits, not more expense. The people paying more expense are consumers - they are the ones primarily affected by the tariffs.
Everyone ignores this, especially in the media, and it is immensely frustrating. Yes, it isn’t great that businesses will lose sales due to tariffs, however it’s worse and more significant that consumers have to pay tariffs. Retaliatory tariffs will only cause more pain for local consumers - on top of the reduced growth from the instigating tariff - and would be like punching yourself in the face because your opponent is punching themselves in the face.
The EU is not subject to American tariffs. American consumers are subject to American tariffs. EU consumers would be subject to EU tariffs.
EU businesses are affected by American tariffs because it means reduced sales.
There is absolutely no reason to not apply the same tarrifs on products from the USA as the USA applies. Quite the opposite, appeasement of dicatotors never works - they only understand strength.
Absolutely.
I agree with the don’t negotiate part. American tariffs punish Americans, other countries’ tariffs will only punish those countries’ citizens. The correct response to someone punching themselves in the face is not to punch yourself in the face.
