It is now clear what the result will be of the "Trump Tariffs". The plan is this: every country that might retaliate in some meaningful way will quietly receive an exemption to the Tariff. The Tariffs will loudly go into affect, but not really of course. Trump will talk tough. Behind the scenes all parties, except Trump's supporters of course, will be tipped off. The Democrats will see through Trump's duplicity but will be ineffective, as usual, in explaining it to Trump's supporters. They only watch FOX where Democrats are banned, neutralized, or censored. Trump will prominently mention Tariffs at every rally between now and the midterm election. He'll tell his supporters, in five word sentences, how our trading partners are going to renegotiate terrible trade deals or face Tough Tariffs. (He'll be lying as always.) Trump's supporters will react with wild enthusiasm. The tariffs will, in effect, amount to zilch. The Market will recover well before the midterm. Recall trump said in his campaign for President "We love 'the poorly educated'." Now it will be doubly clear to every educated person why. Gary Cohn may not have to resign after all.
Actually, the people Trump is targeting politically with these tariffs are the blue collar, mostly union, democrats in midwest states such as mi, pa, and wis. They're the democrats who crossed the isle and gave the election to Trump. He needs them to win again in '20. So if he's trying to 'fool' someone, guess who it is.
Trump made it abundantly and repeatedly clear to China that they could get a better trade deal than he wanted to give them, if they helped out with North Korea. But they dicked around and talked one way but colluded with North Korea in the background. He gave them something to think about instead if just threatening it. And he also has outlined ways that they can get a better deal. Same with Canada. He is putting the threats there but also letting them know that a better deal on NAFTA could make things better. And the same with the Brits. The European Union is trying to stick it up their bo-bo for leaving and Trump has let them know that good deals can be had with the United States if it benefits the U.S. as well. Not seeing the problem. I am okay going through a rough period as things get worked out on the playground for a while. Might be some mistakes made and that goes with the turf. There would not be any conflict with Obama because if you just bend over and take it from everyone else, it keeps things peaceful. It does not make America great again though. Trump is actually a pushover so I don't have much sympathy for some of these clowns. You stroke his ego a little and say good things about America and he will give you about anything you want. But if you are so fucking stupid that you are going get kissy face with him in public but then go home and help the people who are trying to nuke us and make a fool of him- then they just need a little reminder that Obama is not the President anymore. I don't think you have to be that smart to get something out of Trump but you have to at least meet the minimum threshold. DACA is another example. It did not take much to get him to completely go in the other direction and offer a far, far better deal than the lefties any right to even remotely expect, but it requires the person on the other side of the deal to at least meet the minimum threshold for being smart enough to see the benefits. So frig them too, along with China. Let things get rough for a while if necessary.
You may still be thinking that real tariffs will actually be imposed. That's not how Trump operates, what comes out of his mouth publicly is not what materializes. Recall his attempted negotiation with Mexico's President. Trump tried to get Mexico to pretend they were paying for the Wall while offering to reimburse Mexico under the table. Of course Mexico's President, in effect, told Donald to go fuck himself. The American electorate should take a lesson from Mexico's President and, in effect, tell Donald the same thing in November that Enrique Peña Nieto told Donald last year.
The issue with Tariffs is that Trump needs to create "mirror" tariffs to remedy the trade situation on a country by country basis. So if China has a 35% percent levy on American refrigerators then we will charge a 35% tariff on refrigerators from China. Do this on a product by product basis for each country -- you will soon find these other countries dropping their unfair tariffs which have hurt American exports. The strategy of mirror tariffs is the same one adopted by EU countries to force Japan / China to stop charging absurd tariffs on European cars. Germany and other countries put a mirror tariffs on automobiles into effect and within months these other nations dropped their automobile tariffs to reasonable levels -- opening their markets to "foreign" cars.
Real tariffs will be levied. Is about time too. Countries blocking sales of US vehicles are probably going to be targeted as well. Trump is going for restoration of American manufacturing using American metals and American workers. You should be ecstatic.
That story is not over yet. Probably not the smartest idea for the Mexican President to tell Trump to go fuck himself right when NAFTA renegotiations are coming up. And Mexico's usual plan which is to just send more of its citizens to the US if their economy takes a hit, is not the best fallback plan to have under Trump either. You need to have Hillary or Obama in office to make that work.
You're talking about policies which foster free trade and break down barriers. Trumps interests are different; they're political, i.e., What do I need to tell my supporters so I can ride free on Air Force One for four more years?