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In case anyones looking at this and asking question like "Why has Cambodia been dunked with 49% when they're clearly not a competitor to the US" or "Why is Trump claiming that the European Union has a 40% tariff on the US when the actual mean tariff on US goods into the EU is less than 5%", here's your answer to how these figures have been calculated.

• Take the US trade deficit with a given country (eg. China is $292bn)
• Take the total good imported by US (for China that's $439bn)
• Divide the first figure by the second! Why? Who knows! It's a number! Less talk more first grade arithmetic (if you're still following that gives us 67%)
• That gives us a random number which we'll pretend is that country's tariff of US goods even though it's completely unrelated in every way. We'll divide it by two to get the new tariff rate for imports from that country. Why? Honestly if you're still expecting there to be an answer to that question I'm wondering if you've been following. (that gives us 34%, well actually it gives us 33.5% but I'm not sure the Trump administration understands the idea of fractions so we'll just round it up from there)

The "reason" behind this is that Trump seems to think trade deficits are really bad, which is bad news for the US because it's had a trade deficit for the last 50 years. We'll ignore the fact that based on GDP it's been the wealthiest country in the world for that time though.

Anyway, just to give everyone an idea of how completely, utterly unrelated to anything meaningful that figure is, let's take Cambodia. The country is very poor compared to the US so can't afford to buy anything that the US manufacters (Cambodians aren't driving round in Teslas or IMessaging each other). Some US companies use it for clothing manufacture because labour is cheap in Cambodia (see the previous bit about Cambodia being much poorer than the US). This means that Cambodia imports close to nothing from the US compared to what it exports, giving it a close to 100% trade deficit, so we wind up with a 49% tariff on Cambodia.

I genuinely don't understand the mindset that looks at the US's explotation of cheap labour in Cambodia and interprets the US as the victim in that relationship, but hey-ho maybe I'm just not biggly-smart enough to understand the 4d chess moves at play here. . .

Reference (because unfortunately none of what I said was made up and that geniunely is the calculation): https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/03/trumps-idiotic-and-flawed-tariff-calculations-stun-economists

Edit: After making fun of Trump for not understanding the enconomy, I went and conflated per capita GDP with GDP. Doh! Now corrected.

Me, checking what the damage is: oh good, my European defence stocks went up 2 to 4 percent today while the American stocks are tanking, happy days!

Me, after thinking on it a bit longer: oh God, my European defence stocks went up while the world economy is taking a hit, better get ready for whatever's coming

Putin's bitch trying to further destabilize the world for daddy.

Been browsing the conservative subreddit this morning just to see what they all are thinking. There is a surprising number of "This is a terrible idea" comments but its also funny seeing a whole bunch of republicans who now suddenly like higher taxes, inflation and stock crashes.

Ironically crashing the economy is one of the best things you can do to slow down climate change

Pls 100% world wide tax.

I like to go straight to the "Find Out" phase.

👀

(Remember, when the great depression happens, its our duty to eliminate nazis)

Conveniently left Russia out. I wonder why.

I don't have a ton of "the court is wrong" opinions, but Article 1 section 8 of the Constitution flatly gives Congress the responsibility of regulating trade and imposing tariffs. The President just doesn't (shouldn't) have the authority to change rates. The executive needs to execute the will of the Legislative branch.

Trump clearly has some feelings about Vietnam. He used his “bone spurs” excuse to avoid being sent over there back in the day. Lmao

What a pussy

Did you happen to notice the one country not on the list?

Here I’ll give you a hint it’s name starts with an “R” and is run by a man who’s name starts with a “P” and is currently at war with a country that starts with a “U”…

Is he using a random number generator?

I don't think these are reciprocal. I think these are unilateral, and when countries respond, their tariffs will be reciprocal. The distinction is very important. This is a problem created by Trump, not by other countries. You don't get to choose false language to describe it that shifts the blame.

isn't this just going to fuck up the US economy rather than meaningfully affect any other country? you don't fucking produce anything worth a shit anymore.

“our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, plundered”

by other nations selling their goods to us cheaply, and by them accepting our Dollars that cost us nothing to make for it!!

I don't think Trump understands the benefits and privileges for USA of having the top international reserve currency.
But maybe if he ruins it quick enough, he may find out?

Play stupid games and win stupid prices.

Curious that Russia is missing

GlObAL ReCESSioN

Can they fucking stop threatening us like we’re stupid children? Life has been getting more expensive worldwide for a decade and we all know now who is to blame.

I don’t fucking care about new toyota prices in the us, I want to buy potatoes in poland. Fuck off with your recessions and bullshit economies.

A lot of people’s lives are about to get more expensive… again.

Is this winning?

Boycott the USA. Do not consume American products. Do not travel to the US. Cancel your subscriptions, find alternatives or pirate their software and media. Make Americans tourists feel unwelcome.

I mean, this will suck in rhe short term, but these companies will exit the U.S. market if it gets to be uneconomical, and we'll be fucked, not them. Trump's I Am sO sMaRt comments all the time will make him look like an even bigger idiot than he already does.

If we actually want manufacturing in the U.S., give companies incentives to do business here. This is the opposite of incentives.

Well well well, we finally fell off the cliff, didn't we?

Starting a trade war with the entire world, easy to win, right?

If the entire world reciprocates, which they will, you will literally wish you had just a recession to worry about. I wonder how Trump's approval ratings will be about a month from now

Thanks for typing out the percentages, so far I've only seen emotional news reports about it without any detailed info.

Are these tariffs on ALL goods from a certain country? Eg, does 34% on China mean 34% on ALL Chinese goods or just certain ones like cars?

Well, one of two things will happen now.

• The US economy will recede by roughly 30% over the coming years (classified by economists as "catastrophic collapse")

• It will turn out that trade was "fake and gay" all along and autarky is the way to go, despite centuries of historic lessons to the contrary.

Take your pick.

We need a tariff on the ruling class.

In 2020, I thought Covid might crash the economy. You know, history repeats itself. But oh, was I wrong; it'll all be caused by a single fuckwit which deserves to be tortured.

Fuck anyone involved in making the world a worse place. I hope they all die in fucking agony.

US dollar in absolute freefall. Thursday is going to be a bloodbath when the market opens.

The trump regime was designed to TANK the US economy so that stocks, businesses, and industries can be bought by billionaires at rock bottom prices.

All is going according to plan.

And just like that every American good costs significantly more.

If your family income is less than about $200,000, congratulations, your tax rate has at least doubled.

Why the fuck is our media so bad that they blindly accept Trump's bullshit line that the tariffs are "reciprocal"? Are they just stupid or have they been paid off? Do they not know the meaning of "reciprocal" or are they just too fucking lazy to question the White House's rhetoric even a little bit?

The state of the United States makes me sick. We're being robbed blind by the oligarchy in broad daylight while the media gleefully amplifies the administrations lies.

Fuck Cambodia specifically. Trump probably got a bad VD from there at some point.

So is the plan to drive the cost of everyday essentials so high that virtually everyone bankrupts and the billionaires buy all of our assets for pennies on the thousand dollars? That is all I can come up with trying to make a scenario where this has some coherent objective.