Way too many countries take the U.S tariffs for granted, South-Africa being one of them, they were part of AGOA, which means, no tariffs for their goods to the U.S, nothing, zero, zip, but at the same time has a 60% tariffs for U.S goods being sold in South-Africa, the hypocrisy of so many countries lol
This isn't hypocrisy, it's how tariffs are supposed to work.
Tariffs are used to protect domestic industries in developing nations so that they can eventually gain the expertise, knowledge, logistics, and capital required to compete on the global stage and so that the domestic market isn't just taken over by international companies with severe advantages over domestic ones.
It's incredibly normal for these developing nations to have high tariffs, because if they didn't international companies swoop into starting or maybe not even started markets and take control of them. Heck some African countries are still weaning themselves off France to this day.
Likewise, it's also incredibly normal for tariffs to be low on goods coming from developing countries. This enables the creation of cheap goods for 1st world countries while also creating an economic ladder for developing countries to climb. It's no detriment to service based economies like the US either. You are trading low value manufacturing jobs for higher value service jobs. 98% of jobs in service based economies like the US, UK, etc are service based.
There will be no long term gain from attempting to bring back manufacturing jobs because by the time the industry could even feasibly build back it will almost certainly be extremely automated. Most of that money would not flow into the pockets of ordinary americans.
No one trades free with us, so why should we trade free with them?
America needs homes and jobs, not cheap chinese crap.
This is grossly false:
USMCA:
Automobiles & Auto Parts - 0% Tariff if 75% of parts originate from North America (up from 62.5% under NAFTA). Mexico eliminates 10% tariff on U.S. auto exports.
Dairy - eliminates 200-300% tariffs on U.S. dairy products, allowing up to 3.6% of its dairy market to U.S. suppliers.
Poultry & Eggs - U.S. can export 57,000 metric tons of chicken to Canada tariff-free (rising to 62,000 by 2026).
Egg exports - 10 million dozen tariff-free, increasing by 1% annually.
Wheat - Canada removes higher-grading advantage for domestic wheat over U.S. wheat.
0% tariffs on digital products (e-books, music, videos, cloud services). This one is massive given the number of services US provides worldwide from Google, Apple, Adobe, etc.
KORUS (United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement)
Automobiles - South Korea eliminated 8% tariff on U.S. car imports. U.S. maintains 2.5% tariff on Korean car imports until 2041.
Beef - Tariff phased down from 40% (2012) to 16% (2023), with complete elimination by 2026.
Pork - Most U.S. pork cuts 0% tariff since 2016.
Wine - South Korea removed 15% tariff on U.S. wine.
Cheese & Dairy - 36% tariff phased out over 15 years.
Medical Devices & Pharmaceuticals - 0% tariff on U.S. medical equipment and drugs.
CAFTA-DR (Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement)
Apparel & Textiles - 0% tariffs on U.S. yarns & fabrics used in Central American-made apparel.
Wheat, Corn, Rice - Tariffs phased out completely by 2020.
Pork - 15% tariff eliminated by 2020.
Dairy - 40% tariffs on cheese and milk phased out over 20 years.
Wine & Spirits - 15-30% tariffs eliminated immediately.
Electrical machinery, equipment, and medical devices now tariff-free.
- WTO's CAA stipulates that aircraft and aircraft parts be tariff and duty free
Automobiles & Auto Parts – Duty-free if they meet regional content rules (75% of components from North America).
There's a lot more too, these are just some examples.
Who knows how long these will stick around though given the US is in clear violation of the agreements it's signed.
Spitting in the face of deals you made (particularly given that the Trump admin signed the current USMCA) makes you untrustworthy. If the US felt it was getting a raw deal there were diplomatic channels built into those agreements for them. This administration didn't even bother with those. By extension this trade dispute isn't in good faith, it has nothing to do with the US getting a claimed raw deal.
I highly recommend taking 10 minutes and search on America's success, or lack thereof, with tariffs in the 20th century. I would also just look at recent "history" and how even with the threat of these tariffs months ago, businesses didn't start racing to build in America....they just started looking for other countries in Southeast Asia in which move their manufacturing.
The issue is that most people only conceive of this subject through the lens of money, that tariffs will incentivize domestic production by artificially making costs lower domestically, but the other tantamount part of this equation are labor laws and the exploitability of the local labor force. While America has nowhere near the labor protections of Europe, they're still more robust than most countries currently at the core of global consumer good production. You can even see this on a national scale within America where moat .of the newer manufacturing facilities are headquarter in the states with the least amount of labor protections.
The US lacks the expertise, skill, and logistics networks to bring these jobs back and it would take years to build them up again. Typically, you'd want to pair tariffs with massive domestic investments to push rapid development but we've seen quite the opposite in the curtailing of domestic spending.
In addition, there's also the question of whether producing many of the tariffed products even makes sense economically. The only way I see it being viable is via full automation. The cost of labor in the US is just to high to be competitive and honestly the US doesn't need those low value jobs. What they need to do is stop the concentration of wealth that allows those at the top to exploit everyone else as that has been the center of every woe average Americans face.
