Summary
Global leaders criticized Trump’s new tariffs, which range from 10% to 49%, warning of trade wars and economic fallout.
The UK and Italy urged negotiation, while Brazil passed a reciprocity bill. China and South Korea vowed countermeasures.
Australia and New Zealand rejected Trump’s logic, citing existing trade deals and low tariffs. Norfolk Island was baffled by a 29% duty despite having no exports.
Financial markets dropped, oil and bitcoin sank, and leaders warned of inflation. Analysts say Trump risks fracturing global trade with little to gain economically.
I hope the EU reacts with something non-tariffy. Like forbidding US online platforms to serve ads and collect personal data, with severe punishments if they still do.
or something ultra specific that is super easy to source from any other country, to exclusively hurt the american businesses
or something ultra specific that is super easy to source from any other country, to exclusively hurt the american businesses
That was part of what went into how Canada chose the targets of out first rounds of counter-tariffs.
Product categories that we also make here, or can easily get elsewhere or can comfortably do without for an extended period of time.
That combined with a consumer led boycott of anything "made in the USA " and even staunch Republicans like Mitch McConnell are starting to push back against Trump.
I recently read an article that suggested the best retaliation would be to stop enforcing US intellectual property in the EU. One of the biggest exports they have is media, if we would stop enforcing their copyright it would cost them a lot of money.
Would also save the EU an enormous amount in monitoring and enforcement
Of that I am not convinced. This will work with a lot of smaller countries that don’t have much of a copyright portfolio, but not with Europe.
Official EU website hosting American-made media for a nominal fee. Can’t tariff data!
You don’t even have to go that far. Just adopt sane copyright laws, like copyright only lasting the life of the artist.
Thats still too long imo. Patents are 20 years, so should every IP protection.
If it’s good enough for inventors, it’s good enough for musicians, writters and software developers.
Exactly. Especially when you figure in the longer scale up time with an invention. You can’t just flip a switch and start making money.
Yeah, but think about the grandchildren of the CEO who bought that IP from the artist‽
Do you want them to
starvehave to work for a living?
I think a lot of that kind of stuff is going to happen. I don’t think other countries are insulted, as much as they find it ridiculous, and to be ridiculed, I think they’re going to do some inventive chaos. I think we need to be building some world bingo cards, and I’ll bet we won’t guess all the (hopefully hilarious) petty revenges about to snowball.
Yes that would be amazing and a great stimulant for EU companies to start developing a competing platform of it’s own (we have BeReal, Dailymotion, Medal and Dumpert, but they aren’t very big AFAIK)
Having Non-US platforms would be nice, yes, But leaving the US-based ones without ad revenue and a shit-ton of users would be nice, too.
Why not both?
We can only hope.
The point is to make China the new boot on the throat of the human race instead of the US
I hate the fact that you are correct.
no. the US is still the boot
That’s why they installed a Russian asset as president and why he has been destroying the US’s global influence and economy for the last 3 months.
UK and Italy are playing Trump’s game. He doesn’t negotiate. He demands tribute and only honours agreements if they are a win for him and he feels like honouring it at the time. Canada has a Trump negotiated trade agreement - the best agreement ever, in his parlance. It is apparently not worth the paper it is written on.
Countries must negotiate trade agreements - with everyone except the USA. And citizens must support their countries by not purchasing any thing from the USA. As for the few Americans that didn’t vote for Trump, so sorry but your fellow Americans still fully support him. So it isn’t “just Trump”, it is America that is the problem. Trump is simply reflecting who the majority of Americans really are.Because Trump is getting demented. This is all his idea
and the price of bitcoin dropped 4.4%.
I cannot express how much I hate that this appears in a serious economic article.
You don’t like hearing about made up currency with no backing that’s primarily used for pump and dump schemes and money laundering?
Bitcoin is primarily used for pump and dump schemes? You mean like the middle step trade between scam crypto and real money?
But arent all fiat currencies made up since there’s no gold standard backing them.
No, they are backed by the economies of the issuing countries.
Gold standard is not viable in a modern economy.
If I can’t pay my taxes with it, it isn’t a real currency.
I pay my taxes with Euros so I guess Mericuhn Dollers are not a real currency
Depends. Do Mericuhns pay their taxes in Dollers?
By that logic you don’t think foreign currencies are real?
Sure they are, as long as foreign nationals pay their own taxes with them.
The price of speculative speculation dropped
“No basis in logic”
No shit, this whole administration has no basis in logic. Just look at Project 2025 and the progress they’ve made on it in a little over 2 months.
Oh, do you guys think he might be a stupid maniac gosh
It’s illogical to expect an illogical man to act logically.
Someone like trump needs hit first to avoid a confrontation.
What the fuck did they expect?
- Order tariffs
- Make everything more expensive for everyone everywhere
- Piss off the entire world and invite countermeasures
- ???
- MAGA
Putting tariffs on Norfolk Island and Heard and McDonald Islands are particularly funny considering Heard and McDonald Islands only has penguins living there lol.
Those penguins are trying to rip off America! It’s about time they pay their fair share
I’ve never once heard a penguin say thank you.
Those slovenly penguins dont wear suits, either.
penguins like cheetos. i remember that uh… ‘documentary’. we should send 'em a big giant fat one. no charge. just to say ‘sorry’ for imposing the unfair tariffs on their trade.
Yo this motherfucker put tariffs on Antarctica?!!
Heard Island.jpgOops, wrong one. Still close.
also a 10% tariff on the joint US military base at Diego Garcia …
Lmao wat.
I’d ask if you’re serious, but I’m also sure you are.
Honestly, I was expecting this administration to be mind-numbingly stupid, but somehow they keep finding ways to surpass my expectations on that front on a daily basis. I’d be impressed if it wasn’t so catastrophic.
I’ve heard that if you type in the right prompt into ChatGPT, this list is the result. They couldn’t even be bothered to have an expert figure this out, or even souble check it before releasing it. So they end up putting tariffs on penguins.
From the article you’re probably referring to:
DCInvestor’s observation came in response to crypto trader Jordan Fish, also known as Cobie, who also asked ChatGPT using the prompt: “What would be an easy way to calculate the tariffs that should be imposed on other countries so that the US is on even playing fields when it comes to trade deficit. Set a minimum of 10%.”
A straightforward (if naïve) method is to set the tariff rate for each trading partner equal to the percentage share of the trade deficit relative to that country’s total imports-always no less than 10%.
In formula form:
Tariff Rate (%) = max(10, (Trade Deficit ÷ Total Imports) x 100)
For example, if the US runs a $20 billion deficit on $100 billion worth of imports from a country, the calculated rate is (20/100)×100 = 20%. If the deficit were only 5%, you’d still impose a 10% floor. This method ignores the intricate dynamics of international trade-such as elasticities, retaliatory measures, and supply chain nuances-but it provides a blunt, proportional rule to “level the playing field.” One might implement it in Python like so:
def calculate_tariff(trade_deficit, total_imports): # Calculate the deficit ratio as a percentage ratio =(trade_deficit / total_imports) * 100 # Enforce a minimum tariff of 10% return max(10, ratio) # Example usage: tariff = calculate_tariff(20e9, 100e9) # $20B deficit on $100B imports yields a 20% tariff print(f"The tariff rate should be {tariff}%")We are defining trade policy with predictive text. What a time to be alive. Jesus tapdancing christ.
The Sociopathic Oligarchs want to assign as much responsibility to AI as possible. Smart people are expensive, AI is cheap. That makes AI the better choice to run the world.
I look forward to building my retirement in a handful of years in the recovery phase of this exercise in abject idiocy (assuming there is, in fact, anything to recover)
Every time I think they’re hiring rock bottom they bring out stronger drills.
That’s a hilariously apt analogy. Drill baby drill! 🫠
I saw someone here explain it well… That when you try to understand the depths of the idiocy, you get the same feeling you do when you try to comprehend the size of the universe
well, they can’t even name a single country in ASEAN.
no, “Sean” is not a country in ASEAN. That is incorrect.
from Mastodon: “tariffs by ChatGPT”
If I was Prime Minister, I’d impose a retaliatory tariff of 9000% just because it’s all just this stupid.
Call it the Goku tariffs, but drag it out over an hour or two with a lot of screaming.Wouldn’t it have to be 9001%?
ISO PTSD trigger warning! Hide that shit the next time.
Power levels are bullshit.
Says the guy with the broken scouter
Your reply has a lot of Yamcha energy.
You’re absolutely right, I can easily hear that comment in his voice too
Spoiler
Naa, 9001% is too high. It’s impossible. Better stick with 9000%.
You’re hired
Call a press conference, build up to announcing the 9000% tariff but then end the conference promising to come back next week and make the announcement.
PEOPLE OF THE UK!
I NEED YOUR ENERGY TO CHARGE THESE TARIFFS! AHHHHHHH \o/
Shortly after Trump’s announcement, the British government said the United States remains the U.K.’s “closest ally.”
I’m sorry TERF island, that’s not gonna keep Trump from stabbing you in the back too.
It’s heartbreaking, really.
The UK is like a kid who just got his face covered in mud by bullies, and goes “aren’t my friends wonderful for playing with me?”.
Well see there is just the problem, TERF island needs more toxic masculinity so the men can be tough!
/s
Heads up, UK, the US will use you as a toilet every chance you give it, and we’ve just dropped all pretense, however thin it may have previously been, about caring about our “allies”. Speaking as a US citizen, I would strongly advise against considering yourself a close friend to the US until we get our shit sorted.
The UK already shot themselves in the foot turning their back on the EU… they have no one left, they are done for
No basis in logic is a nice summary of the Trump administration in general.
Just unfathomably stupid.
Thank you! Neither the BBC nor the Flemish public tv seem to say this yet (they just repeat the statement Trump gave)
This is the only person I have seen say this so I can only guess no one is repeating it but it appears to be correct when I checked a few countries.
Its fucking insane to think Cambodia has a 97% tariff, and he thinks they are getting rich off of it.
ok, then…
i have a huge trade deficit with walmart.
i buy way more from them than they do from me ($1200-1500 a year vs $0); just like the u.s. buys more from many countries than those countries buy from the u.s.
like the leaky diaper’s new
tariffsimport tax, i should charge myself a ridiculously high extra tax on purchases from walmart until they buy $1200-1500 a year of some mythical product from me to even out the ‘unfair’ imbalance?yea. that’ll work.
I think Trump doesn’t want to trade at all. He wants us to produce everything we need.
Just like Mussolini.
and see how well that turned out?
One can only dream. Joking there is no Resistenza in the USA.
deleted by creator
I am really afraid that this is what America is coming to. The problem is that we have a third of the country that supports the Mango Mussolini.
We’ll have to see if that holds true after people watch their retirements get obliterated by a drastic drop in stock values across the board. Biden didn’t do enough to show the people that the economy was doing well, and recovering better than other countries around the world, under his watch. Trump won’t be able to pin this downward economic trend on Biden cause it happened too fast and multiple sources have cited the import tax, or fear of them, at the reason for the stock market tanking.
If owning the libs is so important that tRump voters will still vote for the ones actively hurting them, then those people are truly beyond help.
I’m actually pretty down with that that. We should be able and ready to produce whatever we need in case another country does what trump is doing or something happens that would prevent trade. If China attacks Taiwan, we should be able to produce our own chips. We should be able to function with as little dependence on other countries as possible.
In no way do tariffs fix that. You invest in yourself, slapping your friends because they’re better than you at something is really fucking stupid.
He’s hoping the foreign companies are going to open up shop in USA to avoid the tariffs.
Which they’re not going to do as that takes time and meanwhile he keeps moving the goalposts.
Which they’re not going to do as that takes time and meanwhile he keeps moving the goalposts.
And they’ll just fill in the gaps with China, or other non USA alternatives.
Meh, I think it’s fine and good for countries to specialize and be dependent on each other. Keeps the peace through mutually assured economic destruction. Global upticks in isolationism preceded the World Wars. Also, it just makes sense, because different countries have different resources, and their populations are differently skilled.
Well, artificially increasing the price of all the raw naturals we use to make those things will certainly help with that goal…
That’s actually a pretty good and understandable explanation of what’s going on.
the “logic” is pretty much as you described it. Only, after charging yourself with the extra tax on Walmart purchases, you obviously can’t afford Walmart any longer, so you learn to make your own soap with ash and the fats of animals that you have started breeding in your own flat.
So sad and so true. You made me giggle and frown at the same time. Have some 🥇.
Or your neighbour does all the work instead of you, so you decide to buy soap from them. They’re next door, while Walmart is across the county line, so you decide you won’t charge yourself the extra self-tax with your neighbour.
Walmart"s soap, which used to be $2, is now $3, while your neighbour’s soap is $2.50.
A week later your neighbour sees that demand for their soap is huge because everyone is self-taxing. So they raise their price to $2.95 to make extra profit.
In case you think this is just a contrived fiction, this is exactly what happened to many goods, like solar panels, with Trump’s first-term tarrifs. Americans paid over double the average world price for solar panels.
Worse still, Trump knows this happened, yet somehow this time will be completely different. <sigh>
Sounds like you had better open a diaper factory in your house. Then you wouldn’t have to pay the tariff that you are charging yourself.
Nope, not for every country. Russia is missing from the tariffs
Overview In January 2025, United States exported $34.9M and imported $196M from Russia, resulting in a negative trade balance of $161M.
