These trade moves have the same implicit assumption. That US trading partners can't buy the same thing elsewhere for a cheaper price. Feels like this is a problem that solves itself.
this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2025
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Art of the deal, donny boy.
US trade delegate Jamieson Greer has called on American companies to report unfair trade practices by partner countries, according Budliger Artieda. This applies in particular to G20 countries and states with a strongly positive trade balance with the US.
You would not expect an efficient world market to have a zero bilateral trade balance between each pair of countries in it.
Say we have a world with three countries.
Country A is good at producing apples and consumes a lot of beans.
Country B is good at producing beans and consumes a lot of cherries.
Country C is good at producing cherries and consumes a lot of apples.
No country on there should have a zero bilateral trade balance with any other country. Country A should run a deficit with B and surplus with C. B should run a deficit with C and surplus with A. C should run a deficit with A and surplus with B.
You could, with sufficient regulation, prevent that from happening, but you'd be giving up the gains you get from comparative advantage.
It is actually even more stupid. If Country A invests into Country B, then Country A has a trade surplus with Country B. However it also owns the investments, which means profits from the investment in Country B should be send back to Country A.
That is exactly what happened with the US. They invest a lot abroad after WW2 and are now living of the capital they own abroad.
And even if someone makes a fortune abroad, they'll still generally invest their profits in Wall Street.
And even if they don't, their country will buy US dollars to keep in their reserves and buy oil.
I mean A could sell apples and buy cherries from C and then sell the cherries to B and buy their beans. That would make a zero sum with both countries. Sure it results in the same end result but with more shiping cost. I think the problem is that many people don't understand, that a deficit in trade is nothing negative, you are not losing money as a country because you are still getting products.
Nobody complains, that we (as people) have a trade deficit with supermarkets, why don't they employ us at least for the money we pay in groceries!?
Trump is the only person I've ever heard complain about the trade deficit. I don't think even the crazy libertarians ever talked about it. It's just such a weird obsession of his.
"Even the crazy libertarians" should be the group least concerned with mercantilist tomfoolery.
It's just that the crazier and the more consistent a libertarian is, the less they are interested in mainstream politics and related personalities. It's a hermit ideology in some sense, a full P2P society.
About trade deficit - in general you all are correct, but in specifics it's bad when a country doesn't produce something important or a whole family of something important and imports that something important from potentially hostile nations. That's why before Brezhnev USSR's elite would try very hard to have basic production of every kind of necessary goods inside USSR.
I'm just not sure what they are trying to prepare for and how do they expect to fix the core reasons for production of various things having moved out of the USA>
Yeah, true about the libertarians, they wouldn't be the group that would be talking about that.
The Orange Moron is doing a really good job at uniting and integrating former allies against him
βBut we certainly canβt be accused of being unfair. Switzerland has unilaterally abolished its industrial tariffs, we have no pharmaceutical tariffs. US companies can export their products to Switzerland duty-free,β
Will the Swiss drop neutrality like Ireland?
And in the same quote:
we have been doing exactly what President Trump wants for a long time
And I believe her.
So how did CH get on that list?
US trade delegate Jamieson Greer has called on American companies to report unfair trade practices by partner countries
So some businessperson with a grievance decides what gets onto some government list? Truly an oligarchy.
That said I'd like to know a bit more about the whole (yet another) international debacle.
I guess they just didn't like the trade deficit because they think it means "losing"
Also Trump views a VAT as an unfair tariff even if it applies equally to both domestic and foreign companies. He's completely dishonest, so don't expect any logic(I don't buy that he's that dumb)
Trump is the epitome of the Republican sentiment "Unless I have privilege I'm being oppressed"
Also Trump views VAT
I don't know about that. The problem is that you cannot take Trump statements as straightforward representations of his views. He says plenty of things just because they're politically useful, without regard for truth.
I wonder what the plan is when one oligarch needs the countryβs product and another wants the country tariffed. I guess whoever has the larger bribes wins?
It is as if the Cheater in Chief is turning everything to shit that he touchess. I can't wait for the 30'000% tariffs on Swiss gold or whatever his idea will be.
2000% tariff on American made watches to Switzerland
When we have absolutely no allies left except Russia, America will truly be great again.
Not sure I'd call Russia an ally rather than a puppetmaster
A comrade-in-shit rather.
Trump won't be able to wreak enough havoc in all his remaining life to make it possible for Russia to be a puppetmaster for the US. Make it a bit more like Russia is the worst scenario.
Though the US has always had a certain tendency to act similarly after WW2 ...
This
That's good because it means there won't be anyone in the way of a socialist revolution, comrade!
Can't have a trade deficit if you don't have trade.
-"Trade deficit went down 50%!!"
(Trade went down 60%)
Time for someone to leak a list of billionaires' Swiss bank accounts.
I'd prefer if someone managed to Robin Hood those accounts, instead.
trump has a trade deficit with mcdonalds too. Time to annex them or something.
Where are our right wing assholes now who said they would prefer trump? Trump would be better for Switzerland? Fucking SVP morons
Aeschi was recently defending trump, still. Disgustingly antidemocratic.
I mean sure, why the fuck not? Who's left at this point?
Our spineless politicians are going to react well to this, I'm sure.