I wonder how many Republican congressman will find their spine if these tariffs are still in place as we get closer to the mid-terms.
An extra $5800? Pfft, that’s what balloon payments are for.
Glad I bought my car already.
Yeah, but are those costs going to be passed on to service and parts?
Will dealers even be able to survive this?
This is really stunning. The last major political figure who suggested using tariffs to replace income tax revenue, was Alan Keys. For those of you who may have forgotten. He was the nut case that replaced Jerri Ryan’s, husband when he was involved in a sex scandal. (Imagine being married to Jerri Ryan and you need to spice up your sex life, WTF) and ran against Barrack Obama for Senate. Alan Keys is without a doubt the most articulate looney-tunes you’ll ever hear. Still, the breath-taking stupidity of Key’s proposal was obvious to most Republican and Obama beat him 70%-27%. The Republican party was mostly sane as recently as 2004.
At some point, I’d think the Republican would rebel against these just to appease their angry donors.
I guess we are winning.
I must say I respect how China and Canada understand exactly who is responsible for this and target accordingly.
Many of the U.S. products were chosen for their political rather than economic impact. For example, Canada imports just $3 million worth of yogurt from the U.S. annually and most of it comes from one plant in Wisconsin, the home state of House Speaker Paul Ryan. The product will now be hit with a 10 percent duty.
Another product on the list is whiskey, which comes from Tennessee and Kentucky, the latter of which is the home state of Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell.
Companies can apply for exemptions from the tariffs. The process is, to nobody’s surprise, a mess so far.
But assume they straighten it out. Any bets on whether it turns out that red/ swing state companies get exemptions, while anyone in a blue state remains lost in the shuffle? This process could be used to funnel jobs from one state to another at quite a rapid pace.
I’m sure they wouldn’t abuse it for political gain, though.
Not surprising to anyone but possibly the President of the United States and his voters.
US regulators track how “domestic” every car is by measuring the percentage of each vehicle’s parts and manufacturing that comes from either the United States or Canada.
According to that measure, the two most “American” cars are both Hondas — the Odyssey minivan and Ridgeline pickup. Three-quarters of each vehicle’s components are made in the United States or Canada.
The Honda Civic, Acura MDX, Acura TLX and the Mercedes C-class source 70% from the United States and Canada. The highest-ranked car made by a Detroit automaker is the Chevrolet Corvette, which placed seventh.
tariffs on parts would nearly double their estimated import cost: Tariffs on parts would cost automakers $35 billion, on top of $48 billion in tariffs on imported cars that are assembled outside the United States, according to the American Automotive Policy Council, a lobbying group that represents the three Detroit automakers.
I’ve said before that I firmly believe Trump’s insistence on fighting some kind of war against import cars is a byproduct of his lack of understanding that it’s not 1982 and we don’t import whole cars anymore (and haven’t for decades). My Kia Sorento was assembled by American workers in a plant in Georgia using an engine and transmission that were both manufactured in the U.S. by other American workers (in fact over half the parts in the car were made in America). Slapping a tariff on it because it’s a “Korean import” will cost some of those Americans their jobs. How the fuck is that helping to make America great again?
Trump is a fucking moron, and the people in his Administration that are counseling him on economic decisions are either also morons, or spineless lickspittles who just want to say they served in a Presidential Administration for 12 months so they can parley that into more lucrative employment elsewhere. This is the experienced and all-powerful businessman and dealmaker who idiot voters thought would drain the swamp and fix the (not at all broken) economy. I don’t care how illegal it is, if I owned a company negatively impacted by these ridiculous tariffs, and I had to choose employees to lay off, I’d try my hardest to figure out which ones voted for Trump and lay them off before anyone else. You reap what you fucking sow.
The reality is, Trump’s super old, and has clearly lost the ability to process new information. He’s just kind of running on autopilot now, based on crap that’s still rattling around in his brain from decades ago.
Trump’s source for automotive industry economic advice:
Not that I disagree with your overall sentiment, but aren’t most Fords for example assembled in Mexico and imported in whole?
I’m pretty sure most of their American-sold vehicles are still assembled in plants within America (such as the Louisville, KY heavy duty truck assembly plant), but that they manufacture a lot of the parts, including engines and transmissions, at plants in Mexico.
My 2015 Camaro was built in Canada, but they moved final assembly for the Gen 6 (2016-) model to Lansing, Michigan.
Oh yeah? Well, my 2014 Focus has a sticker about something something Michigan on it!
Aha, it is TRUE Leadership (backwards from THE world leader):
In meetings in Brussels, Berlin and Beijing, senior Chinese officials, including Vice Premier Liu He and the Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, have proposed an alliance between the two economic powers and offered to open more of the Chinese market in a gesture of goodwill.
You’re missing another possible motivation, which is for those members of his administration that are using their positions to enrich themselves right at this moment. I’m sure several of them are going to make lots of money on the tariffs.