US locks in steep China tariff hikes, many to start Sept. 27 | Reuters

Posted by chromazgympartner@reddit | PrepperIntel | View on Reddit | 70 comments

Tariff Increases Effective September 27, 2024:

Electric Vehicles (EVs): 100% tariff on Chinese imports.

Solar Cells: 50% tariff on Chinese solar cells.

Steel, Aluminum, and Batteries: 25% tariff on steel, aluminum, and lithium-ion batteries.

Semiconductors: 50% tariff on Chinese semiconductors (starting 2025), including polysilicon and silicon wafers.

Medical Supplies:

Face Masks and Surgical Gloves: 50% tariff.

Syringes: 100% tariff, with a temporary exclusion for enteral syringes.

Strategic Intent:

Reduce Reliance on Chinese Products: Protect and boost U.S. domestic industries.

Address Unfair Trade Practices: Counteract Chinese state subsidies and overproduction.

Exceptions and Adjustments:

Port Cranes: Temporary relief from tariffs for cranes ordered before May 14, 2024, delivered by May 14, 2026.

Industrial Machinery: Consideration of tariff exclusions for certain machinery categories.

Political Context:

Election Impact: Both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are using tough stances on China to appeal to voters.

Trump’s Proposal: Trump has suggested imposing 60% tariffs on all Chinese imports.

International Reactions:

China’s Response: Condemnation of the tariffs and threats of retaliation.

Other Countries: The EU and Canada have also announced new tariffs on Chinese EVs.

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ShittingOutPosts@reddit

This won’t cause US companies to start manufacturing domestically. They’ll just transition their factories to different developing countries and exploit the cheaper labor there.

And it probably won’t even impact Chinese manufacturing. Unfortunately, I don’t have a source in hand to share, but I recently read that Trump’s tariffs didn’t curb Chinese manufacturing at all…they just shipped their goods to other countries, like Mexico, who then exported them to the US from there. I’m sure it still raised the prices of these goods for the end consumers in the US, but China still manufactured them.

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EatMoarTendies@reddit

If I remember correctly Apple did this by building factories in India and splitting iPhone production outside of China.

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syndicism@reddit

The strategy is to manufacture the components in China, then ship them to another country (Vietnam, Mexico, Indonesia, etc.) for final assembly. That makes the product able to be labeled as "made in Vietnam" even though it was really just put together, packaged, and shipped there.

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anthro28@reddit

They'll just do the same shit euro car manufacturers do. Build all the shit over there, ship the unit to Mexico, put the windshield wipers and a "hecho en Mexico" label on it, then import from Mexico. No tariff required.

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spanishdoll82@reddit

This is absolutely true. I worked in sourcing for a large CPG company when those section 301 tariffs started coming through. The below was basically my job to mitigate as much impact as possible.

First, we lobbied in DC to get as many exemptions as possible. We won a lot. Smaller/medium companies didn't have the resources to do this, so they suffered much more impact than us. After I left my F500 company and went to a smaller place, they had no idea that it was even an option.

Next, we had our Chinese suppliers build factories in places like Thailand or Malaysia. Bypassed the tariffs, but the money still went to the Chinese owners.

Finally, whatever we couldn't mitigate just got passed through to the consumer.

A lot of work and runaround for no impact to the Chinese economy and ultimately higher prices for the consumer.

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FatherOften@reddit

I own a business manufacturing commercial truck parts. All of our competitors passed the tariffs on to the customers we absorb them.

We have factories in six countries. We still utilize the chinese factories the most.Because they have the highest quality and the best quality control.

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hortlerslover2@reddit

For some industries, Sure. At least in mine tariffs has caused my company to buy 10 new plants in 6 years in the U.S.

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rick_canuk@reddit

Like I said... The theory.... Capitalism will always find the cheapest solution. And it usually involves exploitation of labor.

daydayok@reddit

This won’t help with inflation

IrwinJFinster@reddit

Yes and no. When tariffs increase, factories move back to the US, and when they decrease jobs move out of the US. So—you’ll pay more, but there will be more higher paying jobs in the US and more people can transition from lower class to middle class. Trump’s 10% minimum is a good idea. Here Biden is trying to move strategic production back to the US—also a good idea.

Sometymez@reddit

Sure buddy

I have personally helped move plants into and out of the US based on tariffs, friend.

Strange_Lady_Jane@reddit

Once again the common man will suffer.

But according to some of the comments here, paying $100 for a $25 panel is good

mka173@reddit

Need tariffs on foreign labor for outsourcing...

manamara1@reddit

Also onshoring and temporary foreign workers.

MrSnarf26@reddit

Labor tariff’s and making it expensive and harder to move blue collar jobs overseas would get me to vote for either side. It seems neither side talks about this.

Hunter2222222222222@reddit

I mean, moving white collar jobs overseas isn’t great idea either

irrision@reddit

Can't have billionaires losing so much money they need to sell one of their yachts!

ChodeCookies@reddit

I would vote for whoever guarantees this

ead617@reddit

Yup

kormer@reddit

The problem isn't necessarily foreign labor being cheaper, it's places where there are zero labor protections and/or even slave labor being used.

I'd love it if the US and Europe put together a minimum expected standard of labor rights other nations should adhere to, and then gradually bump up tariffs on anyone who doesn't meet them.

kiwibankofficial@reddit

That would require America to change their constitution and abolish slavery, I highly doubt they would do that.

fruderduck@reddit

This would do more for the US economy & people than a tariff on anything.

RedditTab@reddit

For real

Frabrurous@reddit

HUH???? Prepper Intel comes for the globalist media?

Yikes, I'm out!

What? These statements are true. And it’s poster here to tell you to buy your cheap masks and cheap solar today, prepper.

Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out

Whiny loser says what?

fredean01@reddit

Didn't Kamala spend a large part of the debate saying that tariffs are bad?..

outhighking@reddit

Did she enact this tariff?

She's number 2 in the administration that did and hasn't come out against them.. so kind of, yes.

Attilashorde@reddit

Right! She is saying she is against tariffs but she is the VP of the current administration that is implementing the tariffs and she doesn't come out speaking against Biden and these policies??? It's not like she would hurt the party Biden is not running and she's running on the position that tariffs are bad. It really doesn't make any sense.

_Marat@reddit

They’re actually in a great position right now. Biden can do all the corporate handout neoliberal policy that the democrats love to do, and Harris can pretend to be upset about it to garner votes and be the new “hope and change” candidate

The_4th_Little_Pig@reddit

No not kind of at all, she isn’t the decider here.

I'm not saying she's calling every shot, but if you think they're not running most major decisions past her campaign team over the next two months, you're delusional.

estella542@reddit

We all know Joey B isn’t coherent enough to do it. Someone from their administration is running our country.

I’m pretty sure she’s running for president

crash______says@reddit

I'm pretty sure she's already the President.

Ok so your just a conspiracy person who doesn’t live in reality

WebAccomplished9428@reddit

I wonder if that's why trp was blaming Kamala for the Biden administration faults? Or was he just throwing shit at the wall

HereAndThereButNow@reddit

Unfocused, untargeted tariffs that only exist to make the guy who implemented them look like a bigly strong man are bad.

Focused tariffs aimed at a very specific area to aid domestic industry aren't bad and everyone uses them to some degree.

Hell, one of the big disputes the US has with Canada that pops up every single time a trade deal is being negotiated is the tariff the US puts on Canadian lumber.

Lumber that's used to build homes and since home buying is a big part of the US economy that feeds into and touches almost every other section of it the US has a vested interest in making sure its own lumber industry stays viable.

Mammoth-Wolverine-16@reddit

Don't hurt yourself with the gymnastics.

DwarvenRedshirt@reddit

She's been busy trying to take Trump's policies as her own, so it's not exactly surprising she'd flip on that.

TheHoneyM0nster@reddit

She’s taking popular policies. I’ve seen exactly one policy that she took from Trump.

No taxes on tips, build the wall, the 2022 Biden-Harris Defensive Strategy policy is the 2018 Trump-Pence Defensive strategy policy which is very much not the 2014 Obama-Biden Defensive strategy policy.

I’m not aware of her eagerness to build the wall. She did bring up reintroducing the border security bill that Republicans shot down back in February, not hardly a Trump idea. That bill did not include any money for a wall.

No tax on tips and as the one I recognize as her adopting.

The defensive strategy while I’m not well versed on I suspect is a reaction to Russia and China getting a bit more testy which is a global shift as when Obama took office we were still pretty focused on the Middle East

The_Wicked_Wombat@reddit

Fracking flip flop, gun control flop, border control flop, tariff flop. I mean come on be real here

xdozex@reddit

These are focused on countering China's trade policies and only applies to specific and targeted products. Trump's suggested plan would apply a 20% tariff on all imported goods, regardless of the industry or country of origin and a 60% tariff on everything coming from China, regardless of the category.

Photovoltaic panel subsidies are stupid. If the Chinese want to make plastic below cost and sell it to us, I say we let them

Dry_Catch7310@reddit

So, if we're going to make green energy more expensive, and we can't make it ourselves, then how does any of this work? You guys in Congress and the White House are fucking us all.

I think the theory is .. price goes up to import. Subsidies for local growth is those sectors. Domestic manufacturing of these products. But... I'm the mean time...

CacheValue@reddit

In theory yes;

What actually happens is domestic producers realize they can just set prices to compete with the tariff prices.

If a Chinese solar panel costs $10 you either get $9 dollar US solar panels OR at least access to $10 panels

Now tariffs make Chinese solar panels cost $100

US solar companies set their prices at $99

Now no one wins, and green energy stays overpriced.

i-live-in-the-woods@reddit

That's not how the problem worked, and it's not how the solution works.

The problem is that the panels cost $20 to manufacture, but the Chinese government subsidizes the price down to $10 per panel. Nobody else can compete because nobody else can make panels under $25 in the first place.

Tariffs make the Chinese solar panels cost $100, and now hopefully some of the other manufacturers can sell panels at all.

Absinthe_Parties@reddit

That's just surface level assumptions. In reality the Solar companies are trying to get their cost-per-watt under the typical fossil fuel driven cost-per-watt. This is on the road map of every solar manufacturer. The tariffs would benefit US manufactures as it eliminates some of the competition (which was pretty unfair considering how China was absolutely flooding the market with low priced panels), this is turn allows more money to be spent on R&D to boost efficiency of the panels and further drive down cost-per-watt for the end customer.

I hear you on that . Capitalism for the win.

You really thought that ExxonMobil and their buddies were going down without a fight? Even if they lose markets in developing countries they're gonna lobby for tariffs to keep the "first world" a protected walled garden for as long as they can.

TylerBlozak@reddit

The only way China produces cheap PV panels is via coal-fired plants, and this tariff essentially negates those margins to and extent.

So perhaps these tariffs will veer China away from coal-fired PV Production plants and towards cleaner sources. At that point, US may relent and ease tariffs, citing the cleaner production methods. 85% of all panels are from China, so this could have a huge impact.

Loeden@reddit

Yep. This is on all of the wrong things. Corporate handout on things we NEED. Yuck.

cheeseitmeatbags@reddit

The structural import-export imbalance is absolutely huge, this was inevitable. That it would be on green tech is stupid beyond measure.

imperialtensor24@reddit

nothing is inevitable

the imbalance is the result of policy choices on the part of the US

US policy can change, some balance can be restored between finance and manufacturing

ChirrBirry@reddit

The same type of trade war that was xenophobic in 2017 is now no problem in 2024. Interesting.

bla bla bla

with any luck this policy change vis a vis china is hopefully part of a plan, as opposed to ad hoc electioneering

VonCrunchhausen@reddit

Remember when free trade was championed, like it was all bundled up in this end of history feeling where market barriers would inevitably go away or something?

It’s kinda wild how that consensus just went away. I remember being told that it was important to trade with China because they’d inevitably liberalize as they integrated with the global economy.

The theory at the end of the Cold War was that if the liberalized west massively increased trade with China, it would in turn cause China to import liberalism from the west.

This has been put into practice for nearly three decades, and has been proven a complete failure. China has gotten everything they've ever wanted from the deal, while the west has gotten nothing but cheap trinkets that will be taken away as soon as conflict breaks out.

From a free-market austrian economics standpoint, yes, you want zero tariffs for optimal economic growth, even if it hurts domestic production. From a strategic, what if there's a non-zero chance of a major war with this nation in the near-future, you need to break the dependency as fast as possible, which is what these tariffs are aimed at doing.

Nothing but cheap trinkets? Pretty much everything you own is from China