Thread: Trade War Coming to Shaving

Yea, the sad and sometimes humours story of tariffs and countervailing tariffs. When you throw in today's global supply chain into the mix you get some thrills too. If the part or raw materials you need to make a product that is competitively priced suddenly has a tariff on it you may not be able to compete globally and so you may have to lay workers off or worst case scenario close shop.

Add in countervailing tariffs and you suddenly can not sell into markets you have come to depend on taking your product as it is now more expensive than the same thing supplied from other countries. Now you suddenly have an over capacity to produce this product that your domestic market can not use the excess you now have. Now you have several choices to cope with that situation. Sell into those markets that have countervailing tariffs on your product at reduced prices that are possibly below what it costs you to produce it killing any profit. Find other markets quickly that do not have countervailing tariffs on your product which is difficult to do in the short term as it takes years to fully develop new markets. This can lead to the government who has had countervailing tariffs place on their countries products to bail outs to effected industries in the short term or subsidize these industries in the long term. That is with tax payers money, naturally, which is really a hidden tax on everyone in that country.

All that is only in the first round of a tariff war. It gets even better if countries involved keep escalating the number of tariffs and countervailing tariffs in subsequent rounds. It becomes very hard to stop that vicious cycle the longer it goes on. Nobody wants to take the political fallout associated with being the first one to blink and drop their tariff or countervailing tariff.

Everyone who is important, the citizens of the countries involved, ultimately are losers. In this atmosphere of "if I have to dance you will have to dance" we are all going to look silly when we have finished cutting our noses off despite our faces.

Bob

I got to say BobH, I think the war we are skirting around talking directly about, has come to an end. Not because it wasn’t a good idea. Not because all of a sudden we’ve decided that MAGA was a waist of time... but because in order to fight a trade war, you got to have some serious stamina and be willing to alter your form of government in order to win. Which in a democratic republic is a bear!

The war as it was a couple three days ago was really hurting farmers. Ok, that’s the price you pay, but that’s a bunch of voters. I mean Citizens in distress. So, in order to ride out that storm, a gift of 12 billion was given to farmers to ease their pain. Now, last time I checked, that gave America an unfair advantage against our trade partners but, this is America, we have the money (or do we) to fight our wars so who cares really what other nations say... but that also makes us socialists. Giving gov money to pay for things we don’t need lol!? Now how do you sell that to a capitalist nation who hates freeloading?

Today in the news, you’ll see that America has engaged in more trade with the EU. A big part of that agreement is agriculture. It’s so predictable really. Things needed to change fast. 12 billion is a ton of money!

Now, don’t think i’m dissing anyone here. I’m just citing the facts. We’ve become socialists in the past to protect America. In 2008, America owned GM, Chrysler, banks etc., etc. Remember the whole too big to fail? Yup...

All I’m saying is, full on trade wars between nations with 4 year terms are either a lot of hot air, or extremely violent. In order to win, you need an entire nation to back you. That’s like nearly impossible.

That’s my take anyway.

You may be right earcutter but that remains to be seen as there is no concrete outcome yet I believe. Yup, I get the whole internal politics of it too. I'd dispute that socialism is solely paying for something you don't need but that is altogether an entirely different issue.

Bob

Originally Posted by BobH

You may be right earcutter but that remains to be seen as there is no concrete outcome yet I believe. Yup, I get the whole internal politics of it too. I'd dispute that socialism is solely paying for something you don't need but that is altogether an entirely different issue.

Bob

I understand your intrpidation. If we’ve seen anything, we’ve seen things can change at the drop of a hat. And of course socialism isn’t solely paying for something you don’t need, but when the government does it so some of its citizens maintain thier standard of living lol... well that’s definitely not capitalism! Oh heck no! No, you wouldn’t be in KS anymore thinking that way lol!!