this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
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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.

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[–] cerement@slrpnk.net 282 points 3 days ago (4 children)
[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 163 points 3 days ago (4 children)

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 ~~tariffs~~import 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.

[–] andallthat@lemmy.world 32 points 3 days ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 37 points 3 days ago (5 children)

I think Trump doesn’t want to trade at all. He wants us to produce everything we need.

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[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 14 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

There is simple logic in it. Punish everyone, and then let them come to you asking for exemptions. Then he can demand things in exchange. After that it's "Pray I don't alter the deal any further."

UK already asked for an exemption and he said they should buy chlorinated chicken first. If every country responds in the same way and gives in he's making bank. If they respond with a boycott on anything American, especially digital services, things get bad.

[–] barneypiccolo@lemm.ee 85 points 3 days ago (5 children)

Have we forgotten that he has done this each month since he was Inaugurated?

Today the stock market will crash on this news. The wealthy will buy on this massive dip, and in a few days, HitlerPig will announce that the countries on his list have responded to his tariff threats, so he is postponing them for a month or so.

The stock market will recover a bit, and the wealthy will make a fortune. In a month, he'll do it all over again.

It's deliberate market manipulation.

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[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 148 points 3 days ago (8 children)

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.

[–] wuzzlewoggle@feddit.org 88 points 3 days ago (5 children)

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.

[–] Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world 46 points 3 days ago (17 children)

You don't even have to go that far. Just adopt sane copyright laws, like copyright only lasting the life of the artist.

[–] huquad@lemmy.ml 30 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Thats still too long imo. Patents are 20 years, so should every IP protection.

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[–] ray1992xd@feddit.nl 35 points 3 days ago (2 children)

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)

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[–] perestroika@lemm.ee 30 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Trump's government has made the US a village idiot - and if the idiot gets into a fight with the whole village, the idiot will have more bruises.

Why he does that - I don't pretend to understand.

[–] Realitaetsverlust@lemmy.zip 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

He's preparing for an authoritarian takeover.

Almost every dictator in history enacted massive tariffs so they had a way to control the economy. Loyal businesses are given tariff exemptions while all the other ones are suppressed. That's what Mussolini did, that's what Putin did and now it's what trump does.

I'll wonder if that "we need guns to defend ourselves against an oppressive government" statement was true.

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[–] Gates9@sh.itjust.works 43 points 3 days ago
[–] Sludgehammer@lemmy.world 103 points 3 days ago (3 children)

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.

[–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 34 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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?".

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[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 27 points 3 days ago

Dead horse economics:

Wake up you lazy horse!

[–] InEnduringGrowStrong@sh.itjust.works 103 points 4 days ago (3 children)

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.

[–] Tempus_Fugit@midwest.social 69 points 4 days ago (9 children)

Wouldn't it have to be 9001%?

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[–] Dearth@lemmy.world 24 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Someone asked chatGPT how to apply tariffs to give America an equal playing field and it spit it a formula that looks shockingly similar to how trump calculated the tariffs

[–] WhatYouNeed@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago

Try grok and you'll get an exact match.

[–] N0body@lemmy.dbzer0.com 87 points 3 days ago (5 children)
  1. Order tariffs
  2. Make everything more expensive for everyone everywhere
  3. Piss off the entire world and invite countermeasures
  4. ??????????????
  5. MAGA
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[–] falkerie71@sh.itjust.works 85 points 4 days ago (14 children)

Putting tariffs on Norfolk Island and Heard and McDonald Islands are particularly funny considering Heard and McDonald Islands only has penguins living there lol.

[–] Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 46 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Those penguins are trying to rip off America! It's about time they pay their fair share

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 32 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I’ve never once heard a penguin say thank you.

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[–] dryfter@lemm.ee 81 points 3 days ago (1 children)

"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.

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[–] Freshparsnip@lemm.ee 29 points 3 days ago (3 children)

None of Trump's policies have any basis in reality

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[–] Sludgehammer@lemmy.world 77 points 3 days ago (2 children)

and the price of bitcoin dropped 4.4%.

I cannot express how much I hate that this appears in a serious economic article.

[–] 13igTyme@lemmy.world 34 points 3 days ago (8 children)

You don't like hearing about made up currency with no backing that's primarily used for pump and dump schemes and money laundering?

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[–] b161@lemmy.blahaj.zone 49 points 3 days ago (4 children)

They’re AI generated tariffs. He asked Grok and these are the numbers it spat out.

[–] Zaraki42@lemmy.ca 38 points 3 days ago (1 children)

He's imposing tariffs on uninhabited islands... what a fucking moron...

[–] b161@lemmy.blahaj.zone 53 points 3 days ago (6 children)
[–] HeliumFalcon@lemm.ee 26 points 3 days ago

McDonald's fucked up his order recently which is why their island received tariffs.

He's going to get free hamberders for life when they cave.

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[–] bearenbey@lemm.ee 24 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Norfolk Island was baffled by a 29% duty despite having no exports.

Ahahaha. For a day, I want to be inside his head and see the world through his eyes. It would be the most valuable insight for humanity... If only to learn exactly what not to do.

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago

No thoughts. Only anger at being confused.

More then racism, Trump's appeal is being a simple answer to a complex question. Which happens to mean racism when applied to race relations, but also harebrained economic policies or injecting bleach into yourself. This is the same man who used a sharpy to change the path of a hurricane on a map rather then admit he misspoke.

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[–] pr0sp3kt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 3 days ago (1 children)

So, now $1 per banana is now real, wow. A complete bunch on my country costs that... We are banana exporters we are the banana republic...

[–] jasparagus@lemmy.world 21 points 3 days ago

It's one banana, Michael. What could it cost? $10?

https://youtu.be/Nl_Qyk9DSUw

[–] Mediocre_Bard@lemmy.world 21 points 3 days ago

You know what's fun? Cancelling stuff and citing the reason as 'tariff-related inflation'. It's too new and there is no response script yet, so customer service doesn't really argue.

[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 32 points 3 days ago (1 children)

No basis in logic if he were actually trying to do what he says he is. He's not. They make perfect sense if the goal is to destabilize the country. We elected a fucking Manchurian candidate twice, and the in-between term was spent on a bunch of business as usual and not setting up protections in case it happened again. This country is fucking done.

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[–] Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 45 points 3 days ago

All the goods that Trump excempts from tarrifs is tipping his hand. If I were one of these countries like Taiwan where semiconductors are exempted, I would apply an export duty equal to the tarrif on other goods. If you want to tarrif me fine but you're going to have to commit.

[–] Litebit@lemmy.world 39 points 3 days ago (1 children)

no tariffs on russia, only sanctions?

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[–] HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee 21 points 3 days ago (6 children)

I saw someone say it seems that the tariffs were calculated by dividing our trade deficit by their exports to us and cutting that number in half. Another person analyzed his charts and concluded they look a lot like they were generated by AI.

So, there is, literally no basis in logic. Either one of Trump's minions calculated what it would take to recoup the difference in the trade deficit and just wrote it down and he announced that as the new basis for international trade, which has never, ever been done, for the reason that it is fucking idiotic, or he asked Gemini how to execute his already objectively stupid policy and wrote an Executive Order making it the law.

And the fact that we are forced to accept people on the Internet's guesses about how he calculated these numbers may actually be worse than the fact that just about every product on the market more complex than a stapler just jumped about 30% in price.

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[–] StopTouchingYourPhone@lemmy.world 21 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I don't buy that Trump has anything to do with the logic behind this world-destabalizing shock and awe spectacle.

The conversation would be different if people stopped attributing authorship to him and acknowledged the massive decades-old machine using him as a mouthpiece.

But it sure makes people feel smart though. Gives them something to meme about while the people who planned this get the real dirt done. Maybe he'll misspell a country name next... Do another ad for Leon's dinkeys, Israeli beans or something. Stoopid Donald got poopy pance. lol.

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[–] msage@programming.dev 35 points 3 days ago (2 children)

What about Israel? Aren't they sucking you dry? Perhaps add some tariffs there?

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[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago (3 children)

The point is to make China the new boot on the throat of the human race instead of the US

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