For those still unaware:
The column labeled “Tariffs Charged to the USA” for each country in the first image below is not really that. It actually is the US trade deficit divided by the imports into US (for each country based on 2024).
Example: China in 2024 imported (in $billions) 144 from US (a good portion being farm products) and exported 439 to the US.
Those came from here:
So, 439 - 144 = 295 trade deficit in 2024
295 / 439 = 67%
That’s why the table has 67% for China. It isn’t because China charged a 67% avg tariff on what it imported from the US in 2024 as those were actually only a small fraction of 67%.
How much were the actual 2024 Chinese tariffs on US goods? To give a good feel for this: Crops like soybeans, corn, and wheat comprise the largest category of exports to China. The US was considered a “most favored nation” in 2024. Thus, per the following table, China’s tariff to the US on soybeans was only 3% and on in-quota corn/wheat was only 1%. Granted, these did increase significantly as retaliatory tariffs to Trump’s tariffs last month. Soybean tariffs increased by 10% to 13% and in-quota corn/wheat increased by 15% to 16%. But even those were still way below 67%.
This table came from here:
https://think.ing.com/articles/us-soybeans-a-big-loser-amid-rising-trade-tension060325/
Thus the reciprocal tariff in the top image’s table of 34% on China is actually not a discount and is really much higher than even the increased (early March) tariffs from China on the US.
Thanks, Larry!
I actually first posted on this in the morning and deleted it because I wasn't able to spend as much time on the post.
I'll copy the other one from the trading forum.
Most of the so called "abuse" is simply a trade imbalance caused by many to most of our trading partners not needing to pay their employees the huge labor wages that include wonderful benefits that us Americans demand.
In addition, the cost for many parts and raw materials may be cheaper. As a result, their production costs are MUCH lower and they can sell products MUCH cheaper than the same products that we sell.
Why isn't Trump telling the truth about that?
Instead, he uses fairy tale tariffs on us with deranged math and manufactured Trump explanations to justify actions that destroy free trade and punish everybody.
When I first saw his tariff numbers, I thought it was somebody that had doctored the image to make a joke.
This is no joke!
There is no fixing the trade imbalance. It exists because of the difference between poor countries and rich countries. Unless we want to become a poor country and work for a fraction of what our current high wages are........it's one of the fundamental differences that allows other countries to produce products cheaper than us.
It may seem like a penalty but its just a fundamental, authentic dynamic that defines the natural differences in the global economies. It's a consequence of us being a rich country(that can afford to pay more for the same reason that things we make COST MORE which will always cause the trade imbalances that Trump is trying to wipe out with dysfunctional tariffs.
We might as well call them "poor country taxes" that we impose on other countries, penalizing many of them for being more efficient and cost effective, while penalizing OUR consumers by that same amount and speculating that it will cause our production to go up even more than the penalty............while we still pay the same cost of labor and materials to manufacture products here.
It very likely to backfire badly by stifling free trade and REDUCING our exports when other countries respond with REAL tariffs, not the fake ones that Trump has manufactured. At the same time, it WILL cause Americans to pay more for everything that we import. That's a ton of stuff.
This could end up being pretty bad.
One legit way to make things better is to reduce the cost of our producing things in this country.
People will never accept lower wages but reducing energy costs can help a great deal.
Trump thinks that manufacturing companies around the world will come here now. One of the flaws in that thinking is that it takes years to plan, build and ramp up to production. Another one is that he didn't solve the fundamental problem...........it costs more to produce everything in the United States.
What's more likely is they will continue to use countries with lower production costs and not want to lose that most important benefit, while waiting for these tariffs to backfire after punishing Americans, who elect a sane president that reverses the tariffs.
Sadly, there will be permanent damage at that point.
This is just more evidence that President Trump is mentally ill with delusions of grandeur ism. He thinks he can take over Greenland, the Panama Canal. Kick out Palestinians from Gaza, then rebuild it and invited in people HE wants to live there.
At least he's doing one thing right in trying to end the war in Ukraine which was the only reason that I voted for anybody in the last presidential election.
Also withdrawing from the fraudulent fake Climate Accord and on a path to reverse the absurd ruling by the EPA, "the endangerment finding in 2009" that the beneficial gas, CO2 is pollution.
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-reciprocal-tariff-math-explained-2054743
