Tariffs

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Economist EJ Antoni, bucking the mainstream hysteria, is explaining that Donald Trump isn’t launching a trade war; he’s exposing the extremely unbalanced trade war the U.S. has been losing for decades.

In a hard-hitting op-ed for Fox News, Antoni compared Trump to one of his Republican presidential predecessors, U.S. Grant, for sheer grit and determination in spite of smear campaigns and prophecies of failure. The reality is that other countries have been imposing unfair tariffs on American goods while demanding no reciprocal tariffs for years. Trump is just insisting that other countries pay the same tariffs they require us to pay. The trade war already existed; it’s just that Trump wants to win.

Antoni insisted, “Trump is being attacked for being anti-free trade or for starting a trade war, but the opposite is true. For most of the last half century, the global economy has become entrenched in a pseudo-free trade that artificially disadvantages American exporters.”

He added, “In this sense, other nations declared a trade war on America decades ago, and our leaders never fought back.“ Trump’s reciprocal tariffs are meant to pressure other nations that do, in fact, rely on American trade and American consumers “to reduce their trade barriers and end a trade war that already exists.”

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Nike stock is plunging on Thursday, the day after President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs that will end the nation’s decades-long free trade policy.

“NKE was last seen 11.3% lower at $57.62, as investors digest the long-term impact of rising supply chain costs on the company’s margins,” Schaeffer’s Investment Research reports. “The stock is set to snap a three-day win streak, extending its late-March post-earnings bear gap and hitting its lowest level since November 2017. Nike stock now carries a 23.5% year-to-date deficit.”

On Wednesday evening, Trump announced reciprocal tariffs — adding a 34 percent tariff on China, a 46 percent tariff on Vietnam, a 49 percent tariff on Cambodia, a 32 percent tariff on Indonesia, and a 36 percent tariff on Thailand, among a long list of others.

Reuters reports:

Shares in Nike, Adidas, and Puma dropped sharply after Vietnam was targeted with a 46% tariff rate, Cambodia with 49%, Bangladesh with 37% and Indonesia with 32%, while Trump hiked tariffs on China by an extra 34 percentage points, following the earlier 20% tariffs. [Emphasis added]

“Companies that worked hard over the years to reduce reliance on China by leaning into countries like Vietnam just learned there really isn’t a place to hide,” BMO Capital Markets analyst Simeon Siegel said. [Emphasis added]

Israel Says It Will Lift All Tariffs on U.S. Goods – PJ Media– pjmedia.com
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Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced and signed a plan to eliminate any remaining tariffs targeting U.S. imports. The move came in advance of Donald Trump’s announcement on Wednesday that a new schedule of duties would be imposed on foreign products.

Israel and the U.S. have had a free trade agreement since 1985 that excludes about 98% of American products from Israeli tariffs. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be trying to get out in front of any possible announcement on tariffs on Israel from the White House.

“Today we canceled all of the customs duties levied on products from the U.S., Israel’s largest trading partner,” Netanyahu said in a post on X. “Canceling the customs duties on American goods is an additional step in the policy that my government has led for a decade in opening up the market to competition.”

The lifting of tariffs on U.S. goods still needs approval of the Knesset, where it’s expected to pass.

New York Times:

Total U.S. trade with Israel amounted to an estimated $37 billion in 2024, and the U.S. bilateral deficit stood at $7.4 billion, an 8.6 percent increase over the previous year, according to U.S. trade data. Israeli import taxes on U.S. goods amount to $11.3 million annually, with most levied on food, according to Israel’s finance ministry.

Israel isn’t the only nation trying to forestall Trump’s action on tariffs directed against it. Previously, Mexico sent cartel leaders across the border to stand trial in the U.S. It also sent troops to the border to break up fentanyl rings. Other responses weren’t very friendly.

 

Canada, the European Union, and China imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods even before Trump’s official announcement. Unless Trump withdraws or modifies his threats of high tariffs, prices of many consumer goods will rise.

Smotrich is calculating that Trump will reciprocate and lower trade barriers to Israeli goods.

Smotrich’s initiative will still have to be approved by the Israeli Knesset, where agricultural interests enjoy significant influence. There will be a rearguard action in the effort to defend the protectionist schemes from which Israeli farmers benefit. But while the Smotrich plan is not a done deal, Israel’s vital security interests depend so heavily on American support that Israeli domestic interests may have to take a back seat to its near-term foreign policy objectives.

If Trump’s true objective is to compel America’s trading partners to drop their tariffs, to which he would respond by lowering America’s trade barriers, Israel’s maneuver should compel the administration to make some concessions. The American trade balance with Israel isn’t enormous, but it’s not nothing, either. The U.S. imports Israeli commodities like stone, metals, and glass, but it also takes in finished Israeli products like industrial machinery, chemicals, plastics, and rubber.

 

The tariffs are a calculated gamble by Trump, hoping to jump-start U.S. exports in a less restrictive, more competitive international trade atmosphere. If it works, it will revolutionize the American economy. If it doesn’t, we may be paying a lot more for everything we buy from overseas.

 

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President Trump GOES OFF as Four Senate Republicans Reportedly Plan to Defy Him and Vote for Democrat Measure to Sabotage His Canadian Tariff Policy | The Gateway Pundit– www.thegatewaypundit.com
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President Trump is livid after learning that four Senate Republicans are reportedly prepared to vote to sabotage his tariff policy on Canada.

As Fox News reported, leftist Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) has sponsored a resolution joint resolution that would terminate the national emergency Trump declared regarding illicit drugs and Canada. Trump has argued tariffs are necessary not just to curb the drug flow but also to rebalance an unfair trading relationship between the two countries.

The Senate is scheduled to vote on Kaine’s resolution this afternoon. While passage would not mean the tariffs evaporate, considering the House is unlikely to ever vote on the measure, voting against Canadian tariffs would hand the Democrats a powerful talking point and humiliate Trump in the process.

To add insult to injury, the vote is taking place on what Trump has declared “Liberation Day,” where he is set to unleash new reciprocal tariffs to bring back American jobs.

Karoline Leavitt Brings The Receipts, Exposes Allies’ Sky-High Tariffs On U.S. Goods– trendingpoliticsnews.com
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On the eve of President Donald Trump’s much-anticipated “Liberation Day,” the date when he is expected to launch a flurry of new tariffs intended to level the trade U.S. deficit with foreign nations, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back aggressively on media claims that they will only lead to consumer pain and higher prices.

Waving the receipts, Leavitt spoke in depth about some of the most egregious examples of U.S. goods being taxed at a higher rate by other countries. She cited a 700% markup on rice being imported to Japan and a 300% tariff in Canada on American butter and cheese.

“This makes it virtually impossible for American products to be imported into these markets, and it has put a lot of Americans out of business and out of work over the past several decades,” she declared.

One Washington Post headline on Tuesday — “Trump aides draft tariff plans as some experts warn of economic damage” — summed up the narrative that outlets are spinning ahead of President Trump’s economic upheaval. Most goods being imported into the U.S. will face a 20% tariff, according to details about the plans shared by sources.

The outlet writes that the tariffs, if enacted, “would almost immediately” cause Trump’s economy to “tumble into a recession that would last for more than a year,” citing an economist at Moody’s who called the outcome a worst-case scenario.

Trump’s Auto Tariffs Just Got a Huge Endorsement – PJ Media– pjmedia.com
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United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain, who backed Kamala Harris in last year’s election, just delivered the most significant endorsement yet of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on foreign-made automobiles. Defying the left’s narrative, Fain called the tariffs a necessary tool to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States.

Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Fain agreed with Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro’s assessment that American auto plants are operating at only 60% capacity, which leaves plenty of room to ramp up production domestically.

“He’s spot on,” Fain said, citing the example of Stellantis, which recently laid off 2,000 workers in Warren, Mich., after shifting Ram truck production to Mexico. “They could shift that work back in very short order and be producing Ram trucks right back there and put those people back to work.”

China Deserves the Trump Tariffs– www.dailysignal.com
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This January, when President Joe Biden was serving his last weeks in office and turning over the presidency to Donald Trump, the United States ran a $31.7 billion trade deficit with China.

That was the largest trade deficit the United States ran that month with any nation—and it continued a long-standing pattern.

In 2024, according to data published by the Census Bureau, America’s annual trade deficit with China was $295.402 billion. That was not only the largest trade deficit the United States ran with any country, it was also larger than the trade deficit the United States ran with the entire European Union ($235.571 billion).

In 2023, the United States ran a $279.107 billion trade deficit with China. In 2022, it was $382.133 billion; in 2021, it was $352.806 billion; in 2020, it was $310.263 billion; and in 2019, it was $344.312 billion.