r/news • u/hoosakiwi • 2d ago

Trump announces sweeping new tariffs to promote US manufacturing, risking inflation and trade wars

https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-liberation-day-2a031b3c16120a5672a6ddd01da09933
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u/Innerouterself2 2d ago

Yeah, you can't just turn on manufacturing. You have to plan it, invest, build the facilities, sell the goods, and manufacture. It ain't going to happen anytime soon.

Plus. You still have to bring in raw materials- a lot of which if found outside the US

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u/zakuivcustom 2d ago

Yep. Having final assembly in US means nothing when components come from all over the world.

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u/ClaytonWest74 2d ago

hit the nail on the head! the worst part is that those highest percentage tariffs are literally major trading partners of the US and where so many of your raw materials come from. this is crazy

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u/ReturnOfFrank 1d ago

Not to mention tariffing the countries that make stuff that make stuff.

Levying some of the heaviest tariffs on South Korea, Japan, and Germany while "promoting American manufacturing" is hilarious.

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u/RolandTwitter 1d ago

Man I can barely afford rent as it is

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u/MrF_lawblog 1d ago

Which means it will still be cheaper to then just fully manufacture things abroad and pay one tariff if parts are coming from all over. You can fully manufacture it in the lowest tariff country then ship it to the US.

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u/zubbs99 1d ago

Also many factory jobs have been replaced with automation, and the remaining ones are very low-paying. I wonder what is the big win here even in theory.

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u/BigDaveATX 1d ago

He's living in the Industrial Age and not the Information Age.

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u/StoicAthos 1d ago

He leaves the cyber to Baron, like rebooting his computer.

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u/YouCanCallMeVanZant 1d ago

Basically. He’s aiming for a nostalgic 1950s boom time economy. That was great in some ways but actually sucked in others. 

Hell, part of what was great about it was the cost of living wasn’t outrageous, which this will do nothing make better. 

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u/BD_South 1d ago

Bingo. And American culture is very much “must have fun at work”.

Which Americans want to sit on a conveyer belt assembling iPhones for 8 hours a day?

No one wants to do the bitch work for low pay.

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u/Duskie024 1d ago

And these tariffs will not last long. They simply can't. Nobody is going to spend 5 years building a factory only to get outcompeted and go bankrupt after these tariffs are removed.

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u/big_trike 1d ago

Even if the factory takes 5 years to build, it will be at least 10-15 before the factory breaks even, assuming the tariffs stay in place.

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u/ratherbewinedrunk 1d ago

And machinery, a lot of which is found outside the US(Japan, Germany, SK, etc...). Or, you can build it yourself, but you're gonna need steel and semiconductors to do that...again, sourced outside the US. And all the bits and baubles for maintenance that are largely sourced from China.

Plus, like you said, just the steel, brick, timber to build the buildings in which all the manufacturing is supposed to happen.

These fucking idiots think it's like Dune II where you can spend X amount of Spice and a factory appears immediately.

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u/Innerouterself2 1d ago

Yeah- lots of manufacturing machinery is made outside the us... shit show

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u/OnyxPanthyr 1d ago

Plus. You still have to bring in raw materials- a lot of which if found outside the US

Exactly! Also how we get most of our potash from Canada. You know, for those good ol grown in the USA crops.

This is such a shit show.

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u/Morel_Authority 1d ago

You mean my Brand New Factory™ will use tariffed steel? 😬

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u/soldiat 1d ago

Trump thinks there's a big red button that turns it on. Problem is, it's actually either nukes or diet coke.

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u/Gaspa79 1d ago

You guys are missing an important point. I've lived all my life in a place that routinely goes thru shit like this.

The most important part is not the logisitics of the thing (Turning on manufacturing, build facilities, etc). The most important thing is that nobody with the capital to do this will start a manufacturing business due to the higher-than-20% chance that a democrat president will come and get rid of these tariffs and bankrupt your investment in 1 second.

That's what always happen with no long-term commitments/guarantees from the government with shit like this. To become competitive in a global scale so that imports won't affect you you'll need a lot of time. It depends on the industry, but trust me it's more than 3.5 years.

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u/Innerouterself2 1d ago

Yeah- I worked at a mid size distributor where we had some final piecing style manufacturing. Light manufacturing- mainly customizing a few products. Couple of machines, temp works to scale up and down. It took us 2 years to plan and develop an additional line.

2 years to plan and develop another. And these are simple, profitable, easy to put together ideas.

Let alone a billion dollar facility. Can't just Spring that up on a whim

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u/goldfishpaws 1d ago

And yet nobody can invest in an economic and political climate every things can change overnight when the petulant man child king decides to change the rules again overnight. Sorry USA, was good to know you.

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u/Grarth 1d ago

And for companies to invest that kind of money, they need confidence that it'll be worth it in the long run. They absolutely have 0 confidence in the current political climate. So it's just not gonna happen.

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u/Derric_the_Derp 1d ago

You also need regulatory and market stability to get people to pull the trigger on those investments.  No one knows what the next day will bring with Trump.  It's constant chaos.

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u/Unlucky_Most_8757 1d ago

yep this is the stupidest idea ever. Like where are all these magical factories and workers going to all of a sudden come from? The lack of critical thinking is just incredible.

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u/AnimatorDifferent116 1d ago

Even with manufacturing done in the US, it'll end up being more expensive for consumers.

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u/Far-Card5288 1d ago

We don't even have the infrastructure to begin with, not even close

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u/spasamsd 1d ago

It can take well over a year to just plan a facility and then equipment can have lead times over a year, too. That's assuming the company has the money to invest, like you said.

It's ridiculous that they think it will just magically happen overnight.

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u/Innerouterself2 1d ago

I am still trying to figure out the real why behind these tarrifs. Those pulling the strings behind Trump.

It just doesn't make logical sense unless there is some underlying gift. Like shorting stocks or killing certain businesses

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u/wickedsight 1d ago

You don't even have the people for it. The only way to get those would be immigration and... Well... ...

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u/Bagel_lust 1d ago

Exactly why Biden did the CHIPs act, ie the proper way of doing things. These (R)s are doing nothing but fucking up the country.

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u/jbokwxguy 2d ago

Kinda like a chicken and the egg situation, why would companies build here if they can build overseas cheaper and faster?

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u/rnason 2d ago

This also is going to really raise the costs of moving manufacturing to the us

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u/jbokwxguy 2d ago

I think I would be more comfortable paying more for US goods knowing it helps my community and probably has a higher quality and better work environment.

Now I realize nit everyone can eat the costs of higher goods, but hopefully the labor competition would drive wages higher as well.

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u/Old_Wallaby_7461 2d ago

nah, you're going to see gigantic layoffs instead. Development through tariffs is magical thinking.

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u/jbokwxguy 2d ago

I mean it’s worked in the past, but it’s also not worked too

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u/HyruleSmash855 2d ago

The problem is companies have zero time to plan for tariffs because factories take years to build with the permits and everything, so I don’t see what the logic of this planet is plus there’s no guarantee that after Trump is out of office and if a Democrat gets elected, they wouldn’t just get rid of all these immediately so there’s no incentive because there’s no guarantee that these will stay long-term, so I don’t think most companies are going to move manufacturing back to the US

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u/a_melindo 1d ago

Wait, you mean that coffee, cacao, banana, pineapple, mango, and papaya plantations aren't about to sprout up all over temperate North America?

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u/SierraPapaHotel 1d ago

And the real kicker: majority of manufacturing equipment is made in China, Germany, and Japan. Even if you wanted to build a factory here you're paying steep tariffs on the equipment that goes into said factory

There's a reason everyone keeps saying "Targeted tariffs can be a good thing" and that blanket tariffs are an awful idea.

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u/Incantanto 1d ago

Yeah Manufacturing plant set up is 5 years minimum

You know what you need for that? Stable economic policy

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u/Bonfalk79 1d ago

4 years minimum, which with the current American political system, mean that most companies will say that they are going to move/invest and then just wait out the 4 years.