As if the damage he did with the last round of tariffs wasn't enough, short bus announced more. An of course, like all official government documents do, he did it over Twitter.

Yay.. more market tanking....

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
"For many years China (and many other countries) has been taking advantage of the United States on Trade, Intellectual Property Theft, and much more. Our Country has been losing HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year to China, with no end in sight....
...Sadly, past Administrations have allowed China to get so far ahead of Fair and Balanced Trade that it has become a great burden to the American Taxpayer. As President, I can no longer allow this to happen! In the spirit of achieving Fair Trade, we must Balance this very....
...unfair Trading Relationship. China should not have put new Tariffs on 75 BILLION DOLLARS of United States product (politically motivated!). Starting on October 1st, the 250 BILLION DOLLARS of goods and products from China, currently being taxed at 25%, will be taxed at 30%...
...Additionally, the remaining 300 BILLION DOLLARS of goods and products from China, that was being taxed from September 1st at 10%, will now be taxed at 15%. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

victor809 wrote:

Tariffs are not the solution. The higher costs end up being paid by consumers; the same thing that happens any time government interferes in any industry (Obamacare).

Trump could tax Chinese imports at 100% and it would STILL be cheaper to manufacture most things in China.

borndead1 wrote:

The tariffs are too much, too quickly.

We've been in an unbalanced trade situation with China for half my adult life.
That's not even debatable.

Trump's concept is spot on: balance it.

His directives, however, are counterproductive.
Doing it all at once will create as many problems as it solves.
America can't replace Chinese goods overnight.
Ramping up manufacturing, for instance, takes time and money and most importantly a long term plan.

And the reality of it is that the next liberal President will just give it all back. They'll use the same tools Trump is using (if necessary) to revoke the tariffs.
And it's so obvious that most companies wouldn't have invested in the efforts to ramp up to begin with.


Trump's vision of a fair and balanced trade situation with China needs to be a long term plan.
We should be blaming Obama and Bush and Clinton and Bush and so on.

The emperor (trade with China) has no clothes.
But how dare we say so.

tailgater wrote:

If only someone had been working towards a trade agreement in the pacific with a long view towards evening the playing field over time. Oh wait.

But it was s bad deal because someone said so. The same someone that thinks getting in to a trade war with a country that has direct control of their economy and takes a long view (as opposed to our political cycle) is a better idea.

teedubbya wrote:

he's had more support from (beyond) liberal Warren and Sanders than his own party on tariffs...and captains of industry considering profits as the only responsibility (ties in with another thread) who are mostly but not exclusively conservative have long pushed against actions so they could use (tribute to Opel) near-slave labor to save manufacturing costs.

It's probably been longer than half your adult life...

edit:
though I do agree with much of your post.

frankj1 wrote:

If only someone had been working towards a trade agreement in the pacific with a long view towards evening the playing field over time. Oh wait.

But it was s bad deal because someone said so. The same someone that thinks getting in to a trade war with a country that has direct control of their economy and takes a long view (as opposed to our political cycle) is a better idea.

teedubbya wrote: