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Yeah but it works the other way too. If Trump gives Apple an exception, what about other companies? They can sue Trump for giving special treatment to a single company when applying tariffs that should affect all companies equally. Doesn't matter anyway, it's all posturing and hollow threats so most likely nothing will happen.
Apple has the added tax advantage of being a US-based corporation, whereas Samsung is obviously not. There is added incentive for any US-based company to bring manufacturing to US soil, for the tax breaks alone.
 
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Isn't the whole idea of free trade, to do exactly that ... trade freely? Of course the US must rely on other countries' certain natural resources which we don't have on our own soil. Fine. Simply import the resources we don't have in abundance, and reciprocate with friendly countries by exporting the resources we do have, without all the unnecessary tariffs and duties put in place by our trading partners. Trump didn't start all these unfair trade practices, but finally there's a president willing to take the political hit by calling it like he sees it and not allowing our trading partners to take advantage of us any longer. Tariff US companies outsourcing their manufacturing until they come to heel. It's short-term pain until equilibrium is reached. Trump wins either way ... Some manufacturers will either come back to the US with hat in hand to reap the benefits of tariff-free commerce, or our new External Revenue Service starts banking never-before-seen revenues from the tariffs these companies would rather pay.

What precise unfair trading practices are other countries using against the US?

What advantages do other countries have that are unfair?

Are you aware of how tariffs work?
 
Trump keeps saying that they’re “taking advantage of us” but never documents it. So here’s a chance for you to do that. How was Lesotho “taking advantage” of the US such that they “deserve” a 50% tariff? What specifically are they supposed to import from us into their tiny little poor country? Is it maybe possible that the fact they’re poor might have a material impact upon their ability to buy our stuff?
With pleasure. Lesotho imposes a 99% tariff on all the US goods they import. Every news article I found regarding "Lesotho + tariffs" confirms this. I'm happy to consider any hard facts you can share to the contrary.


Also, there seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding in your post that Trump wants to force other countries to buy our "stuff." That's not the argument. The issue here is that other countries are placing tariffs on US exports as soon as they hit that country's soil, thereby making US goods more expensive in that country, while historically the US has placed less of a tariff on that country's exports coming into the US. These are US goods that this country wants, otherwise they would have no need to import them. Nobody in Lesotho is being forced to accept US exports ... these are US goods that Lesotho wants, but does not allow its citizens to consume without first jacking prices up by 99%.
 
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Apple has the added tax advantage of being a US-based corporation, whereas Samsung is obviously not. There is added incentive for any US-based company to bring manufacturing to US soil, for the tax breaks alone.
Sure but is Google and Microsoft going to get an exception too? What about tech companies that didn't donate to Trump's inauguration. My point is that when you have such a transactional President in office, you're going to see clear violations of power and abuse for some and not for others.
 
With pleasure. Lesotho imposes a 99% tariff on all the US goods they import. Every news article I found regarding "Lesotho + tariffs" confirms this. I'm happy to consider any hard facts you can share to the contrary.
Interesting, because the Department of Commerce says that the rates are 0-30%. So if I have to choose between a purported, unlinked news article and the Department of Commerce as to who is likely to be more accurate about this, I’ll choose the Department of Commerce, for obvious reasons.

Edit to add: oh, I see. Trump made the 99% claim, and your news sources unquestioningly accepted this as fact without verifying the Liar in Chief’s words, because Lesotho says they don’t know where he got his numbers; in fact, “Many economists have explained that the methodology is flawed, and foreign governments decried the resulting levies as unfair and misrepresentative” (ibid).
 
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or Apple can just ride out the madness until mid terms and hope all this goes away when people hurt enough to vote better because the tariff stupidity has hurt so many.

Apple at least can continue largely unscathed internationally.
forget the domestic market for a bit. people can just buy the newer lowend devices (with the high tariffs) if they really want.

this wont last forever. fortunately.
 
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What precise unfair trading practices are other countries using against the US?

What advantages do other countries have that are unfair?

Are you aware of how tariffs work?
Why, yes. Are you? Just one example: try to find a US-manufactured car brand in any meaningful quantities in the UK, or the EU, or Japan, or China. Go ahead, I'll wait. By contrast, in my middle-class US neighborhood, I can't walk around the block without seeing dozens of BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Acura badges in everyone's driveway. And that's not just a "comparable quality" argument. Even economy cars from Japan and Korea have virtually no trade barriers coming into the US. The practice to block certain US goods from foreign markets is otherwise known as a "non-monetary trade barrier."
 
Genius policy: Add $500–1000 to the price of a smartphone. The same device every voter is looking at all day. Maybe none of them will notice.
 
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or Apple can just ride out the madness until mid terms and hope all this goes away when people hurt enough to vote better because the tariff stupidity has hurt so many.

Apple at least can continue largely unscathed internationally.
forget the domestic market for a bit. people can just buy the newer lowend devices (with the high tariffs) if they really want.

this wont last forever. fortunately.

Apple aren't stupid. They know they can sink this for a bit.

What is likely to happen is existing supply chain financial problems start building up. A huge chunk of US imports go through networks of small to medium businesses. They buy stuff on credit (oh the US loves debts!) at say $100 an item and get a $30 tariff fee added. But you aren't going to sell all that stock until Black Friday / Christmas. But the tariff fees are due in 10 days. You have to run months in advance. So now your debts are up 30% because you have to borrow the tariff fees too. If you don't make all those sales which already ate your existing profit margin up, boom you default. Business goes under, creditors have to eat it. Risk goes up, lending goes down, trade goes down the toilet.

Apple can just spend its way out of this and wait for the political fall out from above. Which will be the miserably short in goods Christmas coming up.

Starting to think this Englishman knows more about US economics than half of the US does.
 
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Why, yes. Are you? Just one example: try to find a US-manufactured car brand in any meaningful quantities in the UK, or the EU, or Japan, or China. Go ahead, I'll wait. By contrast, in my middle-class US neighborhood, I can't walk around the block without seeing dozens of BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Acura badges in everyone's driveway. And that's not just a "comparable quality" argument. Even economy cars from Japan and Korea have virtually no trade barriers coming into the US. The practice to block certain US goods from foreign markets is otherwise known as a "non-monetary trade barrier."

A huge chunk of US cars aren't road legal in Europe because we have far higher standards. Not only that why would we buy any of them when we have better cars here? We also have Lexus and Toyota here because, well, they're better too.

I've got to ask - why is your middle class US neighbourhood full of foreign cars? Aren't yours better? Surely this is the free market everyone speaks of?

To note I did I own a US designed car. Worst car I ever had. My daughter spitting on it there. Perhaps that's the problem.

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With pleasure. Lesotho imposes a 99% tariff on all the US goods they import. Every news article I found regarding "Lesotho + tariffs" confirms this. I'm happy to consider any hard facts you can share to the contrary.


Also, there seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding in your post that Trump wants to force other countries to buy our "stuff." That's not the argument. The issue here is that other countries are placing tariffs on US exports as soon as they hit that country's soil, thereby making US goods more expensive in that country, while historically the US has placed less of a tariff on that country's exports coming into the US. These are US goods that this country wants, otherwise they would have no need to import them. Nobody in Lesotho is being forced to accept US exports ... these are US goods that Lesotho wants, but does not allow its citizens to consume without first jacking prices up by 99%.

 
Bringing Apple factories to the US would benefit Americans, it would create a lot of jobs.
Apple factories aren’t coming to America without a boost to education. Being anti-union also doesn’t create the best work environment. Just saying you want iPhones built in America without an infrastructure to support it or properly skilled workers means nothing. That also doesn’t consider iPhones would suddenly become to expensive for most consumers on top of that. Unless you think Americans with our higher cost of living are about to take the same wages people in foreign countries will.
 
Sure but other politicians still pretend to not be like this. Trump makes it so blatant it’s impossible to ignore. While it is bad when any politician does it, to pretend it’s not on another level with Trump is naive.
And? It works for him. I’ll argue hardcore that what Trump acts like in front of the camera is nothing compared to what some of these monsters act like behind the camera. On both sides. In fact it’s widely reported Trump is pretty chill while the cameras are off.

Trump is raw and lays it out there for all to see. Like it or not. You know what you’re getting compared to vast majority of politicians that are total snakes.
 
And? It works for him. I’ll argue hardcore that what Trump acts like in front of the camera is nothing compared to what some of these monsters act like behind the camera. On both sides. In fact it’s widely reported Trump is pretty chill while the cameras are off.

Trump is raw and lays it out there for all to see. Like it or not. You know what you’re getting compared to vast majority of politicians that are total snakes.

I suspect that's because the snakes aren't at stage 7 on dementia progression like your last 3 presidential terms.
 
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Why, yes. Are you? Just one example: try to find a US-manufactured car brand in any meaningful quantities in the UK, or the EU, or Japan, or China. Go ahead, I'll wait. By contrast, in my middle-class US neighborhood, I can't walk around the block without seeing dozens of BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Acura badges in everyone's driveway. And that's not just a "comparable quality" argument. Even economy cars from Japan and Korea have virtually no trade barriers coming into the US. The practice to block certain US goods from foreign markets is otherwise known as a "non-monetary trade barrier."
I just asked Gemini the exact same thing and here’s the response.

US-manufactured cars are not as common in the UK and Europe primarily because they are often too large for narrow European roads and parking, less fuel-efficient in markets with high gas prices, and face strict emissions standards. Additionally, strong local and other international brands cater well to European consumer preferences for smaller, more agile vehicles, and there's a perception that American cars don't always match European tastes in design and refinement. High import tariffs can also play a role.

As you can see, import tariffs are only a tiny part of that equation.
 
Apple factories aren’t coming to America without a boost to education. Being anti-union also doesn’t create the best work environment. Just saying you want iPhones built in America without an infrastructure to support it or properly skilled workers means nothing. That also doesn’t consider iPhones would suddenly become to expensive for most consumers on top of that. Unless you think Americans with our higher cost of living are about to take the same wages people in foreign countries will.
I couldn’t care less where Apple builds iPhone. My parent comment says the administration should work on education. Tim Cook has said that the US lacks the proper workforce to build iPhones.
 
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Apple, like every other company, will NOT absorb tariffs.
The market will dictate this. The US market will not pay $3K for an iPhone.
No the market will not. Apple and every other company in existence will not simply eat a 25% tax. Nor will Apple bring their factories to the US. People will pay $1600 though. Especially with installment plans. Check your math.
 
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Well yeah and nevermind the whole “we need to build factories that take 5-10 years to build and meanwhile we pay higher prices until said factories are ready or the tariffs get pulled back by a new administration”.

Imagine if you’re Apple and you spend trillions to move manufacturing here and a Democrat wins in 2028, and on Jan 20, 2029, repeals the tariff?
 
That's a nonsensical analogy. Do you actually have anything your supermarket wants to buy? Try a little harder to make sense next time.

So is assuming that all countries should have a balanced trade portfolio with yours, it's an absolutely stupid nonsensical policy which is exactly what my analogy was pointing out.
 
And? It works for him. I’ll argue hardcore that what Trump acts like in front of the camera is nothing compared to what some of these monsters act like behind the camera. On both sides. In fact it’s widely reported Trump is pretty chill while the cameras are off.

Trump is raw and lays it out there for all to see. Like it or not. You know what you’re getting compared to vast majority of politicians that are total snakes.
I mean "raw" is one word for it - embarrassing is what most people would use looking from the outside in.
 
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